1/3

HERO/SB(300)

late night game, my guys are loose passive. tons of limping and light calls/peels. one deep spot who will peel flops with any sort of backdoor draw and midish-low pair.

6 limps

HERO completes SB A9

BB checks

this might be questionable, but getting 11-1 I think I have enough equity that they will let me realize and I can valuebet effectively against the field.

8way
FLOP(24) A62

HERO?

I know people hate hearing fold pre, but most analysis shows that as a general rule, completing the SB is a bad move. Here you complete with AXo, and end up in a pretty crappy situation. There is basically no one you want to show down with. With all those limps, someone is going to have a heart or two and call down, or someone will have a better A.

Your only likely way of winning this hand is via masterful bluffing. That is not a route I want to take at 1/3.

What if I told you that they will raise AQ/AK preflop?

Lol@folding pre. Now check and see what happens behind. Folding to significant action.

Easy check/fold. I'd bet a brick turn if it checks through, though. I'm probably only going for one street unless the spot calls.

I'd also complete this with a big donator in the hand (and even without), but I'm pretty much looking for at least top two.

Bet/fold 1/3 pot for 3 streets. Easy day.

since you limped pre, c/f. You painted yourself in a corner.

The thing is that you think you have good equity. The reality is that if the 6 villains are playing top 50% hands, the BB is random and you have A9o, you have the lowest equity of everyone pf. You're getting about 11:1, but your odds of winning the hand is about 10:1 against. Your odds of hitting 2 pair + are about 25:1 against. When you add in you're going to play this oop, it becomes a pretty easy fold pf.

You'd think against those ranges that you'd be in pretty good shape on the flop. And you are. You have the highest equity %. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is only 14.5%. So making any sort of bet on the flop is burning money. C/F.

The bigger issue is that you can do this analysis on your own using an equity analyzer. The best ones are about 1/3 of a buy in and many are actually free. If you're not doing an equity analysis before posting a hand, you're not taking poker seriously yet.

Your top 50% range must be different than mine:

Equity Win Tie
UTG 17.26% 16.09% 1.18% { 33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K5o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T7o+, 98o }
UTG+1 17.29% 16.12% 1.17% { 33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K5o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T7o+, 98o }
UTG+2 17.26% 16.08% 1.18% { 33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K5o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T7o+, 98o }
MP1 17.36% 16.18% 1.18% { 33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K5o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T7o+, 98o }
MP2 14.96% 14.11% 0.85% { random }
MP3 15.87% 14.22% 1.65% { Ad9c }


I appreciate that we are OOP but I definitely think a decent player will be able to get some postflop value out of TP. Even on a ****ty board like this, if the flop checks around I think we can squeeze some value out of our hand.

Hard to argue we can steal a lot in a 6 way limped pot, but 3 or 4 ways I think we can successfully steal a non insignificant number of paired boards, raggy discoordinated boards. If there is another likeminded player at the table being in the blinds might be an advantage as we get to stab first, our range is fairly uncapped.

A decent player should have a pretty big skill advantage in a typical $1/3 game.

I'd complete the SB here with A9o if I know AK, AQ, AJ are getting raised.

As played, I check the flop. If there is no action and the turn is a brick, I'd bet.

You can easily take a bet/fold line here. You are going to have the best hand often.

I muck preflop. Other than a 99x flop (and perhaps A9x but even that could run into trouble), there's pretty much nothing I want to see that I would feel comfortable going for much value postflop against eleventeen opponents. This is my draw-a-line-in-the-sand hand, as I'm playing ATo due to it being able to make the nut straight.

I would just check/fold the flop. We beat very few Ax hands and no flush draw is folding (and being OOP it might take us a bet or two to figure out that we're not up against just a flush draw but a better hand).

My overall goal in poker (especially in a typical game which goes eleventeen ways to the flop and people have trouble releasing marginal holdings), is to invest a bb into hands that have some nut making potential, and then to dump them immediately when I don't flop that nut making potential (let alone flop bad). So easy dump pre and post, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

The biggest skill advantage a decent player has (especially with lots of stacks < 100bbs) often simply boils down to playing a tight range preflop.

ETA: FWIW, I'm guessing I'm a lot looser than V in that I would be completing offsuit 2 gappers here. But these hands, while not hitting often, will typically be far easier to play postflop (I'll always know exactly where I am plus I'll always feel very comfortable attempting to play for stacks when I do hit), which is not the case with junk like A9o.

GimoG

You should be completing more frequently in a 1/2 game than a 1/3 game by a lot, but I think this hand is fine to complete with in 1/3. I think this is an easy complete in 1/2 and is close in 1/3. Non-fish generally underrate Axo hands and they misunderstand the reason we're limping. We're not limping for implied odds or with the goal of stacking a noob (though it's always nice when that happens), but because we're getting really good pot odds and think we'll be able to take the winning hand to showdown x% of the time.

Flop is a clear check and evaluate. I would fold to any sizable bet.

Yep. It's all about the nuttiness. Huge difference between A9o and ATo.

Me too. Meets conditions above.

Of course A9 can flop/turn the nuts, but naturally only on paired boards that are rarely contested for stacks except only by hands that have some equity given the polarized/paired board. More importantly, there are far fewer flop combos that nut A9 and those boards tend not to hit much in the other limped ranges often enough anyway. On the other hand, 96o has more flop/turn combos to find the nuts. You're also looking at more value on avg given how the 6+ limped ranges will interact on a dynamic 578s board. Your pot share will be less (than A9o on AA9) given the equity of the ranges you'll be facing, but youll rarely payoff riv bets in a limped pot of you get counterfeited anyway.

This isn't necessarily all justification to muck A9o in a weak game, but this idea that "any hand can make the nuts" isn't enough to qualify it for completing.

Definitely have enough equity to complete there. You're not up against top 50% ranges, you're up against top 50% - top 10%.