I have been playing for 3-4hrs. Playing TAG with little bit of creativity. Caught once with 3barrel bluff against a guy who calls flop light and gives up later. Over the last 30min or so with some fishy player, I once shipped AK with 40bb on bet from fish and call by the previous guy and the first guy called. I paired my A and won that hand.

Few hands later, I raised the straddle in EP with AK to 20, a good player and another fish calls. The fish from the previous AK hand shoves 40. I reshove close 160 to isolate and everyone folds. I win the hand with A high as fish shows A4. At this time I think my image is not tight as ppl are perceiving raise/shove with AK as semi-bluffs and noone folds to AK knowing their hand is live.

So, the hand in play.
Pre - I start with 230ish stack and most ppl are deeper.
I get AcQc in SB. A good player makes it 11, called multi-way and I decide to call to play it as suited ace as I thought that a raise would still get me called in atleast two spots. Pot 68.

Flop - Qd5s6c
I check with intention to check-call, check-raise, or fold if lot of action and depending on the players in the action. It is checked around to button who bets 25 and says cheap cheap. I don't think the guy is too good. It folds to me. I thought his hand is more like straight draws or a weak Q. The strong possible holding I gave him there was 56 for bottom two. I bump it up to 60. Folds to the button and he calls the extra 35 after some thought. Pot 188

Turn - 7c
I was not looking at the guy when the flop came. But given heads up, I was looking at him from the corner of my eyes. The 7 could have made him a straight, but given the way he was staring the board it made me feel confident that it did not change his hand much. In my mind the most likely holding he had at this stage was pair and SD, weak Q (ppl dont fold TP) or bottow two. With my TPTK and NFD and given I had 160 remaining, I decided to shove knowing I'd be called a lot there.

Well he snap calls and I know it is not good. He shows set of 5s and river bricks for me.

Being honest, I never for a minute thought he can have a set. So complete fail on my side. Given my aggressive play till that point, it does make sense overall. I'd like to hear your expert opinion esp given his 25 bet in 68 pot.

Given you had top top, shoving 160 into 188 on the turn is the correct play. You were just unlucky that your opponent happened to be on the top of his range. Reload and replay against this donkey

I'm curious about how many callers when action was back on you? And what position the original raiser was in? Those two questions make a difference on how to play the hand pre.

OTF, I'd lead for $35, thinking most $1-$2 players will call with any decent piece of the board, the obvious flush draw is absent here (if it was there I think we can bet more).

For the future, do your best to not post results in your original post. I used to do the same thing, yet it clouds the feedback you get. I think your best bet is to just post what happened up until you have a question about what to do.

I'd say planning to check raise with TPTK isn't optimal.

Me, personally, I would've bet/folded $90 OTT. Not sure how many people were in the pot, but a multiway pot makes me think I need to proceed with caution with top pair. (One pair).

I most likely 3 bet here...If its going multi way, the spr will be great for AQ against those ranges if you hit, and a good chance you take it down. THis looks like the perfect 3 bet hand blockers to the original raiser, and big dominating cards to fishy calls. I might even just shove it in, would definitely with AK.

As played

When the btn bets less then 1/2 pot...this looks like a cheep steal or a week made hand. I'm not raising, I'm just calling...I would raise with any equity...and sometimes with a pure bluff if I had seen him attack week hands. A check raise even to fishy opponents looks so strong...so unless Ive seen him make bad calls to strong action, I leave his range wider...It also leaves me some wiggle room if another player acts like he wants to play for stacks.

the 7 on the turn, makes donking the turn then look better (pair and draw does go up), with a plan to fold to a raise...on most other turns, I'm checking again...

agree about not posting results.

Btw I was BB. Initial raiser was EP (2 seats from me). He was fairly decent I think. The 25 bet met folds until it reached me.

I didnt like leading the flop there multi-way as it doesn't help me define anyone's range esp if I get too many callers. When I raised, I was going to fold to 3bet from initial raiser. However, a simple call or if I led out he could have easily floated an underpair, KQ type of hands and could have put pressure on later streets. Also, my raise was small (total bet of 60 was close to pot size if I had led instead) just so that I can release my hand easily. At the same time raise looks much stronger than leading out and a call from initial raiser would put him close to nut hands.

Really? You've got $160 behind and you are going to b/f $90 with tptk and nfd? That cannot be good. If your plan is to b/f, then I would suggest not putting in over half your stack, seeing if he makes it cheap cheap again or at least cheap enough to justify a call with implied odds, instead.

I wish I could be more helpful, than "not this". I am looking forward to learning something from this thread myself. I'd be lying if I said I could count the number of times I've lost 100bb with tptk to a set on my fingers.

After he calls your flop 3bet, he could have top pair or a hand that beats you. The problem with shoving the turn is most tp are likely folding and everything that beats you is calling. That would be ok if your hand needed protecting, but in this case, if you are ahead, you are way ahead. The dryness of the flop, villian having position, and the low spr made this a good spot for him to slow play. I'm probably going into call down mode and losing my stack anyway.

On other streets, I'm just calling preflop. I don't usually 3 bet ep raises with AQs from the blinds preflop. Folding is not out of the question.

I would donk/fold this flop, just over half pot.

Forgot stack sizes - my bad. Pre I'm thinking either 3 bet big (if V's opening range is wide), or fold. Not a big fan of calling OOP multiway to hit the flop. Personally, I would lead this flop with half pot. I would also bet 1/2 pot OTT, and yes, would fold to a raise.

I'm thinking we can't beat anything OTT that raises us. Also, we are sure that the V is not raising hoping to fold out worse. V is raising to get all of our stack.

I know statistically it woud be bad to bet fold here, but at the same time, if we take a 2nd shot OTT and quickly learn are obviously beat, why give up the rest of our stack?

A good player makes it $11 from EP and you guys want to 3-ball it OOP? That's terrible unless we know $11 excludes the top of his range.

Thanks all. I'll add a few info which might be useful. Re the good player a few hands of note. He wasn't super active but not very tight as well. He straddled in one of his first few hands, folds around, cut off calls, I bump it to 27 with TT. He calls, limper calls. Flop is A66. I check after deliberation IP. Turn is A. He checks after a while and I decide to check as well. He blank bets 101 before river is out and polarises his hand. Most bad players will just try to get some value from FH. I tank and end up folding. He flashes A6s. Another hand he looks up the active table captain who always mucked after barrelling twice/thrice with "second best hand". The guy called pre, flop and turn with 7s IP and won. Another hand where both this guy and the guy who won against me was of significance in decision making.

Good player raises to 10 in LP. both blinds and the fish calls. BB is villain in hand 1. Flop in As6s9c. Check to initial better who makes it 15, SB calls, BB clicks back to 30, fish calls and so does the other two. Turn is 7d. SB ships 70, Villain tank calls, Fish insta ships 270ish. Good player reluctantly folds. Villain tank calls with JTs with FD and gutter to nut straight. Good player has folded KQs (he asked dealer to keep on side while folding). Fish had 58 for straight, SB had 57 for pair and gutter. River comes spade and villain scoops.

Overall, I thought his call was very marginal with so much action. A higher FD, set and straight were all possible. Also his min raise with FD multi-way made me think that he is the one who likes to start building pots with his draws.

I was betting my AQ mostly for value against him as I doubt he folds KQ ever, QJ and QT may 50% of times and pair plus SD almost never.

I don't like this hand at all. (I'd like more info on the BTN, since he's our primary opponent here.)

Preflop is fine. You're OOP with a strong hand an a bloating pot. You can play this profitably against most $1/2 opponents.

I'm not sure that a raise to $50 trims the field or wins us immediately often enough to make it a good play. I'd like a simple shove with a shorter stack though ($100).


Checking the flop OOP is OK if you expect one of the other players to bet at the pot (which should be accurate). When it's checked a few times, almost any Q, some pairs under the Q, and some draws will take a stab at the pot. Leading out OOP is going to look really strong and will probably get a lot of folds form hands that would have otherwise stuck in a bet.

The raise on the flop is the problem. You're repping 2pair+. That gets you a good bit of fold equity from anyone that's paying the least bit of attention. I'd rather c/r with a draw instead.

You're right that he can have weak Q's, straight draws, and 2-pair here, but he can also have the small set (people love small PP in multiway pots). But which ones call your c/r? Only the ones that have you beat.

Flatting the flop keeps the weaker hands in his range. You also keep his perception of your range wider. If you take a little time before you call, he may put you on a draw.

After flatting the flop I probably check any turn as well. Depending on what hits some of the Q's will think they're still ahead and bet again. The 2-pair+ hands will also bet again, while the straight draws and some of the under-pair hands will check behind.

I might lead the river if I think he's either unlikely to raise me, or if I can easily call a raise (rivered flush, 2-pair, etc).


tl;dr: I'd rather call 2 bets that might be steals in a pot like this than lead/raise and only get action when I'm behind.

Semi-grunch: I thought this hand was played well every street. Villain's small flop bet just happened to be a monster. Most of the time it wont be. Most of time the typical villain will be betting a small amount cuz they either have a marginal hand or they're trying to set up a free card play on the turn. Given the strength of your hand you can't let that happen.