Here is a hand I wanted to review and ask for advice on...

1/2 NL @ Parx Friday night with straddle to $4.

Hero is MAWG in the UTG Straddle, Villain, MAWG is UTG +1. Hero has stack of approx $430, UTG+1 approx $470 (has Hero covered). Neither of us have gotten too out of line thus far in the evening.

5 limpers to Hero who raises to $30 with TT

UTG +1 calls, all others fold.

Flop (~$75) T 6 4

Hero bets $60, Villain calls. (How's my sizing?)

Turn (~$190) J

#1 What do you guys do here?

#2 I check to try to induce a bet, Villain bets $100 - What would you guys do here?

Regarding flop sizing:

I personally think that your sizing is too big. Youre destroying all hands except flopped flushes (and if so you still have lots of outs to boat up over 2 streets), so you really want to size down a little bit to entice a wider range of hands to continue on in the hand. Like getting naked top pairs,naked 1 club hands and likewise to continue putting money in here drawing close to dead, thats how you print money in these spots. Either by calling your bet and put money into the pot that way, or even spazz out with a flopraise with a worse hand percieving your bet as weak. A classic problem you will bump into if you size too big overall in too may spots in your game, is that you often will isolate yourself against the strongest parts of your villains range, because your big sizing is folding out too many hands. Just a general train of thought.

On the turn i likely go for the check-shove. I dont see myself folding topset on this board and this SPR anyway, so might as well get the money in on this blank of a turn before villain either gets there on another club- or another club can also slow down your action stopping you from getting all of villains money in case he have a worse valuehand, for example a smaller set.

Don't you want to bet a little bigger to punish A X draws?

Not really, the important part is that we bet something and doesent give any free cards. Besides that its really an illusion that we need to "punish" A or K draws, or to get too obsessed with that. Like another poster pointed out some time ago (thanks Ava), its important to not being afraid of cards. Actually we would love villain to continue in the hand with those combos. For multiple reasons:

1)Villain doesent have good implied odds (if any at all), if he chooses to play those draws passively with a call line. If another club falls its easy for us to know he got there, and be finished with the hand if we face a meaningful bet from him on another cards. If he chooses to raise instead with a lonely club, obviously were very happy with that too and play for all the money as a huge favourite.

So said in another way: if he have a big club and keeps putting money into the pot by calling our bets he is making a big mistake against a solid player who wont pay him off if he hits. He will put money into the pot all the times when he is behind our topset and drawing to the club- but as soon as he hits he is unable to make any money from us. Imagine how much we profit in those scenarios, we are owning him big time.

2) There isnt that many clubs left in the deck when its 3 on the flop and 1 in villains hand. On top of that we will boat up and lock up the hand with the stones 1 out of 3 times by the time we get to the river. Were such a huge favourite when were up against a lonely club, we have nothing to worry about at all.

3) We dont know if villain have a big club hand, that is only one part of his continuerange- albeit often a decent part. So its a mistake to size our bets as if we know that villain have a lonely club hand that we need to "punish", because we obviously dont know that yet. Villain also have other hands in his range that we would _love_ for him to continue with, like red JJ or QQ that slowplayed pre, or A10-K10-Q10 without a club,open ender, or a pair with a medium club. In order to keep as many of those hands in that we crush, we need to size smaller to give them a better reason to stick around- and make them feel as comfortable as possible despite the scary 3 club flop.

The reason to bet smaller is so a J-A can call. If you make it so big that only an Ac calls you don't get value very often on your super strong hand. A smaller bet may also get more action from non club hands.

Being a straddle hand though, I think slightly large bet sizing is okay. I'd bet 50 if it was me, but don't hate your bet. I like a check shove plan on the turn simply because an opponent will bet a very high % of the time. Well played.


I was typing at the same time as Petrucci but his answer says it all on why we don't need to bet huge to punish a specific draw

Thanks guys.

Smaller flop bet; lead turn.

As played, easy shove.

I like the way this was played preflop and flop.

With 190 in the pot and 340 left in stacks, just about any play on the turn is defendable.

I like going for the check/raise because our flop bet looks like a cbet that whiffed and I think decent villains are going to try to take a stab at the pot and fold to a check/raise with hands like AJ, KQ, JJ, 99 with one club.

If we bet, its hard for them to jam with a worse hand.

If we had 530 left in stacks that would allow for one more pot-sized bet and I think continuing to lead out would be a better line as villain may think he has implied odds to keep calling and we can set things up for a river jam he might also think he has fold equity by jamming over our turn bet.