Hero($700): Winning player. Villain views me as tight, but willing to make plays and get in there and mix it up. I have been a little card dead for the last hour.

CO($275): Is a weird player. Seems to have experience. Is playing fit or fold postflop, sometimes mini-tanking for 15 seconds before folding. Raises preflop with some strange holdings - once with 63o from EP. In that hand he flops bottom pair and turns two pair to win a decent pot. He then announced that he will raise with some different hands but only stays in there if he hits something. He does not seem capable of setting something up with this foolery, just fooling.

BB($700): Regular opponent. All over the map loose. Exhibits all the traits of an aggressive mega fish. Loves the thrill of confrontation in the game. Is aware but lacking in many areas when it comes to poker knowledge. One example: he loves to bloat pots from the blinds by raising to $15 or $20 even when he knows he is getting called. Great fun.

Hero is button with Q5.

9 handed. About 4:00am in a very good game.

Preflop: two limpers, CO raises to $16, Hero raises to $45, SB folds, BB calls, folds, CO mini-tanks and calls.

CO range is scared. I can get him to fold most anything.

BB range is everything but pure junk. So yes, I know he is calling with about 40% of all starting cards.

Flop(3 players/$133 after rake): 864.
Check, check, Hero bets $75, BB calls, CO folds.

I think I have to bet here, but only see my chances of taking it down at about 50/50. Thoughts?

BB snap called. His range is one pair + and straight draws. I don't think he ever raises this flop bet without two pair +. He does call one time with a lot of marginal holdings.

Turn(Heads up/$283): 3.
BB checks, Hero ?

3 would have been better.
Do we have a bet here?
Should we check behind with possibly 11 outs?
Can we try the small bet ott, big bet otr bluff line?
Where do I rank on the 2p2 spew scale?

Grunch

I would reluctantly check back the turn with the intention of (possibly) bluffing A and K rivers. This guy is not the type of player that you want to try to bluff here. I would imagine that he's rarely folding a pair/pair and straight draw/overpair here. I also hate the flop, but I think you are kinda locked into a c bet after attempting this play. If the game is that good, I would probably stick to a solid 3 betting range unless the spot is really good. I would also be betting a Q river when checked to.

Probably just dumping this hand pf and 3 betting strictly for value against weak / loose players.. Post flop As played vills hand looks like 77 99 or 1010 question is do you think you can get him to lay down this range? Bc of this I probably just ck and try and hit one of my outs.

Spew scale ranking high imo but it happens to the best of us.

What a mess

Basically this spot is really hard to just throw a blanket statement of what's optimal. On non scary turns double barreling is so game dependable here. In short you are taking free card/giving up if you miss or triple barreling till you blow your brains out. Doubling and giving.up is so ugly with all this money out there. With the triple sizing is critical, you don't want to.look polarized.

Check here or go $175, all in otr.

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You gained equity now check it back. Most of his range is TP or overpairs which probably won't fold when a 5 hits the turn.

What exactly is your thought of betting trying to accomplish?

3 betting pre is not standard obviously, but I don't mind it if you have a plan in mind. In this instance, you know he's scared money so that part of it is fine. What are the odds that BB comes along too? If they're pretty high either raise more or abandon the plan. I get into a lot of spots in my games where i know I could 3 bet someone and profit but there are too many idiots who will cold call and screw everything up. If this is the case for you then you should probably wait until the table conditions change.

Cbetting is OK I guess. I don't mind either way. I guess it's really a matter of BB calling with air or not. I'd take the freebee with nice equity on the turn though.

Def check and see the river. Even thought he's a fish prob not betting anything less than 2 pair. If you hit the river and he bets get Max value w over bet.. If he checks and you hit a nice little 124 bet gets called by tptk. I think even a Q on river is good value card as long as he dosent bet. And if his bet is poor easy call

Btw love the flop bet

Couple thoughts. First, a lot of whether you continue here is so villain specific. Is there any chance he is sitting on a monster with a plan to check raise the turn? If that's a significant chance I think it's a clear check behind. If not, this mostly depends whether two barrels is going to give this villain pause. From what you' said about him initially I envisioned him as a player who would not give up very easily, but you also said "he does call one time with a lot of marginal holdings". If he is a "call on the flop with marginal hands because he can beat AK but fold on the turn if you bet again because that means you don't have AK" type player then you should bet.

In short, I think the decision all depends on how much fold equity you think you have.

Interesting spot. My initial inclination is a check, but that's basically giving up on the hand.

I would just fold preflop. Super loose BB could be coming along a lot which could start a chain of callers (even though it is to a 3bet). And even though CO has a wonky preflop range, he did raise after 2 limpers; I'd much rather light 3bet him if it was folded to him where his range is probably super wide. This also sounds like a great game, so no need to do anything other than straightforward ABC, imo.

Once I'm in this mess, I probably cbet as well. It's not as if we are totally without equity with our overcard + gutshot + backdoor diamond draw. I'd try to bet the smallest amount I could that will win the pot without being taken as weak and possibly played back at / floated weakly. Maybe $50?

I just happily take my free card on the turn. The board didn't get any scarier and that card shouldn't have hit us, so if villain called the flop with a pair I don't think he's ever folding this turn. Also seems a little stationy to me (i.e. don't bluff stations). I'm done with the hand unless I hit.

I'd say preflop was pretty spewy, flop a little spewy (if we could bet less), and turn extremely spewy if we bet it. But I'm passive like that.

GmrpassiveG

Not a huge fan of the 3b, but since he's playing tight post flop I think it can be profitable. Would much rather have Axs or even Kxs for card removal purposes. Once the bb comes along I'm not gonna invest any more money into the pot unless we get an A+ boart texture that will allow us to double and possibly triple barrel.

Th flop is pretty bad, I'd probably barrel if just the co were involved but the presence of the bb would lead me to just check this back.

ap just giving up ott an taking the free card. Not the best card to fire another barrel with.

Make your 3bet a tad bit bigger. Cbet flop bigger, your sizing doesn't define his range. Ott flop bet sets up a turn shove.
You have no other option given his range.

I would rather bet 4/5th otf. Then check turn, since he would obviously be strong.

Also, your hand selection is very off based for llsnl let alone any level. Try hands like Q8s+,98s+, 55+,K9s+ and A2s+. Those are the type of hands you want to 3bet light with. The reason being is we get called a lot.

If I was playing online I would 3bet crap like K9o+, A7+ and some offsuit gappers that I like to play. I would put Q5s in that range.

The above were my exact thoughts.

I'd say an overwhelming vote for checking the turn. It does stand to reason that we make some money if we hit the river. Knowing this opponent though he is almost surely betting the river small - this will make collecting a little more difficult because though he is a bad player he does not make a habit of calling big river bets(let alone raises) with one pair hands.

Now the downside of checking the turn is that I do not check the turn here with an overpair - so it is giving up on the hand. And giving up on any chance to bluff. I am not a fan of trying to move on a river A or K against this guy. I started to believe that the snap call otf was him saying "I have a made hand" and trying to send me a little SDV message.

That is why I considered the following line...

If I bet again on the turn this is my plan...

Bet $95 or $105.

It may fold out T9,T7,A7 and will charge 97(granted a small part of his range).
If he calls with 77,99,TT,JJ it leaves me room to bluff the river.
I think a check-raise is highly unlikely.

I know it sounds like playing both sides of the fence but when I hit I can be more confident about being paid otr as well.

We're trying to target the...gutshot portion of his range? Or bluff him off an overpair?

This doesn't sound like good poker. In LLSNL poker, any plan that centers around us trying to make a villain fold top pair/overpairs is a bad plan, regardless of villain. This is especially true given the read we have on this specific guy.

If an A, K, or J comes OTR, you can just as effectively bomb the river, anyway (or fold if he leads out for some reason). The turn bet is pretty unnecessary.

We're playing against his range of course.

The fact that we are 350BB deep is important.

Do you think villain will easily convince himself to call me down three streets and stack off 350BBs with 99 here? Or TT? Or 87s?

I think my choices here are check/give up or fire 3 bullets.

Easily convince himself? No. But he'll likely give you the "ahh you must have aces, but I call anyway" speech that LLSNL villains are so apt to do.

Triple barreling at these stakes is almost always a leak. This is especially true when you actually have equity and the possibility of getting check/raised off of it exists.

True.

Grunch:

Preflop...

So I guess you're intending to fold to any 4B right? This is why your 3B is so small, I suppose? The 3B this small invites callers at LLSNL which just makes a big mess of things.

Would you be 3B to $45 with AA here?

I would have 3B to $65-75, since I want all my 3B to look the same.

I get that you're just trying to isolate. But isolation just doesn't work so well when fish hate folding more then they hate losing. This is especially true for BB who is ready to bloat the pot with trash.

Flop...

Cbet/fold 1/2 pot... yep. (You were planing to fold to a c/r here, right?)

After BB calls and CO folds, I think you could be good with any pair, but 7 is a disaster for you. You probably are best, but JT, J9, T9, 99, 98, are all going to make your life very hard. So, were not looking for a 7, methinks.

Turn...

You have $130 invested (18.5% of stack) into the $280 pot. You're not committed yet.

Now its time to soul read BB. Is he going to call you down with 99? Is he capable of putting you on QQ+? I don't think the 3 helped him much.

My feeling is that if we check here, then villain calls most rivers. So a check here means we should check back or fold the river unless we catch a 2 or a Q. 6 outs. I think we will hate life if a 7 hits.

If we think Villain folds 99, then we have to bet to preserve what ever fold equity we have left. A big bet looks suspicious since the 3 changed nothing. Its unclear to me that Villain calls here, so I'm inclined to bet 1/3 to 1/2 pot and see a flop.

Let's b/f $140.

River...

Plan to check back or fold river unless we hit a 2, Q.

Maybe go for thin value and b/f 1/4 pot if a 5 hits (hoping villain folds).

I likely call if we hit a 7, unless I get some sort of live read that changes my mind.

Spew? Yep. 8/10 pukies. Wait for AX or better for isolating.

RESULTS

On the turn I was swayed to check behind by two things:

1) Villain called the flop with a tight player behind him.
2) His firm and quick call seemed to be announcing "I don't want any trouble. Please let me get this hand to showdown." While on the one hand this says I may be able to triple Barrel it also says he may be married to his hand.

So river is the 2. Just kidding. River is no help. Villain bets $60, hero folds.

In chatter after the hand Villain asks CO what he had. CO says pocket kings and starts recalling the action and how me must have been beat. Villain says he had JJ. Now while he is known to lie a lot about his hands to make himself look better - I do believe him this time. CO I dunno.

Thanks for your time itt