2/5 game recently put together from two broken games. Late night loose aggressive game.

V1 - Unknown, only at table a couple of orbits. Has not shown any hands but is calling preflop too much and has bet/raised flop several times. So far has either taken it down or given up on the flop. $600

V2 - Regular I have played against a lot. Usually somewhat laggy but playing more of a stationary/chaser game today. Can play well when he wants too but is in the game more to gamble and bluff then win money. $1200

V3 - Has been at table entire time I have been there. Has a clue about poker but too loose pre and likes to call down too much post. $900

Hero - At table for a couple of hours. Took a hideous cooler where I flopped a flush and lost to a higher flopped flush, otherwise not too active. $750

UTG+1 Hero has two black aces and raises to $30
UTG+2 V1 calls
MP V2 calls
SB V3 calls

Preflop raise sizing is bigger then usual but not unusual for this table.

Pot is $125
Flop Ah5d3d

V3 checks
Hero bets $75
V1 folds
V2 folds
V3 calls

In a 4 way pot I think leading is obvious. Lots of villains have to be drawing to beat me but there is a good chance this checks around if I check. I don't have the nuts, but the wheel straight is too unlikely to worry about.

Pot is $277
Board is Ah5d3dQc
Villain checks
Hero bets $175
Villain calls

Turn is pretty much a brick, which is good from my perspective. I think betting again is the way to go as villain has to have a lot of hands that are drawing to beat me. Sizing was an issue though. If I go big enough to make river shove trivial I have to over bet turn.

Pot is $627
Board is Ah5d3dQc3c
Villain checks

River is an interesting card. My hand is effectively a lock now, river is purely an exercise in bet sizing. I have $570 behind, which seems too much for a shove. I'm not sure anything less is worth while though because what does villain get to river with but big hands and missed draws?

Very easy check.

Cbet bigger

I'm not jamming to blow him off an ace with a possible FD or a med pair with a FD. Maybe he will think we missed the flush and call a shove, but I would rather bet something that he will likely call, such as 375. If he was a true calling station who will call a shove with any ace, I would jam the river.

270

but shove moar betta (V calls down2much)

Oh revered haiku master
What is check this river behind
What madness, you must clarify your ways

Optimal size is like a scratch under $150 I think if you have {AK, AQ, A3s, A5s, AA, KTdd, KJdd, T9dd, 98dd, 87dd, 76dd} here.

I'd prob bet about 250 though, maybe even just rip it.

I do wish to point out that not ripping this screams of strength, for the record.

Many a time, betting a value looking size in these exact spots is how we get a fold when a rip wouldve been gladly snapped off...

I'd target the AdXd combos, probably not calling anything less. $295.

Bigger on flop, bigger on turn, now go all in. Is this serious?

Describe V as too loose pre, and calls too much post? Anything but all in on the river is pretty bad imo. He's not calling with whiffed draws regardless, so target whatever AdX stuff he has. What would you do with KJdd, 67dd?

betting bigger on the flop is completely spastic when we have 2 of the 3 aces in the deck in our hand.

this board and V tho...nah

Not sure why you're checking riv when V has far too little air - 225 to get high frequency calls from all of Axdd, Qxdd, AJo+

Preflop: nice sizing, I love it.

Flop: bet $100 instead of $75 (reason: villain's continuance range here is inelastic: all Ax hands will call at least a flop Cbet and all FD's will call too)

Turn: as played, bet $225 instead of $175 (reason: villain's continuance range here is quite inelastic: maybe you might fold out a weak Ax hand by betting bigger, but I doubt you'll ever fold out a FD at this level, so you might as well maximise value from that. You also want to set yourself up for a river jam)

River: as played, shove $570 (reason: you can rep a busted FD here and this large sizing looks a bit bluffy)

I think you're just as likely to get called on the river by shoving $570 as you are if you make a half pot bet of around $300, since the former looks more bluffy, so I'm never betting less than a shove here. I also don't want to check/raise the river either, since villain will check back weak Ax hands far too often, so I'm shoving this for value, trying to get hero called by a weak Ax hand.

I finally did shove river and villain folded without showing. I really wanted to extract some more value on the river but I doubt anything but a shove is actually correct. The only thing the shove pushes out is QdX hands that might call $200 or so. Everything else is a whiffed draw that calls nothing or a good AX+ that might call all in.

Heh, I obv misread us as being oop.

Shove is probably best or something silly like $80

An Axx flop has inelastic calling ranges. We should max bet our value vs inelastic calling ranges. I mean I wouldnt go significantly bigger but there's just a huge difference here between $75 and $85-90 and op needs to realize this.

Not sure if level, but if we were oop, this would be a very easy check.

This is the easiest shove in the world. We've got $470 behind or a 3/4 PSB. Villain's calling range is inelastic to bet size and we block Ax, therefore we should be targeting his 3 combos of 55 that decided not to raise.

OOP check is yes
but we are IP
in the beneficial positions

I mean it, if OOP why checking? I hate it for the reasons stated earlier. I genuinely can't get my head around ck>bet vs a station.

+1

still betting OOP vs a passive player. I mean fish love to trap, good players love to valuebet. Especially if we bet/bet/bet.

When you check you aren't "trapping" you are allowing a range that is mostly this:

to bet.

If we had 55 it would be a clearer shove for value, as villains value range is now much wider otr. Even still, yall are playing in much better games than me if you are stacking one pair Ax for 150bbs in single raised pots. And I play in very good games.

that would be ok if we knew he would bluff his missed draws and bet his other hands but he's described as a passive player who likes to call people down too much post flop

if we were OOP with AA this is a check because the guy is so much likelier to be on a missed draw than have the case ace and we can let him bluff

If the villain is playing to lose pre I would really focus on targeting ranges that had a 3 such as 34 suited and Axdd. You prob aren't getting him to put another dollar in the pot with a naked missed FD and betting small screams strength to a hand like QJdd. I think I would rip it in on the river and just pray to get looked up by Axdd or possibly a hand that was pair plus wheel draw that turned into trips

.

Ya for sure but I still think there's more value in targeting his missed draws than his Ax's. There's only one ace left in the deck (the A) and it still might not call because what's he going to do, put us on the flush draw when he was on the flush draw himself?

We do lose some value at times, but it's just more likely that he's going to have some kind of missed draw and hope our check means we've given up (because we probably barrel most of the value hands we can have here) and try to bet at it. By betting ourselves, we remove his opportunity to do that and force those hands - which won't call a bet anyway - to fold every time.