Game is $1/$2 NL, $300 Max. Hero has a relatively tight image due to being card dead and is down around $100. Villain in the hand is MAWG, seems pretty straightforward, running well and have not seen anything other than the goods from him at showdown. Stacks are Hero with $325 and V covers. OTTH:

Hero is dealt AT in MP and raises to $15 after 2 limpers (raises have been between $10 and $15 all day). 2 folds and V calls in the CO, blinds fold and both limpers call. So 4 way to the flop

Flop ($58 after full rake)
AA6

Checked to Hero who bets $35. V1 calls in the CO relatively quickly and other players fold.

Turn ($128)
AA68

Hero is first to act and has picked up NFD to go with his trips. Hero has $275 left.

What is your play and why:

A) Lead again for $xxx
B) Check with the intention of check/call
C) Check with the intention of CR

Thanks,

Shorn

Turn looks like a great card but as described V's range at this point is very strong. He called your PFR and then calls your flop bet next to act with 2 behind. Flop is a rainbow, so most of his range at this point includes an Ace. Considering his aces, AQ/AJ/Axs make the most sense.

This is actually a tough spot. Betting and getting raised put's us in an awful spot. I think I check/call here.

Interesting point. I actually discounted AK and AQ as I thought he might either 3! pre with those or raise the flop so I put him much more on AJ/Ax. But you hit on my dilemma...if I bet the turn and get raised, I almost have to go with it given I likely have 12 outs if behind. Additionally, I also wondered if potentially check/calling would make me look weaker than I was which may give V the green light to value own himself on turn and river with Ax (obviously fading the chance that he fills or is already full).

Still not sure what the right play is to maximize value but won't reveal what I did until a few others chime in.

I lean towards a check/call here. Against villain's non Ax hands, we are more likely to get called with a river bet than we are with a turn bet. I'm unsure if we can bet turn & river for value unimproved with our image & our opponent seeming like a reasonable player. Finally, if we bet turn & get shoved on, it's a brutal spot where we're likely beat but the equity will be very close to having to call off.

Ex: We bet $75 on the turn. Villain shoves for $275 total. We have to call $200 into a pot that is $478, so we would need ~29.5% equity to break even. Against a range of all better hands than ours (A8s, A6s, 66, AK-AJ), we are only 26.5%

I must play with very passive villains but in my 1/2 games the majority of players rarely 3! with AK let alone AQ.

This is something that varies from game to game. At Parx it depends on the stakes. At 1/2 you will run into people flatting raises and even limp/calling with AK/AQ. They want to see if they hit their top pair before committing much, but if they do they are usually willing to move all in post flop. At 2/5 people the games are deeper and more aggressive, people raise/reraise with those hands almost always but because they don't want to stack off with one pair they get more careful post flop. You see more bet/check/bet or bet/bet/check lines.

Finding out what sort of game you are in is an important adjustment.

Just keep betting high equity stuff in this game at the right size and life will be good.

What's the "right size"? I was going to suggest a bet/x/bet line. Or x/c if V bets turn. What hands do we expect to continue against our PFR and double barrel on this board? IME we are only charging smaller Ax which seems very thin. If we x/c, or bet river if it checks through we have a better chance at getting two streets against his whole range no? With this board and run out I don't think back door diamonds will kill our action much. If any bet goes in OTT we can easily still GII OTR. If it goes x/x there's a good chance we weren't getting turn value anyway.

I like the check/call option. Bet river if turn checks through. I don't think he's continuing on turn w/o an A, so betting just let's him fold, as does x/r.

Thanks everyone for replies and thoughts. I guess I will reveal what I did and why.

I chose option B (check with the intention of calling) as I strongly put him on a range of Ax and not much else. I also thought that AK-AJ were much less likely than Ax, but even if he did have one of those, I didn't want to get potentially raised of my FD/Boat equity if I led and he shoved. Maybe that is faulty thinking given the remaining $, but that was the thought process at the time.

So I check and he bets $35 into $128 which I thought was very strange. So strange in fact that I narrowed his range even more to Ax and heavily discounted AK/AQ/AJ as I felt he would bet more for value with those holdings. I also now considered check-raising but felt like he may fold his weak Ax hands to that line and I figured that it would be better to just call and evaluate rivers to potentially get another street.

Anyone checkraise here after that sizing?

I can go either way. If you really think he's weak, flatting is fine. You're not going to get much more out of him (if he's behind), anyway.

I wouldn't necessarily infer with that sizing that he is weak. He could think you bet your pocket pair on the flop and are now worried about an ace, so he's trying to milk you with really small sizing. In my games against this described villain, AJ - AK are still very much in range (heavier weights to AJ/AQ).

I flat.

Actually, I flat if I think he's weak or strong. Raising doesn't accomplish what we want in either situation.

+1, I would also add that I would use this sizing with boats here to try to keep in flush draws and other Ax hands as well so small sizing isn't ALWAYS associated with weak hands. After the extra $70 goes into the pot we have just barely more than a pot sized bet left OTR, which is perfect for jamming.

OK interesting and Java/Joey/C0rn good point about raising not accomplishing anything good (he folds weaker or we give him more $ when we are behind).

So I did flat here.

River ($198)
AA683

Hero has $240 left and is first to act. Check or bet now?

Once we x/c turn it looks really strong to lead river here. I guess it depends on how I view Vs game. The better they are the more I like x/c again although it seems really bad on the surface. If we lead our hand is face up but V will probably still hero call any Ax. A good V can play perfectly however. If V had any marginal hands or bluffs they insta-fold to a river lead. We still beat a lot of Ax. If V is fishy I still lead and never fold. Guess that means I could go either way based on how I think V will respond. Given our line, reads, and position I probably default to x/c. I know a lot of players will flame this response. Being OOP sucks.

Guy called PFR cbet w 2 players behind on AA6r, so he isn't "weak" and neither are we. He may have called some PP that likely fold to another bet, but also has all Ax here, some worse, some better, and boats. We just happen to have one of our worse bet bets here, but still a hand that has equity against his calling range if we choose a sizing that keeps things as wide as possible. Plus once we bet again there is zero perceived FE given we look like (or at least an average poker player knows we an have AK), so he mostly is just going to call everything. The arrival of the FD is not a particularly big deal either here, if anything we just can't bet as much because we have the Axdd - it's just a backup plan when the IP player has AJ+. I would have bet 45/50 with everything that bet bets because I have zero bluffs, and ATx is likely the worst hand I have at this point that rakes this line.

All this ckr nonsense stuns me. This isn't a stackoff spot and the last thing I want to do is narrow an already narrow calling range by ckr and trying to gii w one of my worst hands.

I'd flame if you lead river after ckc turn. Not sure there is a worse line to take than bet, ckc, bet with AT on this board.

For sure ck as played and hope he bets small or checks. Already made a mistake checking turn and being forced to play oop against a strong range w the bottom of my own. It's very much about realizing equity here and that means choosing the most positive EV option throughout the hand, not just 'showing it down' - again, bet bet bet at a small sizing accomplishes >EV than any other line - We don't win the pot as often as we like when called 3 times, but overall for our range it's the nut EV line.

I think all you can do is check, but I think V is going to check behind unless he boated up or has AK/AQ.

Betting small is interesting -- like $50 - $75. If he's any good (or if he's bad enough), he can raise with worse, though, making your decision difficult.

Check and calling any bet 3/4 pot or smaller.

Yeah and problem is I didn't know him that well so wasn't sure if he was capable of raising with worse on this river. Frankly, I just wasn't sure exactly how to play this for highest EV/lowest loss on either the Turn or River so I played passively and checked both.

V leads for $75 OTR and I don't think there is anything else to do but call given my line. He showed A3 for the rivered boat (which isn't really relevant as I was more curious about my overall line).

After I felt like I had made a mistake playing it so passively the whole way but it seems like the consensus here is maybe I didn't butcher it as bad as I thought. He did comment that me slowing down on the turn made him think I had KK/QQ and not Ax and he said if I had played the turn any differently (led again or checkraised) he would have folded. Not sure I beleive him but for what its worth.

Anyway, thanks to all for comments.

Shorn

Yeah this is my thought now too. So Turn for you is standard b/f line?

LOL. Nobody folds A3 to a turn bet -- and probably not to a turn x/raise, but maybe.

I think you played it well, and I know it's results oriented, but you lost the least.

You're rarely getting raised. Folding AT to a turn raise (depending on stacks and how much you bet) is completely ok because it's not a strong hand facing the line you're facing from genpop. If he folds A3 to a small turn bet that's ok, good fold frankly, but he has other worse hands that do call - and some better that you have a street left to improve against.

Point is he get to check back A3 unimp vs your ckc ck line, and while that's not a terrible result w AT, you just make more including it as a turn bet as I laid out above.

My first line really covers it - you just bet your strongest hands. AT is the least strong of your strongest hands, but is still a bet.

I don't think our line is terrible either. I would agree that the turn is a bet if we are positive V only has Ax here. But is it also the most +EV line against Vs whole range? We have already said that we don't know V that well and IME players may not believe Hero raised pre and led flop with trip Aces only, so they could call wider IP to see what happens OTT. When we double barrel I just feel we lose a lot of value from hands that may stab turn or call river if we check the turn.