Hi all,

V1: early 20’s rec. I haven’t seen him raise a hand pre yet and we have played for like 3 hours together. He limps pre quite a bit. He has around 185 to start the hand.

H: also early 20s. I have him covered. I have position on him. I have been playing tight overall. Making some big folds that I think he is aware of. I’ve been on a miny heater so far

OTTH: I raise with QcQd to 13 pre. V is in the BB and calls.

(27) Flop is K Q 8 rainbow

I bet 8

He calls

(43) Turn: 10d making two diamond

He checks I bet 20 he calls

River is a 4c

He leads 35

I shove all in. Thoughts?

I think it's just a call on the river. If you're deeper then maybe it's worth a raise for value but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze if you're trying to get value from 2 pair.

The line seems fine. I'm not considering a call on the river. If he has a straight so be it. It's kind of a weird line for a straight.

Flop sizing seems fine. It's okay to size small with our range when the board is relatively dry and we have a big range advantage. Sizing larger would not be bad by any means, though. I'd pot the turn to set up a river shove. The board has become a lot more dynamic with flush and straight draws out there. We have a nutted hand and want to play for stacks and it's very awkward to try to get stacks in with your sizing.

c/c c/c lead is usually a very strong hand from a rec. You have the top two pair combos blocked pretty hard. I don't think he calls a shove with KT, K8, and probably calls with 88 and TT. Then again with those sets I expect more action on flop and turn.

I dislike a shove and prefer a smaller raise or a call. Probably just a call. This is such a nuts or nothing bet. I think you lose more when he has a straight than you gain when he calls with a worse hand.

Disagree that this is nuts or nothing, I think V would take this line with KT and K8 for sure. Don't even discount T8 here, considering live V's love to call the flop with any piece.

Plus never discount the ability for 1/3 players to make bizarre slowplays and show up with 88, TT, or even AA here.

I think only KT and the sets call the shove.

I think you make more money from a shove than a smaller raise, even if he folds his weak 2-pair combos.

I wouldn't be overly afraid of the straight here, though your flop sizing is so crazy small that a gut shot would've called. (Why bet so small at all? Just check if you want to.)

Not literally nuts or nothing, I meant very polarized in theory, heavily weighted toward value in practice.

Bet more on flop. Not a fan of opening for 13 and then betting 8 on flop.

This has bad beat written all over it but once villain raise 35 on the river and has about 120 behind you should always be getting it all in. Villain has heaps of value hands you are ahead of and only losing to AJ and KK which even the latter he probably raises (along with AA only). Even though you block top 2 he has so many Kx two pairs as well as probably AK if he raises close to 0% pre, especially while defending the bb. Especially since this can be both value and a blocker bet. Anything but raising here long term has to be -EV

I agree I think 13 should be 15-18 and 8 should be around the same. I am less worried about a straight and more worried about chasing him out of the pot with such a strong move. I think there is merit to calling sometimes but mostly I would lean toward raising to 80-100 and maybe shoving somethimes. Player and image dependant...

Why are you betting so small

Yeah. An essential component of LLSNL is value targeting and bet sizing, often in a transparent fashion.

We have a raised hand. The flop is KQ8. What are some hands that will call?

Any king. JT. 88. All close to 100% of the time.

Maybe: Aces with broadway outs. Hands like QJ that have some straight possibilities.

That makes up a large % of his holdings.

Moreover, most of his other holdings will fold to just about any bet. So there is not much advantage to trying to keep them in with a tiny bet.

On top of everything else, you're kind of allowing him to make a good call against your particular hand when he has a gutshot, because you will pay him off.

People will almost never fold top pair or good draws on the flop. Bet like $25.

From there, not very hard to get it all.

As played: River shove is fine. This is an in for a penny in for a pound guy, based on his propensity for limp calling. There's a decent chance he can't stand to let go at this point.

Preflop really depends on our position. If we're in LP and the stacks behind us (ex. the blinds) are like at BB's $185 then I'm raising slightly more to like $20 to create an easier happily committed stack off spot postflop.

SPR is a little over 6ish, so we can play for stacks with 3 very reasonable bets. Board is somewhat drawy with some straight draws but no flush draw. So I probably just do a 1/2 PSB which will look like any cbet and hope I get action and this will easily put stacks in play by the river.

Really dislike both our way too small flop bet as well as our too small turn bet. As played (lol flop bet) I would have tried to correct my mistake by PSBing the turn in order to create a PSB shove for the river. There is just no excuses for not setting up a trivial play for stacks by the river with a set in an SPR 6 pot, and yet we've somehow managed to leave ourselves with almost a 2x PSB left.

I also shove the river as played but this should have been a trivial bet/bet/bet for stacks.

GcluelessNLnoobG