Borgata. I'm playing 2-5NL. I have around $1200. Late position. I have QQ

Two limpers to me, I raise to $20. Both limpers call. Villain is in early position.

Flop comes
A3K

Horrible flop for me. Both limpers checks. I check.
Turn is 7Clubs

Villain in early position bets $65, the other limper folds. I tank.

Villain is fairly passive player, could bluff once in a while. Has around $400 in front of him. He has been pretty tight most of the evening.

My thinking is he could have weak Ace or King.. or even a pocket pair. Maybe he is trying to buy a pot when everybody showed weakness.

I have a position on him. So I called, planning to check it down on the river. Well he bets another $100 on the river...when blank hit

Now what???

Snap fold.

Yeah, nothing in the op suggests that villain will double barrel bluff. Easy fold.

Given his bet size, you should have folded the turn.

Also if you're labeling villain as passive, there is no bluff here.

Rather than wait for people to do my betting for me here I think I fire the cannon for $40 otf. $40's going to get a laydown out of any king here, whereas if we check through a king will take the initiative in betting. We've repped a big hand PF and if we check through we get sticky situations like these where it feels like we should be calling bets that we really don't want to. Obviously, if we're raised here it's over.

Lots of times we'll snag this flop without a fight if noone has spades. Even if called, we can check through the turn and get to the river with a managed pot where we can maybe feel a little better about calling a $60 half pot bet, if it feels right, as a bluff catcher.

Raise to $30 pf first off. 2nd smash a cbet right in their faces. You can get lots of Kx hands to fold, limped pp's, FD's and other random air.

If called I'd assume a weak Ace or FD in their/his/her range and it would be player dependent on a 2nd barrel...which would be turning your hand into a bluff. With a cbet on flop and getting called I'd bet or check based on player....but if you do bet realize you're betting bc your SD value is garbage and you're trying to fold out, more often than not, a hand that has u beat that doesn't want to call a turn and a river bet.

True dat

Less dat...although I don't mind the c-bet if it might get a Kx to fold or force a flush draw to pay in order to draw, why do we want lower pocket pairs, flush-draws, and random air to fold?

check flop, c/f turn. Typical live donks aren't going anywhere with ace rag or any king especially after you checked the flop.

OTT his PSB while being OOP seems very strong, he was probably looking to check raise you on the flop if you C-bet? OTR though I think you can safely say your hand is trash. You said yourself that he seemed fairly passive and he's led into you twice now. TPWK or 2nd Pair medium kicker, something like Axs or K10os, he's representing a made hand here and sounds like he is telling the truth as described. As played, fold

I'll agree with what you said about any Ax or Kx most likely not going anywhere in Live Low limit but I think checking both the flop and turn loses a ton of value from a slew of weaker hands (mostly draws) that villains would likely call PF with. I think I would fire the turn had it been checked to me. But hell, if they were pretty passive then I might bet flop and turn. Either way, I think 1 street of value here is obtainable. Bet/fold flop or turn.

Sometimes people run a good bluff. Most of the time they just have a hand. Can't outplay everybody everytime.

Bc we have no SD value once we get to the river. Why would anything but a cbet be good here?? You're betting all your Ax hands maybe some of your Kx hands(although I'd be checking back some Kx hands bc of more SD value) So I think QQ is mandatory bet.

With this flop it's not like we value our hand through the roof. Taking it down on the flop would be just fine. Having ppl fold air or pp's is just fine bc they're never putting $$$ into the pot unimproved anyways. FD's will never fold live it seems...so we charge the FDs. Not cbetting flop will also expose us to being bluffed or having some K8 garbage K bet us out when we could have done the same. It's +ev to cbet and great for image.

I folded the River. The villain could've made turn bet with pocket pairs (10s or less), but I didn't think he has the ability to double barrel without at least an Ace or trips..

Flop obviously slowed me down.....and somehow with table dynamics with lot of check raise on flops, I was sure, I was gonna get check raised...

Looking back, maybe betting small test bet at flop might been a better play. Then I thought, if I get called...the villain would check the turn, I would check.

Sensing weakness, villain could put out the same $100 bet on the river with anything... now what?? I mean that's what I would do if I was a villain.... I would have to fold the river in this scenerio too...

Any comment on the second scenerio??

as played fold turn

I wouldn't cbet this flop either. HU vs. the right opponent, absolutely. 3-way against two people who called a pfr, it's very likely one of them hit this flop.

Y'all might want to pause for a minute and consider the probability that you're in against at least one player with an ace, and how you're going to get them to fold it. You really gonna bomb 3 streets with QQ every time an ace flops?

Why is it a good thing that if we "smash a c-bet" on the flop that they fold "random air?"

Does your hand have more value as a bluff or at showdown in a small pot?

"See the whole board, Sam."

Jed Bartlett

2 things:
1) Drop down to 1 2 until you get the basics down better. (At least like 300 hrs live poker)
2) Read through 2+2 more to learn basics of appropriate play.

Pick up your cards and eat them in the hopes that it kills the hand.

grunch:

Raise more pre if there are two limpers. Congrats on creating a bloated pot.

Turn is a check/fold IMO.