I have history with BB (~250). He's a regular (white male, mid 30s), and he donates. He's very passive preflop and tends to be sticky after the flop. He also seems to have little regard for the strength of his opponent's hand or range. Occasionally he'll spazz out with a hand that is obviously murdered. I remember a hand quite some time ago when he had QT on a queen-high board and he doubled me up after I flopped a set of 5s, despite the action suggesting he was crushed.

CO has less than $50 and appears to be pretty clueless, although in a limited sample size.

I have 500+ and a winning image; haven't shown down a losing hand yet at this table.

9-handed
I raise to 10 UTG with AQ, CO calls, BB calls.
Flop (31): AJ7
BB bets 10, I raise to 35, CO folds, BB calls.
Turn (101): 9
BB checks, I bet 70, BB calls fairly quickly.
River (241): 5
BB insta-ships 129, I ???

really looks like based on your kinda small flop sizing that you were planning on being all in by the river.

when they take the lead and jam though... ugh. based on your reads he has to have you. likely the dude was holding some flush draw and backed into a second pair lol. you're getting great odds though. anyway, usually fold here.

You're getting a good price to find out you're beat like always.

Check back the turn though. You're not beating much and a Q OTR is most likely bad for you.

given your read that he spazzes out, i think you should lean toward a call here. i cant imagine him not check-raising the turn if he has a strong hand. he basically reps A5 for value and thats about it.

I have no idea what this means. Small flop sizing? I suppose I could have raised more, but I wouldn't call 3.5x the bet "tiny."

However, I really don't understand what you mean by a small bet size on the flop equating to getting all in by the river. That seems counterintuitive.

Are you suggesting I check back purely for pot control? Against this opponent, I'm going to have him smashed more often than not. It seems like a good time to push that edge.

I completely disagree. I would throw a party for myself if a queen comes on the river. I may not be too thrilled if it's the Q, but top two pair is a monstrosity against this drooler.

Result:

I tanked for close to a minute, called the clock on myself, and eventually called.

He showed A5.

Brilliant, as usual.

Unfortunately, the guy went broke before I could get it back. Amazingly, it was through no fault of his own. He got two shorter stacks all in with AA but lost to KJ. Shortly thereafter, he got stacked with KK vs. AA.

It's less than half pot. 25 into 51.

If you want to be all-in by the river you make a small half-pot raise to 51 and bet about 2/3rds pot on the turn and river.

That's what I think he meant.

p.s.
If you want to be all-in by the turn you make a pot-sized raise to 61 and then shove the turn.

Then you're ok with stacking off with 1p on this board?


Meh... Q and you x/f the river. That leaves 2 outs that also complete straights.

So you have 2 dirty Q outs and 3 clean A outs. So you have like 4.5 outs to improve OTR against a drooler. I don't expect him to fold OTR so I prefer to pot control here and blast the river if I want to build a big pot later.

If the Q hits OTT, I'm much happier about it, but the 9 OTT is bad for you and you should be checking it back unless you want to stack off with 1 pair.

After your raise, villain's call is only $25 into a $76 pot. It's a pretty small raise.

So, maybe it's a little counterintuitive that smaller bets get more money in? It's like this. Big flop raises followed by all-in turn bombs really tighten calling ranges up.

But with the smaller raise, you were able to bet the turn for 1/2~2/3 pot, both pricing out draws and setting up a half-pot river shove. Many villains can't resist calling both the turn and river bets, getting ~3:1 on both (hell, you couldn't resist calling either).

So I really like your line here for extracting the max from a loose fish on this board. Just remember to fold when they donk river.

Thanks for posting this hand, Wade.

I've been real interested in the donk bet recently and this is a great example of donk play.

This type of villain often slow plays or check raises 2p or set. So most of his donk range is Ax, and some will be draws.

The flop raise is fine play. It does illustrate how hard it is to blow a fish off an ace, no matter how weak. A bluff raise could be problematic, but a value raise is good all day long.

The check ott tells you you're on the right track.

Only thing left to do is compliment villain on his clever play.

I'm not excited about it, but I don't mind putting money in the pot and forcing the action when I feel I'm ahead.

Does "x/f" mean check/fold? I can't check/fold, because I'm in position.

If the river is any queen and he checks, I am 100% betting. If he really stuck around with KT or a flush draw and then checked when he hit his hand, good for him. I'm taking every opportunity to go after this guy's presumed holding of ace-garbage.

Good point. I can usually figure out a reasonable bet size on the flop, but I think I need to be more mindful of sizing raises appropriately relative to the size of the pot.

I would have liked a raise to 45 better.

Not the worst thing in the world, eh?

Noted.

Even though I was getting a good price on the river, I think I should have found a fold. It just seems unlikely that he'd be bluffing there. If he really has the onions to blast it all in on the river with a missed flush draw, I think I have to let him get away with it, at least until I have some evidence that he has that play in him.