Sorry for writing a novel here before the HH. If you don't care about backstory, feel free to skip ahead, although some of this is likely relevant.

Hasn't been Hero's night at all tonight. Having the typical "one of those nights" that I'm sure everyone here can relate to. Was stuck $400 earlier in the night after getting rivered by the same guy 3 times in 30 minutes. Built my stack up through patient play and was up $150 before the table broke and I got moved to a short table.

This new table is playing like a 2/5 game. The entire table will limp/call and will call the flop with *ANY* piece of the flop, bottom pair, gutterballs, flush draws with bad odds. Hero has lost about $300-400 at this point since moving tables by finding out the hard way that people are check/calling pretty much any flop bet. Stereotypical "tighten up your range and value bet" dynamic. Unfortunately, at tables like this you have to make a hand to make money since most pots are going to showdown. Doing things like raising the BTN to $20 with AQ after a handful of limpers, going to the flop 5-way $100 in the pot, getting checked to on a K-8-5 ss flop, c-betting $70 and getting a call, call, re-raise. Just extra wild and loose play that I am not used to.

Villain is, by my assessment, a bad LAG. He talks the talk, but he most certainly does not walk the walk. He open raises garbage from UTG like K9o, 75o, etc. He calls 3! (mostly mine since no one else has picked up on his terrible tendencies) OOP and has been smashing flops vs. hero. Nothing I can really do at this point besides goading V into making mistakes and trying to get paid.

In an earlier hand V opened to $10 from UTG and hero called with QJo and 1 other terrible player called. Q35r flop, V bets $20 into $35, hero calls. Ace on the turn, V bets $40, hero raises to $130, V re-raises AI and hero folds. My image if anyone is paying attention is probably "loser" since I have won exactly 1 pot in over 2 hours.

At this point, hero is annoyed, perturbed, etc. but not tilting, by my account. Hero is stuck for $350 with $150 on the table and no intention of chipping up or buying in again. Ideally looking for a double up and getting the hell out of there with a $200 loss for the night.

OTTH,

Effective stacks of $150. V is UTG and Hero is UTG+1. Hero seat changed 45 minutes ago to get to the left of three bad LAGs.

V opens to $10
Hero looks down at QQ and 3! to $30
V calls $30

I am basically committing myself to the hand here on most flops and lack of aggression from V. If he does something like check 2 out of 3 streets on A or K high flops I am going with it

Pot: $60

Flop: 4 A T

V checks
Hero checks

I figure this is a WA/WB flop. If I c-bet this flop, I am only getting called by better and if I check it back, I can get value from worse OTT/R.

Pot: $60

Turn: 8

V bets $35 after 10 seconds
Hero calls $35 fairly quickly

Pot: $130

River: 3

V checks after 10-15 seconds
Hero pauses for 10-15 seconds before going AI for my remaining $85
V asks how much, tanks for 5-10 seconds and calls $85

Final Pot: $300

Thoughts? I am probably playing this hand the exact same way with AK/AQ. But by 3! pre I feel I have to be fully committed to the hand barring some AKxsss type flop that I whiff.

Is my logic for checking back the flop correct since we are WA/WB and want to keep in the bottom portion of V's range including bluffs?

Without reading the wall of text, If we are wa/wb then why are we jamming river when worse will not call?

Many bad V's will play weak A's like this and just not fold

I think your line is okay. Although I disagree that we have to be committed.

Pre is obviously good for fat value.

Flop could go either way. If opponent is the sort to bet when you show weakness I would prefer a check. If opponent is rarely folding to a 3bet then I would bet for value. It's a bit thin but if you think he calls with Tx and PPs then it's correct.

As played I think your river bet is okay. If it's wrong it's not by much. Although I will point out that even loose aggressive players often valuebet as narrowly as normal players. Meaning I would expect him to c/c with a lot of weak Ax whereas if he bet river I would not expect TPWK. But his line also makes sense with Tx/PPs so if he calls such hands it's good.

I dunno, I guess you could read into the timing a little bit and think he's either contemplating a "thin" (in his mind) value bet with Ax or contemplating bluffing. Which if true there is no value in betting.

The backstory sure is relevant (hope your next few days are better!) because you're trying to get two streets worth from an Ace-high, rather dry board. I think that's sometimes a bit ambitious, and probably a little bit here. I think he thinks you either have an Ace or air, I don't think he's expecting the pocket pair at all.

did you by any chance see what he was calling 3-bets with earlier? LAGs tend to raise with crap, not call with crap - otherwise they'd have no money left!

You played the QJ hand horribly. You played this hand well. Good check on the flop. Standard call on turn. The reason to bet this river is if you think he calls with worse more than 50% of the time. So, if you think he has a ten or eight or smaller pocket pair then this bet is a good thin value bet because villain can put us on a missed flush draw. If he's smart enough to know that he shouldn't make a value-bet on the turn with worse than an Ace then we should check back river (reason being his range would only be top pair or air).

@Pseudo, I haven't seen what he called my 3! with but I do know that he cold-called every 3! I made against him (four 3! in total) OOP vs. me. Unfortunately, I never made it to showdown due to the ridiculous mechanics of this $1/$2/$20 table and LAG outflopping me (or perhaps just outplaying me with ridiculous aggression that would get snapped off by any decent value hand if I had one).

@DK, that is what I was hoping, that he would have enough JJ, Tx, 99, 8x in his range to balance his weak Ax hands.

@Never, yah I guess so on the QJ hand. I was effectively just turning my hand into a bluff at that point as I wasn't keen on calling the $40 and facing further river action from him. I thought the Ace was a pretty good card for raising repping AJ, AK that floated, etc. What would you do if you actually had AJ? Raise or flat?

This is highly relevant for this hand. So he hasn't folded to a 3bet? In that case a river value bet is even better, since I would expect a normal opponent to fold more Tx/8x preflop.

If you want to commit pre to this hand raise to $50 pre making the pot $100 and leaving us with $100 to shove.

As played 3x raise, Flop check with A on board, calling Turn, and shoving River with no FE is Tilty FPS.

What types of hand do we expect to get Value from?

The Ace that beats us is never Folding given V type getting 2.5:1.

Re: qj hand. Problem with turn raise is you beat all the hands that you are trying to bluff out. If you think you are behind on the turn, fold. If you think you are ahead, call and let him bluff again on the river.

Grunch.

QJ hand is bad

This hand is great and villian seems like the type to pay this bet off with 10x. This is exactly the type of table you can value bet this thin on. Especially with your image from QJ hand and 3betting often. Also perfect effective stack size to take this line.

I like it until the river. Is he really calling with worse? If so, fine, but I probably would have checked behind. (And then tripled up.) The other option is raising more preflop as someone said and getting it in on the flop.

Pre is good.
Flop is good.
Turn is good.

I'm not sold on the river without better knowledge of his river calling tendencies. I'd prolly just check the river without knowing how he will play A-rag type hands, and how often he calls with JT/JJ type hands.

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