1-2NL w/ $400 behind


Hero has A7 in HJ.

1st Villian ($350) in MP opens to 8, Hero Calls, 2nd Villian ($ 90ish) in BB calls.

Flop: 5 9 J

1st Villian bets 20, Hero calls, 2nd Villian calls

Turn: 4

1st Villian bets 60, Hero calls, 2nd Villian puts in remaining stack 50ish

River 3

Villian checks, Hero bets 100, Villian folds.

Question is should I have raised any street. My hand was pretty transparent is there anything I could have done to play it better? How far are we calling if Villian bets huge on the flop or turn?

Help is greatly appreciated.

Fold preflop

Fold pre, calling a PFR with these A-rag off hands are the classic leaks our opponents have: let's not make the mistake ourselves.

As for the rest of the hand, I think it was played fine. One reason we don't play A-rag off is that its tough to make much money when we hit our flush since its obvious.

He called a $60 bet on the turn with a $60ish pot. Unless he can get paid off on the river a good percentage of the time when the flush hits, the turn call is bad.

Preflop is terrible...Ill give it a 1 out of 10
Flop is questionable. I would rather raise here. Ill give it a 6 out of 10
Turn is bad..Ill give it a 3 out of 10. Its only a 3 because he has an overcard that may be good.
River is fine

Overall this is a total donk hand and you can bet your life he loses tons a money playing like this and when he wins the hand it reinforces his play so he will continue it. Maybe my criticism will make him think twice next time.

Yeah you're right. I got all worked up about preflop and I looked over the rest of the hand pretty quickly and didn't notice the large sizing on the turn. Calling the turn is pretty bad actually.

Flop I could go for a call or raise. River, as played, is fine.

So I will elaborate on the "fold pre" a bit. Playing weak, unsuited Aces is one of the biggest leaks of a lot of Low Stakes NL players as there are just so many times when you flop an Ace that you will be behind, especially if there is a PFR. I could get behind it if it were suited (depending on effective stack size, position, type of game your are in, etc.), but A7o is just a trash hand dressed up pretty because you hold an Ace.

If you eliminate this call from your play (and both hands you posted were the same), you would see your win rate go up a decent amount (assuming the rest of your game is decent).

I mean no offense to OP, but as I think about this hand more, to me the way OP played the hand is the textbook way my stereotypical bad, losing 1-2 villains play and why we make money playing this game.

Calling pre really is bad. Not only are we outkicked a good amount when we flop an ace, but when we flop and ace and are ahead (no one else has an ace) we have to proceed with caution and likely don't get great value. When we hit our flush, it's so obvious and we are only getting paid (and only a little bit) by Kc or Qc.

On the turn, we are getting a horrible price to call, but do so anyway, probably with the false notion that if you hit you will get paid (which isn't true, see previous paragraph).

On the river, you hit your hand, which probably provides some false support that the hand was played right.

I’m with Mike Starr on this one. I like the flop call and nothing else, including the river.

I think the 4th club is always going to kill the action. There isn't much of a way to get paid off on it. That's why A7o isn't a great hand. To play it better, fold to the raise pre-flop.