Hero has been playing tight for around 30 mins. One hand, he raised to $20 over 2 limpers, including V, with AK where V commented "I know you have AA but I'm still calling with my low cards' and then called; he then check/called $25 on a A42 flop, donkbet $10 on a Q turn that Hero just called because of V having only $170 behind and seeing him get tricky before. River was a 3 that went check/check and V flipped over Q5 for the straight.

V has been playing fairly loose and now, has been raising every hand pre, albeit small and cbetting flops and taking it down, showing bluffs sometimes etc. He's a pretty bad rec but the table is fairly snug so it seems he's crushing everyone and has a $1000 stack by now.

Onto the hand... $450-500 eff

V raises to $20 UTG, Hero next to him looks down at AK again and 3bets to $65, V calls

Flop ($130): 4 T J
V checks, Hero ???

If we are cbetting, how much and are we giving up on non A/K/Q turns? Is it better to flat pre due to position and V's relatively larger preflop sizing?

Even though this guy is a maniac, this range is hitting him. He's also going to at least call a c-bet. We have enough equity versus a wide range where we need to fire the flop and evaluate. Plus there are so many turns that will give us additional equity. So if we get x/called we can easily determine whether to fire again OTT.

Prefer checking it back and reeval turn over betting like 80 but neither seem terribly unreasonable

Must continue firing on all diamond turns

I considered checking it back as well but we can get a fold presumably from 22-TT which has some equity against us. Not a bad result if we bet $80-90 OTF.

I agree, we need to double-barrel a lot on the turn (especially diamonds).

Cbet is mandatory. Either it has a ton of fold equity or it gets huge value. In addition, it sets us up to shove the turn. 85 works nicely. Call if he check/raises. On the turn, shove if he checks. If he shoves first, call any diamond and any card that improves our hand. Fold otherwise.

I probably go pretty big to set up a turn jam. I initially thought that it would be better to go 85-90 and triple barrel, but I sort of see this guy getting stuck in the hand with top pair no plan and, well shucks, pot odds!

In light of that I would probably bet 115-125 on the flop intending to jam the turn usually. I just think since he is sort of sticky, chopping our stack into 3 chunks doesn't provide as much FE as I would like.

Just bet about 1/3 pot and get yourself a free river.

I don't think I'm in love with any plan that is leaning towards getting in 150-175bb stacks with A high against an EP opener (yes, he's a lag, but he just opened to a large $20 UTG) on this board, especially since he seems like the type of guy who might "put us on AK" and make a hero call.

GalthoughI'mnotexactlysurewhatmyplanwouldbeeitherG

And I think he calls it off too often with a piece to barrel off here. I wouldn't be playing a balanced range vs the 1/3 monkeys. Only getting it in with value.

Check back vs this fishy V. Your 3b preflop narrows you down to TT+ and AK, maybe AQ. V may call that 3b with TT, JJ being at the top of his range as I'd assume he'd 4b with QQ+.

What do you plan to do if your cbet gets raised? Surely you aren't calling that raise expecting an A or K OTT to be good, so essentially you're fishing for a Q.

Check for pot control, you don't want to be raised off the hand. A check on flop after having 3b preflop looks super strong anyways, so if V checks on turn again we fire in around $100 bet, fold to a raise if turn bricks, call raise if diamond or Q, and bet smaller if Q on turn.

No need to play for stacks vs this spewy V on this board; protect your chips, his will come to you soon enough.

It's tempting to barrel here, but given V's previous play I would check behind, keep the pot small, and take advantage of our position to evaluate the turn.

I think I'd check flop based on previous hand. He called a Cbet with a Q5 on A42 board. This flop probably hit his range with some broadway combo. At best your ahead with suited connector type hands and behind with pp.

If a turn became a diamond then I'd fire the the turn. Otherwise, I think I am checking back the flop

I looked back at the first hand. That is a different c-bet. One, it is in a single raised pot. Two, it is about half pot. Guys like villain are happy to splash around and be sticky for smaller pots. When it gets serious, they are never as sticky which is why I think this guy is going to play pretty fit or fold if we put out a big c-bet.

Im probably flatting pre in position with a hand that is ahead of V's range. As played definitely c-bet, you have a decent amount of equity..Put in a healthy c-bet. 95 would be a good sizing IMO.

I think if you are going to 3bet pre, you must bet flop. What would you do with AA, KK or even QQ? If hero checks, his hand is pretty face up -- the only other hand he could really have is a slow-played JJ. I like the fold equity, even if it is low, and we have good cards to help us on turn.

You need to cbet. It's not a fantastic flop to cbet, however you showed a lot of strength pre and you should fold out all hands that missed. Bet about $80.

You have a decent amount of outs if villain calls. I'd fold if villain check-raises. Assuming villain checks the turn, I'd check all non-diamond, non-Q turns.

bet smallish, call all reasonable and non reasonable raises. i´m going broke in this spot with Ahigh vs described villain otf

If we are cbetting (I'm really undecided on my postflop line here), is there really any reason to bet so much? I think I would bet a lol $50, which won't necessarily be taken as weak (it might be taken as a set not wanting to scare away customers, or perhaps an overpair realizing this ain't a great board versus a tight raise/call); it should get the job done vs an underpair, no?

Gbettingaslittleaswillgetthejobdone,imoG

OP describes villain as loose, aggressive, and sometimes bluffs. I think a cbet smaller than hero's 3bet signifiies weakness and villain may float, bluff, or call light. $75-80 is about the lowest amount hero can still credibly rep an overpair or set while losing the least if villain plays back or hit the flop, imo.

Interesting hand. With V opening so wide, we almost have to 3-bet pre just for value.

Based on the hand history (raise the turn btw), a c-bet is almost never going to work as a a bluff. If you want to bet A-high for value, then I think a c-bet has merits.

There's 20 cards that help our hand (diamonds, Q, K, A) on the turn, but only 4 of them that make a monster. It's possible that our A and K outs are no good and runner diamonds are tough to hit.

I like checking back in position and re-evaluating the turn.

What do you do on the turn if he calls the $50 bet?

The key to this hand is that your opponent's range is full of garbage that can't stand up to a lot of action, while you have a hand that can't be very far behind (you have 42% equity against 88 on this flop!). He *should* fold almost everything he has to big action (88 has <30% equity against a range of AQ+, TT+ and that's near the top of his range). Firing off a small cbet and then letting this guy sneak his way to show down with 88 or 75s or some bull**** is about the worst thing you can do. It lets him off light for his preflop mistakes. You've got to punish him by putting real pressure on him.

And if he ends up calling down and beating our A high (lol) for 150bbs+, what do we do then; simply chalk it up to a "cooler"?

As I say, I really don't know what my line would be postflop. But putting ourselves in a spot where we could punt off 150bbs+ with A high doesn't seem like the best choice to me at first glance.

GcluelessNLnoobG

What portion of this guy's open/call range is continuing if we make a big bet on the flop.

AJ/KJ, KQ, JJ, TT, 89s. Anything else? I think he folds his pairs lower than ten. I also think he folds some AT type hands sometimes.

We'll call it what it is, which is a bluff that got snapped off. I'm not understanding what your poker objection to running this bluff is. Are you afraid of looking silly by showing down A-high in a $900 pot? Are you afraid of losing a stack and a half? Those are both understandable, but they aren't things that should influence your decision-making. All the poker signs say that you MUST bluff: his range is extremely weak (potentially as wide as ATC), your range is extremely strong, your actual hand is at the very bottom of your range, you have a lot of equity even if he calls, the pot is large, LLSNL opponents tend to fold marginal hands too much to bets that are small by relation to the pot, but large in dollar terms.

There's a good chance that he peels with any piece of the flop hoping to make it to showdown against AK/AQ.