V1 ($800) - Drooling station. Will call pfr with atc. The only aggression he ever shows pre or post flop is bluffing the river with missed draws. Described himself as "not smart". Hand history with hero: Hero 3-bet to $80 pre-flop with AK, villain had limped for $2 with T8s and called all-in for the full amount.

V2 ($150) - Recently table changed from another table and said he's in for $500. Seems to be a bad loose player. Limped J8o from MP.

Hero ($200) - 2nd orbit (had played with V1 a different day). Probably viewed as TAG.

The hand:

Pre-flop
V1 limps UTG
V2 limps UTG + 1
Hero raises to $15 from MP with 9 ♦️ 9 ♣️
Button calls
BB calls

Flop:
($52)
6♣️ 4♥️ 2♦️
V1 checks
V2 bets $15
Hero raises to $40
Button folds
BB folds
V1 calls
V2 calls

Turn:
($170)
Q♠️
Checks to hero

?????

I raised the flop for value. I thought the field would have a lot of pair-draw type hands and some gutshots.
On the turn, I thought the Queen was a good card, but I wasn't sure betting was correct.

Interesting hand.

First the obvious mistake: your flop raise is way too small. V2 will only have to call $25 into a pot of $107 when your hand is pretty face-up as an overpair. If you’re going to raise here—and you should—it needs to be much bigger, up to like $80. Not just for protection/value/equity denial, but to make your Turn play much easier: you’d have a very easy jam for value.

As played: I do think jamming the Turn is still the best play—V1 or V2 both seem like the types that could call you with A6 or 45—but it’s close. Checking and hoping for a safe River isn’t a huge mistake (and if it’s a total brick—another Q for instance—you can even value bet again if they both check.)

i really dislike raising the flop vs this many players. id just call and see what the turn brings. if you go broke on an overpair here you overplayed your hand.

Normally I’d agree, but A) we’re only 100 BBs deep and B) I think we should treat tiny donk bets almost exactly like checks: if we would have C-bet (if checked to us) we should raise it, but if we would have checked back we should just call. And since we would have C-bet this if it had been checked to us, we should raise the tiny donk.

rake must be massive

I like turn bet as played. 75-80 seems good.

Flop raise seems okish.

Fine as played. Shove the turn.

You have an overpair and sub 1 SPR.




Which means you go with it and get cash in. If someone binked a Q or flopped a set, meh, doesn't matter.

The amount of times this goes XX on turn, and check, bet, call on turn when he has a 6 or worse will be annoying to lose value long term. So I would never check back the turn.



If you were much deeper, id say bet 50% is, then bet/fold the river if you get check raised.

So are we 5 ways to the flop at $15 apiece, or is the pot $52 like you say? They can't both be true unless rake is $20+.

****. pre-flop raise was to $12 with $8 rake. I was thinking about a few hands on the drive home. The others I raised to $15. The pot is right on this one. The prf amount is wrong.

I knew the raise was small. I read V2s donk bet as weak. I figured a small raise would trip the circuit breaker if anyone were sitting on a monster (and 3-bet me) while minimizing the loss. A bigger raise would have made the turn easier to play if I wanted to gii. I guess my bet size reflected how I thought about my hand.....probably the best hand, but not super confident. I would have raised more with KK in this spot. I probably should raise the same amount with any overpair (if I'm going to raise).

Results:

Hero bet $100
V1 shipped for his remaining ~$50
V2 folded
Hero called

V1 showed 53o for the flopped straight
V2 credibly said he folded A6

Raising the flop to 80 and jamming the turn for value seems like a huge overplay here. Value from what? Even most idiots aren't idiots. They're not calling you off with A6 or 45.

I do like a raise on the flop though, for value and to prevent two random overcards (to my nines) from hopping on the calling train. I like 50 and would probably check the turn behind to bet the river, or bet the turn smallish again.