Table has been a little tighter than the usual Friday night live low stakes game, but typical in that there are many to most flops.

In this hand, there are 5 limpers by the time it gets to me in the BB. I have AhKc and make it $26. Three callers...

Villain 1, UTG+1 is white, mid 50s, and sporting a Led Zep type beard and a pre-flop calling station. He occasionally has played some very weird, out of character hands, such as opening Q3 UTG and winning at showdown after barrelling all streets with top pair. Most of the time though, his hands are more in line with standard thinking. It’s just the occasional “I’m bored and need to play the next hand no matter what” blowout. He has ~$300 behind.

Villain 2, UTG+2, also white, mid 30s. Plays lots of hands, calls cbets and lets go when facing a second street of aggression. If checked to on turn after a cbet on flop, he likes to bet 50% to 70% of pot, with it without a made hand. Also has ~$300 behind.

Villain 3, cutoff, late 20s Asian. Has been playing fairly tight but can see he is struggling to contain himself after an hour of folding. Hasn’t shown down any terrible hands but perhaps has overvalued top pair hands, like most low stakes players. He has $500 behind.

Hero is a MAWG reg and has been playing super tight this session (4 hours so far, with at least two hours with each of these villains), not that most of these players would notice. Villain 1 and 3 would both know me from previous sessions but villain 2 is not someone I recognise. I have them all covered.

OTTH. After my raise to $26, the three villains call whilst the other limpers fold. The pot is $99 after rake (10% capped at $15 lol) and we see a flop is 886ccx.

Auto cbet? If so, how much? Or check-call? Your thoughts please...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Raise more preflop, check/fold flop as played, and

What? Pretty sure no one in Led Zeppelin HAD a beard. Are you thinking of ZZ Top?

Check/fold the flop. 3 ways OOP c-betting is more likely throwing money away then anything.

Preflop sizing is meh assuming it is 1/2, often there isn't anything you can do. Once one person calls everybody after is likely to think they are priced in and it sets off a chain of calls. If it's 1/3 then you should go higher.

Might seem weak but I'm inclined to check/fold if I do not think I have a lot of fold equity and villains (perhaps except the Asian) are likely to have low connected holdings in this spot.

Otherwise, if I do fire the flop then I am betting roughly $75 with the intention of applying max pressure with an effective jam on bricked turns against the two weaker opponents.

I would x/f here. What I would like to understand is why you would consider x/c. You have no value here, and the only way you win this hand is if V has a pair, no one has an 8, and you spike an A/K/BDFD. Sometimes you have to let it go.

Negatives:

OOP against all V's
Ace High
$100 pot (A cbet would probably be $75 to actually make V's fold if no one hit this, meaning a lot of the time you are just lighting money on fire by cbetting)
3 opponents - All of whom are chomping for action

Positives:

2nd NF backdoor draw

Good point well made. Definitely a ZZ Top beard


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely not c betting. X/r is better than c bet

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. It’s great to get multiple insights and explanations into what I felt evolved into a very interesting hand.

For clarity, the game is $1/$3.

So, it appears that the general consensus is to check/fold here and I do very much understand the reasoning behind that. But, clearly if I had done so, that wouldn’t have made for a very interesting hand.

80% of the time, I won’t cbet into multiple players if I have whiffed, and especially out of position, so the check/fold option is the likely outcome most frequently. But this time, I did feel a cbet would be fine. My thinking was that yes, any pair is probably calling (but not going to be comfortable defending that pair to aggression on further streets) and my hand strength is going to be ahead of most villains’ most of the time. Clearly an 8 is, at minimum, calling, and probably the flush draws too but 8s aren’t particularly likely; 6 cards between the villains and only 2 8s left.

With regards pre-flop sizing, at my local at these stakes, $20 would often pick up the dead money, but $25 could result in multiple callers. Mainly depends on whether the first person calls or not, as doing so sets off a chain reaction. And the bet of $26 is intended to not necessarily collect the multiple $3, but to build a bigger pot with a tighter range than anyone limp/calling.

That said, getting 3 callers was unusual for this casino, these stakes, and this bet size in these circumstances.

Back to the hand. I cbet $65, (probably $5 or $10 less than it should have been), the first two villains both folded, but villain 3 called after not too much thinking. Pot is now $225 after rake.

Turn was the very interesting ace of spades.

Again, check/call (if so, up to how much?), check/fold, or lead (and again, if so, how much)?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, you binked. I would lead 150.

I think the c-bet is close, actually. It is hard to realize the equity of this hand by checking since we can not check/call, so A-high will very rarely be allowed to check down and still be good at showdown against 3 players. If just villain 2 calls it sounds like we can have a profitable barrel on most turns. We have good equity when called except against 8x+.

It would be much better to have the Ac blocking the NFD and having a much better backdoor. I would c-bet with the Ac. It's probably okay to check/fold this since we can be pretty selective 4-ways. x/r is interesting since we can credibly play some overpairs this way and V1/V2 seem to click buttons, and it's probably the best combo we can have for a bluff x/r?

As played the turn hits our range better than villain, since he shouldn't float the flop with Ax for this sizing 4-ways. We don't have many perceived or actual bluffs when we take this line, so a small sizing is good to elicit calls from PPs and save us money when we're smoked by 8x. Villain is unlikely to be creative enough to bluff-raise on a card which is better for our range even if we bet small. Bet $80.

Not sure what I like to do OTT. Hmmmmm 1/3 pot?

Now that I have hit my ace, I figured there was no point turning the hand into a bluff anymore. Villain could have an 8, to which I clearly lose, or a flush draw which I want him to bet, or a pair, which he’ll fold if I lead. That was my convoluted thinking anyway.

So I checked and villain wagered $150, a 2/3rd pot size bet.

Maybe elsewhere this can only be an 8, but locally, this is a suspiciously large bet seeking a fold rather than a call. My read was that it seemed more likely that he had a flush draw, and most likely the nut flush draw, and had spiked his ace. To him, this could well look like he has spiked his ace, has the back up of a flush draw, and is now beating my TT - KK range. He could of course still have an 8 though and is hoping I have hit the ace. The bet was quick though, and I’m not sure he went through that much thinking.

I called rather than shoved here (probably should be a shove or fold spot?) and we saw an off suit King on the river.

Villain has $310 behind. If I shove, I get called by an 8 and probably fold out everything else. If I check, I risk getting pushed off the best hand. If he checks behind after a check, I have probably missed value, other than from hands like 97cc, T9cc etc.

So, should I lead, check/call, check/fold?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

X flop, cbetting is a super torch

X turn