2/3/5 at Bay 101

V (covers) - 40-ish white guy. Playing very loose with a big stack and having a good time. Straddling, blind raising, playing blind, etc. haven't seen him show down a big bluff yet but given his table image I assume he's capable of it. Been playing with H for about an hour

H (800) - 35 yo WG. First time at this casino. Should have a decent table image. Won a medium sized pot of V when H raised pre w TT. Flop was Qxx with a heart draw. H c bet and V was only caller. Turn was a heart and river was an A. Turn and river were checked down and TT was good. V said he should've bluffed when he saw my hand, and I said it would've put me in a tough spot given run out. No idea what V had here that couldn't beat TT.

OTTH- Straddle to 10 and V blind raises to 20 UTG+1. 3 callers and H looks down at QQ in the CO. H raises to 110. V calls and one of the limpers calls.

Flop (370) - K63r. Checks to H who bets $130. V raises to 415. Hero?

Interested in both flop decisions. Heads up I'd often check back here but feels dangerous three way. Bet a bit small to try to get called by worse pocket pairs but maybe 200 on flop is better?

Plays much better as a check don't you think? You can aim for a street from those hands later one way or another, get good visibility on the limpers range ott, and get to showdown your hand a lot. You can call down if the sizing/runout is reasonable which keeps everything wider as you know.

AP it's now officially a gross spot and unfortunately your V has all the Kx hands in the deck. You can't rely on having induced a semibluff from 75, A3 and 45, because there is just too much value in his range (and a bit too many perceived strong hands in yours). I'd prob let it go before making an expensive assumption - just really don't like the cbet.

QQ basically never wants to see a K+ on the flop unless a Q is also there. Would have checked flop and re-evaluated, you have no draws at all short of a Queen. Sigh fold as played.

Do you think he has a lot of Kx in his range? Easy for me to have AK here and much harder for him when he doesn't 3-bet pre. 33 and 66 make sense. I'd have thought Kx other than K6 and K3 flat

I think it's a fold. The fact AK and KK are in your range it makes it even less likely V is bluffing. He probably has something like KJ/KT and is hoping he has you blocked.

It's also a notoriously big part of weak players' game plans to ck-r top pair under any circumstance, esp when the pot gets big, and especially when they don't anticipate folding at any point later in the hand. That alone might not be enough to warrant a fold, but him being in the straddle just amps up his Kx frequency so hard, that continuing against a non-spew/non-whale w QQ seems too thin for me. It doesn't strike me as one of those "ain't never folding a pair" type spots, but rather just a bad player playing his range as badly as he possibly can and I don't want to hero-pay that off.

Any chance he'd be 4betting AK, KK+? His line is strange for a naked Kx here.

Agreed that a flop check is best.

His raise was really a double straddle so I assume he isn4-betting those hands, or at least KK and AA. Really a 3-bet.

This looks like TPWK. Unfortunately, Hero can't beat that, so fold.

You're thinking about it backwards. Heads up it may be a small bet OTF for value/your range just plays so well here with a small bet with close to 100% of it, 3 ways you're more likely to be up against a better hand and you don't fear many turn cards so just check.

with 3 callers I wouldnt be raising to just $110, especially with one of them a maniac. This is live, if they put in $20 they'll gleefully put in $100. I'd probably make it more like $150-$175. QQ doesnt play well multiway and you really want this HU. Regardless of the betsize, $100+ should define their hand range to bigger cards, so on this flop I'm definitely checking back.

This certainly isn't the spot you're looking for. As a general strategy, I look to bluff him at some point in the session, and show the bluff. Hope that this puts his manhood in question. If he's getting a bit out of line preflop, but not post flop, punish him for having lousy hands that can't handle pressure, and make him feel like he's gotta grow a pair on later streets.

I agree I probably should have checked flop and seen a turn. WA/WB situation here, other than 45 exactly other hands have 2-5 outs.

I am a bit surprised so many people are putting him on Kx. In my experience (obviously others will differ) that would more likely check/call or donk, and that the check raise is more polarized to something that can beat top pair, something that is drawing to beat top pair, and random bluffs. So I wouldn't expect him to show up with a lot of Kx, other than K6 or K3 (or the combos that call pre).

Results:

So, your opponent is a maniac. He did know he is losing to all high cards and needs runner-runner to make any real hand.

Get in every pot you can with this guy if you have decent holdings, and get rich :Reno:

It's not the we are always putting him on Kx. It's that (without being results oriented) he isn't going to be behind you enough to make your call +EV. It's a pretty dry board, and lower pocket pairs are going to have the same dilemna you have (except they have more than just Aces) to worry about, and you have no draws here whatsoever.

Check flop glad he was a complete drooler.

him having Kx here in other situations is very well possible just b/c of his wide range pre. he can get out of line with just a pair. your reasoning, i think, also makes sense with him possibly having a big draw.

maniac with a deep stack

This was a short work trip to the Bay Area so doubt I'll ever see him again. Too bad...

Doesn't checking flop makes your hand faced up? What any villain leads any turn for $200, what are the plans? I'm c betting 100% of my range here, but given the answers it's probably a leak. I just wouldn't know how to play turn if I checked back this flop.

It's the massive pot size that gives him more Kx fast/over plays than what you might normally expect. It turns out this was a 'never folding a pair' spot, but I don't think we had that info yet, so folding still looks like the preferred play even post-results. More importantly, how did you hold!?

His calling the shove was what was really remarkable. The raise is spewy but at least has some logic (he thinks I whiffed or is trying to bluff me off of a hand like the one I held). Calling the shove with just some runner-runner outs v. what looks like a big K or better is insane, as his best case scenario is I have TT and his Js are live.

We did run it twice though and on the first run out the turn was the T of hearts to give him a FD and GS which gave me a scare!

I mean, he was priced in at this stage. His raise was pretty trash. When you shove (and from his perspective, you have all the Kx + sets), he is calling you for less than what is in front of him right now. His hole line was just pure spew considering you have any A, K or pocket pair crushing him.

410 in front of him, and another 285 to call? Terrible spot to be bluffing.

There was $1200 in the pot, and it was $285 to call, so he's still only getting 5:1. Unless he can win by just pairing the J or 9, which is unlikely once I shove, his runner runner outs aren't getting him close to 5:1. I'm sure at that point he was just saying F it, I have to call, but it was pretty awful, as was calling the initial raise to $110.

That's true. I think his raise was God awful for the same reason our flop bet was: people don't like folding TP, especially on relatively dry flops. Some people won't stop there especially after betting 400$ and calling for only 285 more. What do I know, there is a reason the word "maniac" exists.

FYI we arent checking the flop with the intent to fold if he bets. It's simply a case of "what worse calls us?" if we cbet. By checking we can induce or let him valueown himself with worse pairs that he thinks are good. Considering that he jammed Jack high with no draw suggests checking is probably still a good option because he's jumping off a bridge no matter what anyway. ESPECIALLY if he picks up any equity on the turn like he did. Now we can comfortably just call him down instead of getting it in bad.