2/5 LIVE

Villain: Indian guy. 30 yrs old or so. Loose player for sure. Always straddles. Raises a lot on straddles. Donks a lot. Check raises some. Sem-bluffs and total bluffs. Pre flop tendency vs me has been Loose-Passive. I had position most of time (and I have been TAG but we have been short handed here and there so my image got aggressive and probably looser). Overall I'd characterize him as a loose player and a bit passive pre-flop (calling $20 with a wide range of hands from all positions). And either shuts down post-flop and does nothing or makes moves post-flop with sometimes nothing and sometimes something. Point being, I had a very difficult time reading this type of player. He is on the reckless side and I don't think in the long run he is a winning player as he probably likes the "gamble" a bit more than doing what it takes to win.

Effective Stack is $350 (this is Villain's stack)

Pre-Flop: Hero Raise BTN with JJ. SB calls (NIT lady). V Calls from BB.

POT= $60
FLOP: 77T

SB Checks. V Checks. Hero Bets $40. SB Folds. V Raises to $95...

What would you do here and why?

Think he would flat pre with QQ+? What 7s you think are in his BB calling range... A7s, 67s/78s, or wider?

Such a small raise makes me think he is strong, but with the flush and straight draws out there you think he would raise bigger to protect, or raise bigger for fold equity. Hard to get a read on his small sizing here and could just be clicking buttons.

I'd call and prob end up calling a reasonable bet on turn too, folding river if he keeps firing but I bet he'll give up. Prob has a lot of AT/KT here.

Call. His c/r range is pretty wide based on the description. He's likely doing this with all his draws (straight and flush). He could be doing this with Tx. Obviously, he could have a 7 as well. It sounds like he has a non-zero amount of air, too.

We've got position on him and likely the best hand. Button raises usually look FOS; especially if it's a blind steal. I doubt he's giving you credit for a big hand here.

Just flat for now and re-evaluate the turn.

These were pretty much my thoughts exactly.

That said though - and I don't know if this is a LEAK on my part; so if it is then please nail me for it - I felt like I was good here vs. his range. I felt that his range did have 7's in it - probably 25 or 30 combos of a 7...also club draws (both naked and combo) at maybe about the same combo #, or a touch less, like maybe 20 combos with a club draw...and then I felt like he could have TJ, TQ, KT, AT, 9T which probably made up about 40% of his range I'd guess.

With that range wouldn't I want to raise for value (and the ancillary benefit of charging his drawing range)? This of course comes at the expense of getting my feelings hurt (and stack) if he does have the 7.

I raised $100 on top...He shoved for $130 more...

Reading the OP, this villain is somewhere on the spectrum between loose-aggressive and loose-passive. Calling him a LAG is definitely a misnomer.

Call the flop IP here. You shouldn't be folding an OP on this board against someone who's shown aggro tendencies for 70 BB and I wouldn't look to fold on many runouts. If OOP it's more reasonable to 3bet and GII on the flop.

Yeah I agree. he is LP pre-flop (against me at least) and LAG-ier post-flop with potential to make moves.

Pre: SPR = 5.5. We should be okay with GII versus this sticky, bluffy-type player at some point in the hand if we have the right scenario.

OTF, we should call to keep his bluffs in. Given description, he's got a ton of SD/FD hands as well as a T. We want to keep these hands from folding. Moreover, he's never folding a better hand. If we raise we get called by TT or a 7 and he folds everything else. Flopping trips or a FH is very tough. So we're WA/WB. Call and re-evaluate the turn.

Edit: I see the rest of the flop action. I'm not sure the math is right. You 3b to $195. He should have $235 behind after his c/r. So it's $40 to call, correct? Obviously we can't fold now but we're drawing pretty slim.

He calls a wide range for 20 pre, and yet that's what we bet pre?

I'd raise for value. He probably will GII with all his FDs. Sounds like the player who will raise top pair sometimes and I doubt he'll fold it, if we call there are so many scare cards for us and potentially for him that you're losing value.

Agreed.
I would bet 30-40 pre-flop at least.

I believe that loose players seem to call ridiculous raises pre-flop. They simply just want to see 3 more cards.

With a $20 raise, I feel you are giving him almost perfect odds to set mine.

Flat the flop raise since he sometimes has air here. As played gii.

Not if you don't pay him off post-flop?

We want V calling wide here. If $30 folds out a big chunk of his range, I'm good with $20.

I'd need to know a bit more about the player. When push comes to shove, is he an aggro monkey without a fold button, or is he capable of ranging, and folding?

I'm going to assume this type of player is going to have a ton of Tx hands in his check/raise range here, but his willingness to just go nuts with like JT+ here will dictate how I am responding to his flop C/R.

If he has a fold button, I'm flatting flop and leading all turns J and lower for 1/2 pot. check/evaluate/most likely call on QKA turns.

If he's more of a spazz once showing aggression, I'm playing it like you did, and getting it in.

Thing I learned about LLSNL is that villains would do weird things like raise top pair. If this guy is as LAG as you say I'm definitely flatting and getting it in on most turns since the SPR will be 1.

The issue is, with a villian as described, it would be very hard not to stack off on a 257 board, and a QKA board kills us.

Realize those are two extremes, but I only advocate the $40 because of how laggy the player was described.

If he is not calling $40, maybe he is less laggy than I thought from the description given.

This.

But more so it makes ranging V impossible.

You are definitely right that villians like this are tough to play again despite the fact they are reckless loosing players. But that's just it: they are reckless and are more concerned with gambling versus making a profit. The question you have to ask if he is is the type to overvalue top pair in this spot like A10? Or would he do this with something like 8c9c?
If you think this is true even half the time then you can call him down on safe turn and river cards, except we really arnt deep enough for that. On the other hand, and probablly more often than not, in my experience this type of players usually only raise with big hands and call with more mediocre ones and draws. They usually are not crafty enough to raise light with draws, etc. Like you said, this one is a bit more passive post flop which leads me to believe he has a 7 here more times than not. So I don't think folding and just waiting for a spot where you are more confident isn't all bad. You could call flop one time, except he is probablly jamming the turn nearly everytime, but if you spike a jack you have his whole stack.