Hero on BTN raises to 13 after CO limps (all other hands folded) with A2. (13 has been Hero's standard raise during the session, about three and a half hours in - AVG PF raise from other players 18-20, which is annoying but has made me play much tighter OOP) No new players since Hero has sat down, 8 people playing on the table, only one has had to rebuy.

A noticeable amount has gone to rake (5/hand) since we've sat down, many people well below starting stack but no one dominating the table. Assuming this is making some players act more irrationally, as 3bets and flop shoves have started to happen a lot more frequently in the past 3 orbits.

A2 Called by Villain in the BB, CO folds. Pot 26 after Rake.
Villain just barely covers hero, ~ 320 effective stacks.

Flop A34

Villain checks, Hero Bets 18 (again standard sizing for a c-bet from Hero). Villain c/r to 60. Hero tank calls. Pot 146 after the Flop.

Turn 2

Villain checks, Hero tanks for a while and gets the clock called on him. Hero bets 90 and Villain instant calls. Pot 326, I've got about 165 left behind.

River A Villain instant shoves, Hero instant calls.

Any mistakes with the line, really? In the BB, completing what hands can we give a range to on the flop, turn and river? What hands can we expect to be turned into a bluff shove on the river, etc? I'm never folding this river unless I have some sort of god read, but are we loving the turn, hating the turn, checking the turn back, or what?

My thinking is V either has a hand like A10-AQ and has c/raised flop to protect against the draw heavy board, checked the turn because of the scare card and then instant called as people can tend to do when they are weak. Other hands that he could be bluff shoving and going crazy with are any suited connector that have missed draws like 89 etc. Worse case scenario obviously is villain flopped A3/A4 and the turn scared him but it is unlikely. I think you are beating most of his range and didn't make any mistakes with your line. I like your bet on the turn tbh, I think in most cases you are loving the turn.

If blinds are really loose and bad postflop, I'm ok with just overlimping and trying to hit my hand. Otherwise, I would also raise any hand I'm considering playing on the Button to just one limper. $13 is pretty small at this table so I would probably go with a more standard open just to have a better chance at getting things HU, and if we take the limp money, fine, next hand.

I probably bet big on the flop. My goal here is to get a decent amount of money in on this street while I am most likely a decent favourite, plus build the pot for the amount of times I'm going to smash the turn/river (we have 12 outs that will give us ~nut hands). So I probably PSB it. If called, I would plan on checking behind on the turn if we whiff our draws (because at this point all we have is a very mediocre showdownable hand that doesn't want a huge pot). If we hit the turn, obviously we'll be smashing it and attempting to play for stacks.

Any reads on BB? A check/raise is a check/raise and typically a strong hand and not something as "weak" as just TP. At this point, I would probably just call as I'm not convinced we have much FE. We'll play the rest of the hand in position and can play for stacks if we hit one of our outs.

Interesting turn. I think I would check it back. Is Villain ever calling with something we beat (like even a lotta Ax hands might be done with it at this point, no)? Sets / better two pairs could easily check this scary four-to-a-straight, but they're never going to fold cuz they have their fullhouse outs. So are we turning our hand into a bluff? We have a showdownable hand that is mediocre (don't want to play for stacks) plus we still have a draw (and would hate to get blown off it, and Villain might decide right now whether he is playing for stacks).

With our remaining stacks we'll have to call the river. I'm guessing we run into a fullhouse like 99% of the time; I haven't done the combo math, but some of the time we'll be ahead and some of the time we'll be behind.

ETA: I don't agree with the range of check/raising hands given above, although it's possible I'm projecting my style of play onto my opponents. In general, I think TP hands, even big ones like AK-AT, are typically just check/calling to let the raiser bluff into them. A check/raise is typically bigger hands like A4/A3/44/33 and unlikelier AA/52, where opponent is now simply hoping that raiser does have a big Ax and can pay off. This is why I believe our turn bet is actually a bluff (one that is never going to be successful unless we perhaps follow it up with a river shove).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Over limping in this spot is terrible. 1 limper as you are on the button you should be limping exactly 0% of hands.

I think the hand is WP. You can bet smaller OTT. Like 60-70.

I'm sorry he had A4

I think "terrible" is too harsh (although I'm definitely raising here the vast majority of the time).

However, if the blinds are super loose, then all a raise does it get this 4ways with the weakest possible Ax and little FE postflop. Which ain't great.

And if the blinds are just super horrendous postflop, then it can never be "terrible" to simply let them see a cheap flop with us where their stack is now at risk (whereas it won't be if we blow them out preflop).

Gjustsayin'G

If the blinds are super terrible post flop then we want to get post flop with the betting lead in a bigger pot in position with a hand that plays decently post.

Again, if this ends up with us HU in position with initiative, I couldn't agree more.

One other case where overlimping isn't horrendous is when we've been super active in the last orbit or so due to getting smacked in the face with cards. We'll simply lose some of our tight image FE that is required here (ha, it's even possible that in this situation the CO is open limping a monster to trap).

G95%raising,5%overlimping,imoG

Villain tables 44. If we could have appropriately put him on 44 (or the other combinations of a flopped set), how are we playing the turn? I don't think we fold the flop to any sized check/raise, do we?

Agree. His line seems flush drawy so I am definitely betting an amount he calls.

Reading the results if we know he has a set based on the flop action then we obviously see a free river with our big draw.

Im always raising preflop here. Not just for reasons mentioned previously, but i feel like i make more $$ with the aggro image too.

My favorite play from the button with speculative hands like this and loose blinds isn't an overlimp, nor a standard raise. It's a "teaser" raise ... say to $7 at a 1/2 table or $9 at 1/3.

My goal with those isn't to push the blinds out, it's to price them in ... and let them develop an attachment to a raised pot, with a nearly random hand, out of position. It's a great way to encourage them to spew away additional money postflop.

As played, OP, you were given a golden opportunity to get more money in OTF with your enormous gigantic monster draw, and you missed out. Please 3! this every single time here - I wouldn't even object to an overbet shove.

The math is indisputable: You're no worse than a coin flip against his range OTF, yet after most turn cards you'll be put in a spot where almost any decision you make could be -EV. To add insult to injury, a good part of his range (A3/A4) won't put another dime into the pot if you do happen to turn your flush. Get that money in while it's good!

I'm not being results oriented when I say this, but I think everyone is way overestimating the range of hands that typical players check/raise the flop with against a preflop raiser.

GsometimestherearemonstersunderthebedG

So I suppose I am still a little confused on some of the advice here, If I could just summarize what I've gathered from everything posted:

Preflop should nearly always be a raise because of our positional advantage, our ability to be the preflop raiser, and our ability to develop a more aggressive image. When we are called by the blind, we should be narrowing his range from just any two random cards to playable cards that would be happy to see a flop (even with the CO flatting), probably top 20-25% of hands? The raise I made was lower than the table average, so I probably gave decent enough set-mining odds compared to the standard table raise's odds.

On the flop, my c-bet of 18 into 26 (roughly 70% of pot). No one has really given me a comment on the sizing here, except for 'bet big'. is 70% big in this situation? The board isn't very wet but it's got some draws that fish would be playing for. I'm checkraised in this position and the checkraise is 42 more to call - he raised 42 more into a pot of 62, and I've been given the advice to flat here if we can really put his range on a set or twopair+, and to threebet huge if we can't narrow their range down further than what our read was on the flop.

On this board, our hand might be drawheavy but we are losing to any ace at this time anyway, and fish don't generally checkraise with air on a board like this (would someone c/r Ak here to try and fold flush draws & straight draws out)?

It's the turn where we make a hand but it's not anywhere near the hand we were drawing for, and any set has just gotten to valuetown on us at this moment. It's not easy to represent a straight, but when Villain checks a second time, it's unlikely that they're going for two checkraises in a row, that's just such a weird line to me..

Would a few more people mind commenting on this hand for me? That's the best I can make of it and I would really appreciate all other thoughts on it.

Please and thanks ^

Pre is good.

I like a bigger flop bet.

Turn is iffy, once I'm checkraised I'm thinking he's pretty strong, and I don't think improving to 2 pair caught anything that he would checkraise. I probably check back.

Not folding River. it's too early in the morning for me to do combos but you have to call I think.