Harrah’s AC, 10 hours into a long Sunday session where Hero has chipped-up from $200 to $650 with solid play, mostly value-betting TP hands against loose passives and stations. Hero has played a patient game, showing aggressiveness with top 15% hands against typical limpers.

This hand I face the strongest player (Villain) at the table, who has a TAG image, probably ~28/18 VPIP/PFR with a stack of ~$700. There are two others in the hand briefly. One to my left, a good friend of mine, has a tight image, who never 3-bets unless he has the goods. The other is a loose player, albeit thinking, who limp/calls too often.

1 limper, folds to me in late MP w/2s2d. I call, HJ, CO also call. Villain raises to $15 on B. Blinds and original limper fold and I make the call (normally I wouldn’t) for 3 reasons:
- deep stax
- fairly certain the loose CO would as well
- just won $200 pot with an over-pair, getting fold-fold OTT (my brief heater?). Thoughts?

Villain’s typical raise was $10-$12, even with limpers. I thought his range in this hand could be AQ+, 88+ as he has not played a hand in about 45 minutes.

Pot = $60 after rake. Flop is 9h-5s-2h.

I check, planning to c-r. I thought the Villain would likely bet a pair, possibly checking through big-Ace hands. I wanted to induce some action with a min-raise. Thoughts?

Hand checks to Villain who bets $40. I raise to $80. While flatting might allow him to bet OTT, I was fearful of playing multi-way with a FD on board. I see the min-raise as value while charging a premium for potential draws. There was a loose player still in. Thoughts?

Folds back to Villain who calls quickly.

Pot = $220. Turn is 10d, board is 9h-5s-2h-10d.

Hero leads for $120. A check is possible I guess, perhaps to give the impression of a heart draw. However, he is a strong player and I thought he would play pot control with just an over-pair, and might check through with only one card to go. It is also difficult to get 3 streets of value from a strong player. Is it easier to get value OTT as opposed to OTR, perhaps not? Thoughts?

i dont like the raise on the flop tbh. if im going to raise is going to be at least 3x his bet. if we are planning to go broke here we need to build the pot up. a heart is a huge action killer for us and possibly him.

i dont think id ever min raise OOP

as played the turn bet is ok but id likely go close to 170 myself

yes it will be tough to get 3 streets from a solid villain, which is why we need to put more money in on the flop, so the 2 streets we get are substantial

A few questions:

1. What did you seek to accomplish with a check-raise? On a relatively dry flop of 9-5-2 with the only believable draw being the heart flush, all you really accomplish with a check raise is alerting the Villain to the strength of your hand and most likely shutting down the chance for a bigger pot on the turn and river. If he has AA or KK he suddenly plays the hand much more cautiously than if you took a check-call line.

2. I do not understand the "I see the min-raise as value while charging a premium for potential draws" statement. A min-raise makes the pot $180 after your bet, with him only needing to pay $40 chase his hypothetical draw. That's not exactly charging a premium when you offer better than 4.5-1. In short, min-raises almost always suck and also almost always telegraph to your opponent a monster holding.

3. If Villain truly is a strong player, your flop and turn bets give away the strength of your hand -- again, it's a very dry board -- and he might be able to confidently find a fold on the turn even with an overpair.

I think a check-call > donk bet >>>> check-raise OTF in this situation.

I do not see much of a problem with leading out the turn if you had check-called, but after you min-raise check-raise and he calls and the turn is a basic blank, I do not think you can expect to get more action from a competent player.

I think the deepstacks and the chance both HJ and CO come along also lean me to call the raise preflop. However, if the Villain truly is a good player, we probably can't profitably setmine against him (although perhaps we can against the others). Plus the deepstacks are also kinda weird in this case cuz while they offer insane implied odds, there comes a point where a good villain is only going to put in mucho BBs with a hand that beats a set of 2s.

I would probably donk the flop (say 3/4 pot), especially with the other two in between us and the raiser (we're 4 ways to the flop, right?). It could look like a "donk-to-see-where-I'm-at" or flush donk, and maybe button overplays his hand, especially if others call. It would suck if flop checked thru. As played, I would check/raise more (say a typical 3x). We're giving too good of odds to a flush draw to continue and I want to quickly build a pot here. If others are coming along behind us to a 2x, they're probably coming along for a 3x.

I'm cool with turn, although if I'm committing to the hand I think I probably bet more to set up an easier river shove. If villain raises the turn, can we possibly ever fold? If he calls river and we've got << PSB left (especially with a bigger turn bet), do we ship all non-scary rivers?

GcluelessNLnoobG

DON'T SET MINE OOP AGAINST LAGS!!! I cannot tell you how often I see this, and how giant a leak it is.

If someone is opening a huge range of hands, do you really think they're going to have a big hand to pay you off when you actually do flop a set? And they're going to be dumb enough to pay you off when you limp/call, obviously representing a pocket pair?

When you set mine, especially with small PPs, against LAGS, your just bleeding money to them. They're cbetting so often, you're hitting so infrequently, and they're paying you off even less frequently, that it's just a massively losing proposition.

As played, I hate your flop c/r, hate your turn bet. If you are going to take your c/r line and remove all deception from your hand, plan the hand to size your bets so that you can get your stack in by the river. As played, your turn bet needs to be bigger.

A much better line if you are going to play this hand preflop is to lead flop. If he has a hand that's good enough to pay you off and he's a LAG, he's going to be raising your donk bet a lot, and this way you keep the added deception. Plus if he checks through and binks the turn, you're always paying him off.

gobbledygeek beat me to the punch while I was typing : (