Heads up against an unknown I'm almost always betting this. $35 looks good, c-bet sized but no reason to go big on an ace high fairly dry flop. Against a known villain probably want to check this sometimes but that depends on history and image.

C-bet has a good chance of taking this down right now and is likely to buy us a free card on the turn. Depending on what turn card is hero is likely to want to take the free card. Without a read on villain it will be very hard to judge how much FE hero has on turn. However, a limp/call in EP and a call on this flop suggests villain is not going to go away easily.

flop is bone dry with an ace and we have equity. Anything from 35 to 45 is fine.

Yes, I would generally. Want to keep the dominated range on the hook.

This is boring so far

Easy cb about 1/2-2/3 pot.

i think ideally this is probably a fold pre 100BB deep unless you are against mega fish or bored. I would wait to get 200bb deep before playing this hand but meh.


Any ways - as played betting half pot or checking is both fine. I think betting might be slightly better, but if we are called and brick turn, it's going to be very hard to win. I don't see many people calling this flop and folding to a turn barrel. Also getting check raised would be AWFUL.

V limp/called from UTG. Think he has a bunch of Ax in his range?

Check back the flop.

Some. Also PP, suited junk, offsuit connectors

Since this is a PAHWM, I'm sure it is not this simple ... Cbet $40.

You have plenty of FE as there should be few aces in the V L/C range from UTG. If called, evaluate turn, cbetting most blanks.

This would actually be the most realistic PAHWM if we bet $40 and he folded. This format by it's nature leads people to want to take strange lines, because if H is playing standard and it worked, it wouldn't be a PAHWM.

^
Yup ... probably will see a CR

35
and then 80% all non-repeat turns

$40 seems good. Would do $35 if it were rainbow. We want to bet the flop when we have Ax, which is a heavy part of our range, so we should be betting almost our entire range.

rainbow tho

$30 - $35 is good here.
There is not hand that he's folding for $45 that he isn't folding for $35.

Considering the unknown vs. unknown dynamic, flop probably leans more towards a bet than a check. However, assuming we had AK here, would we occasionally/more often than not want to check back as well and try to get additional value later while pot controlling? This doesn't seem like the type of board to get 3 streets of value from an UTG limp/call range which would favor the check. Seems like an exploitable spot in the sense that we are checking our made hands and (semi)-bluffing all non-paired hands.

OTTH

Effective Stacks: $550

V1 ($550) limps UTG
UTG+1 ($550) limps
Hero ($550, LJ) raises 76 to $30
HJ, CO, BTN, SB, BB fold
V1 ($550) calls $30
UTG+1 folds

Flop ($65): A 4 5

V1 checks
Hero bombs away for $50
V1 calls $50 easily and eagerly

I can't decide if this was a mistake or not. More often than not my default c-bet size here would be $30-40. Now in my head I was thinking "I am an unknown, so bet large so that if villain did flop a set or two pair he lets you continue bombing away and overplaying AK" rather than betting smaller and forcing villain to have to take matters into his own hands with a x/r to force the action.

But since he did call all too eagerly, I've gotta assume villain is pretty strong here and it's time to slow down until ...

Turn ($165): 3 *BINK*

V1 checks
Hero ... ?

I suppose inducing is tempting, but I think I just pot it here.

50 is a good size imo lets rep the wrong hans for a few more dollars, no wrong answer for the flop tho

Bet 95 now

But then again...wake me whwn something interesting happens

This. Pretty sure standard line is just setting up a pot-sized shove for the river. Checking here is criminal.

Not to get off topic but how is this thread taking this long to progress? I really hope this doesn't turn into a check/call by villain, board pairs, villain shoves type hand. Feel like PAHWM should be reserved for difficult/interesting decisions across multiple streets that in and of themselves could be a thread.

Where's a face palm emoji when I need one?

You're splitting hairs with the flop size. I'm going 1/2 pot to smaller on this pretty dry board.

Our range does much better with tptk combos that are generally value betting 3 streets, there aren't many runouts I'm not 3 barreling w/ essentially our nut draw 76s.

this basically is saying

" I have a default gameplan I can use as default strategy, but since I am unknown, I will deviate from that and take an exploitable play instead of a default one"
this is the exact opposite on how you want to play

he just called a big bet on the flop on a board that smacks your range in the face. The 3 changes nothing for your perceived range. Bet big again, he's never folding after calling flop....how is this a thread?

Yeah this PAHWM is as bad as the garbage I post on here. Not sure how we even consider checking otf vs unknowns. Most people aren't going to c/r this board. Probably going big ott to set up a river shove. Probably not raising pre though, but if I am I agree with the sizing being 30+.

I posted it because my buddy and I disagreed on the river. If this thread doesn't interest you then don't post. Novel concept huh?

And we are not considering checking on the flop. The point is we probably should be checking back our Ax range since we are almost never getting called by worse. But since we are unknowns we don't really have to worry about balance, but it's still worth exploring the topic since our flop action is actually backwards to our hand strength and if V knew this he could exploit it.