I will describe what happened in a big hand I was involved in last night from the ''Villain's'' perspective, but I won't mess around asking you guys to play the hand. I won the hand, but I would like some advice on whether it was ever possible for my opponent to get away from this hand, or is it just an example of the Poker gods creating a trap that's impossible to avoid. Did my opponent do anything wrong? What could you have done differently... etc

Background

Hero (my opponent): Caucasian man in his 30s, loud and 'jolly', a joker who keeps the table entertained despite suffering some bad fortune earlier in the night, like hitting a flush when an opponent turned Quads. He has shown moments of frustration, being down over £300 already, but remains largely good natured and fun company. He is playing looser than most on a relatively tight table, but certainly not going crazy and raising trash. Currently sits on ~£300.

V1 (Me): Young Asian guy in his 20s, plays a fairly tight range pre-flop, but once in a hand, has shown a willingness to call with draws and bet on the river with both made hands and bluffs. Stack size oscillating all night, from £200 to ~£500, down to a low of ~£120 before recovering to around ~£250 at this stage in the night.

V2: South Asian (Indian maybe?) man in his 40s/50s, also plays a tight range pre-flop, probably even tighter than V1, but even more willing to call down with draws, although typically gives up on the river if missed. Stack is currently ~£200.

V3: Insignificant involvement.

Pre-flop

Action folds to V1 on HJ, he limps in. V2 limps in on BTN. V3 in SB Checks, Hero is BB with 82 Hero checks also.

4-way to the flop.

Flop (£4)
A82

V3 in SB insta-folds and gives up on hand.
Hero bets £5, V1 Calls, V2 Calls.

Turn (£19)
10
Hero bets £16, V1 Calls, V2 Calls.

River (£67)
8

Hero checks, V1 Bets £55, V2 Calls.

Hero Shoves all-in. V1 Calls, V2 folds.

Hero Shows Full-House, 88822, V1 Shows 888AA and wins pot.

When I discussed this hand afterwards with my opponent, he said that he was only concerned about a flush-draw on the flop, and when the 8 came on the river, he checked, hoping that somebody had hit it, or would try to bluff with the flush draw. V2 almost certainly hit a flush, but he folded so I cannot be sure.

I feel my opponent was horribly unlucky in this hand, and I just wondered, in similar situations, is it always right to try to get all the chips in on the river, hoping you've busted pairs, flushes, straights etc? Or should my opponent have just called the river bet encase I had exactly the hand that I did have? Would that be too conservative? Should he just consider the hand a cooler and continue playing that way?

Thanks

Yeah, it's a cooler. How does V2 not raise the flop with Aces up? What a fish!

The most unfortunate part for him is that he got in on this for free, so he is entirely justified throughout the hand.

There is not enough action imo on the flop or turn to merit thinking he's beat, and once he boats up, I find it very very hard to walk away here, because there are so many hands he beats, and this is an extremely non-obvious hand for him to have.

Depends on stack sizes but river fold to shove is disciplined but legit. Your range is 10s, 10 8, A8, 22 and maybe ak and some bluffs. Not a lot of bluff raises on river here from vil imo... it's different if 10 or 2 are a king. Then vil (you) can be trying to raise off chop AA88K. Them I think fold is hard

Also why don't you raise turn or flop here? Lots of action from worse hands and action killer rivers

Oh, diamond river.. missed that... yeah river fold is tough. But raise turn definitely

It's a cooler, no chance he(or I) fold as played

Yeah, I'm more interested on why OP doesn't raise pre, OTF or OTT.

Hero should never, ever, ever, be folding this river.

And V1 should never, ever, ever, be flatting this flop with Aces up.

Thanks guys.

I agree that Hero (my opponent) should never fold the river, but would it have been more sensible to just call? Given that weak Aces like A8 are exactly the kind of hand people tend to limp in.

As for my play (V1)... I'm not sure if my thinking is 'correct poker', but typically, unless there are more than 3 in the hand (in which case I would try to isolate in the above situation), or I hold the nuts, I like to keep the pot relatively small.

On that specific hand, I have top 2-pair on the flop, it was 4-way to the flop, albeit SB self-mucked, so I cannot be too sure that I'm ahead. I was almost certain that one of my opponents was on a diamond draw, and I know that neither of my opponents would fold a flush draw on the flop. I'd hate to be left with a big decision on the turn or river if a 3rd diamond comes and the pot is already massive, or worse if one of my opponents shoves in response to my re-raise, in which case top-two pair could easily be behind to a set of 2's. So, since my opponent already made a pot-sized bet on the flop, I felt a call was enough to build the pot in the case that I win.

On the turn the story is similar. I didn't particularly like the T, as it was possible that V2 limped with AT, he's limped with AK in the past to trap other weaker limped Aces. Once more my opponent made a big enough bet to charge the flush draw, so I didn't need to do it myself, and at this stage, the flush has a greater chance of missing than hitting, and I consider my two-pair to be 'middle-strength', so keeping the pot at a manageable size seemed a reasonable course of action.

On the river, if the 3rd diamond wasn't a 8, I would've been ready to lay-down my hand, and I wouldn't have lost a huge amount of money. If the river was a blank, I would have called a bet, or made a value bet if action was checked to me. I'm not sure what I'd have done if I faced a shove on the river with just 2-pair... I might call cos it looks a bit like a missed flush.

Now... tear apart my play, but nicely please

Villian 1 aka OP played this horribly.

Stop being so scared of other combos, esp when there are very few that beat you. Raise for value to charge flush draws, and top pairs.

Raise flop. Raise turn. Shove river.

LOL hero played this hand the best....

lol yeah... poker is cruel sometimes. I really felt sorry for the guy, he had an unbelievably horrible night, that was only his 2nd or 3rd cooler of the night. Later on he shoved a set of 5's on the flop against somebody who called with pocked Aces... which caught its 2-outer on the turn. After that he was steaming and really should have left, but he hit 'gamble mode' and lost 2 more big hands in cruel ways. Called small-stack shove with AK, flop is XXA, Turn is K, River is 8. Of course opponent had pocket 8's. His final hand saw him shove on the flop with a flush draw, opponent calls with 2-pair. He hits his flush, but opponent hit the Full-House.

Yikes...

Yup seems fine and coolerish, buddy is calling with all his flushes and maybe even 8x so nh boss "chips"

River card is just a money card for everyone involved. I suppose it is possible to smooth call, but with it being a diamond he just went with his 'plan' and got coolered. It would be interesting to see how things go down if a blank hits and you raise his River lead out.

Overall he/you needed to recognize that something was going on here with pot sized bets being smooth called. The c/r (or larger than pot bet) should have been used on the Turn by Hero to make any flush draw pay more for their draw, especially with bottom 2, any Ax can pass him by on River with a 10 here as well as the flush he feared already ...

Although V-OP gets paid off here, he should've raised Turn to get rid of flush draws and then only worry about AX beating him if he wants. If Hero hit a 3 outer, then so be it, but take control of the pot and find out now when it is more than HU in this spot. OP picks up position if/when V2 folds out on Turn.

Two wrongs dont usually make a right but 'wrongly' playing Flop and Turn got OP paid here. GL