V1 (1400$)= Older guy. In mid 40's. Has about 1,500 in front of him. He hit a high hand earlier and won 1,000 on the wheel spin. Has been donating money every hand...showing down constant bad cards but constantly winning. Big fish. Whale.

V2 (890$)= Younger earlier-mid 30's. Is sitting to my right this hand as he just requested a seat change from my left to my right. We've been talking all night. Says he plays professionally. Travels to Germany to play in a cash game over there. Doesn't study the game, only studies the players and plays the player. His quote. V2 is down about 1k and has been slowly building his stack back. It is very important to note: V2 has been C/raising a lot of turn and rivers and not getting called. He even quoted "Okay, so I found the magic number. 100$ and most of you fold". He hasn't had it when he c/raises yet. He's shown me both times. One was a pair, the other was a missed FD. He has also been losing a lot by just calling draws on flop...usually giving up on turn, but sometimes calling. When miss, he usually folds to a big bet.

Hero (2200$)= Mid-late twenties. Seen as a solid player. Very TAG this game. Havent played many hands with either villians yet. V2 especially..had a few vs V1. Have been to a couple showdowns where I had flush over flushed a guy after opening 78ss on button...and I called an all in for 200$ on an overbet shove on a Qxx board and won when the flush didn't hit.


Hero is dealt AQ and is OTB

Folds around to V2 in CO and he opens to 20. I flat the 20 OTB. V1 in BB thinks for a minute and makes it 75. V2 flats, I flat.

Reason I flatted first bet was because of V2 image. He seems to be overplaying his hands. Making cbets and big raises. I know i'll look super strong if I 3bet him as he knows I'm tight, and he has seen my 3b hand so far was aces. When V1 makes it 75, idk what this means. I haven't seen him do that very often..usually just a calling station. So I flat because AQss with deep stacks.

Flop (225$ pot) : K6J

V2 checks, Hero leads to 75$. V1 folds, V2 flat calls.

I realize 75$ is way too little in hindsight. I'm still a relatively new "thinking" player. I think I should have made it 150$ here. Wtf was I thinking.

Turn (375$ pot) : 3

CO checks, Hero makes it 225$, CO thinks for a little bit and calls. Maybe 15 seconds he thought about it.

River (825$ pot) : A

V2 thinks for maybe 5-10 seconds and shoves the remainder of his stack. (400$ or so?)

Hero ????

V1 (the 3 bettor) acts first OTF. Does he check?

Anyway, fold. X/call, x/call, donk is more or less a monster with this board texture and the way the hand played out. If you didn't have spades locked up, I would be more likely to call.

The range I put him on Preflop would be most all PP (Probably 66+). Especially when 3b by V1 and he smooth calls. AK I think he might try to repop it vs this fish/whale...but with me in hand, might smooth call it. Not sure. I think AQ is in his range, though it's discounted because we block it. He might call with AJ. Probably calling with suited connectors, broadway connectors, suited broadways. He is playing V2 very loosely and probably thinks I'll fold to V1 3! so he might even be calling looser. 64ss, etc.

He checked. My apologies.

3 bet pre.

Call river but don't feel great about it.

You should 3bet V2 more. You have a strong value hand against his CO raising range. Get more money in while you're likely ahead. I'd 3bet to 60.

As played, I think you should call V1's 3bet. You close the action and get 3.5:1 odds to see a flop in position. That's good enough, even though you're well behind a station's 3betting range, likely AK/JJ+.

I would bet a little over a 1/2 pot on the flop, probably $125. Your hand has a ton of equity, even against strong hands like AK/AA. It's very suspicious when a 3bettor checks the flop. The flop hits almost his entire 3betting range, other than QQ and maybe TT. He could be planning to c/r. Checking isn't completely terrible. I'd rather bet to fold out pocket pairs and to get money in now in case a T or spade cools all the action.

I'd probably check the turn. Villain likes to c/r. He's taken a pretty strong line, raising then calling a 3bet pre, and calling the flop oop. I'd be pretty happy my flop bet bought 2 cards.

As played, really tough decision on the river. You have a bluff catcher and I doubt villain is bluffing. The straight draw hit. Villain can reasonably have AK/AJ, maybe a strangely played set. You have the A of spades, so he wasn't calling the flop and turn with an Ax flush draw. I'd fold.

I would consider betting 200 on the flop with the intention of getting it on most any turn. People will tend to see it as a strong made hand or as a draw that wants to get some folds. In the former case, you should hopefully get some folds either now or, even better, on the turn, in the latter case you have a chance of getting called down a bit light vs. hands that you have good equity against.

Worst case scenario you have 34% equity vs. a set of kings.

Alternatively, I don't really like checking and seeing what happens on the turn, seeing as you got exactly the kind of flop you were hoping to when you called.

As played its close but think I fold. Wouldn't blame you for calling given the price. Feels like QT or AJ

Prefer 3betting pre. As played I would blast flop (near pot) and shove turn.

Hmmm, interesting, may I ask what range you are putting him on where 3-1 is enough?

I was honestly thinking I would prefer to call with A high here (that is, no A falls OTR), and truthfully our relative strength hasn't really changed that much from the turn.

River has to be a fold IMO - what part of his range are we beating? Do we really think he takes a line like this with T9ss? KQ? I'm a showdown monkey, but we are dead in the water here.

so in order for us to take advantage of this, we have to flop an ace or a queen, so aren't we playing fit or fold or were you planning on raising his cbet and bluffing him post flop with air?

that is why we should 3bet him. (btw AQs is not super strong, but you will be representing a strong hand)

as played I'm snap calling the hp river jam vs him. he called 75 into 225 otf (He's raising if he had anything or cbetting on that board). His line does not make any sense.

And expect to beat...what?

No value hands V could have that we beat are c/c flop, turn and shoving river.

No draws missed except something like exactly T9ss or T8ss. ATo if you really think he could be getting crazy.

this guy sounds like he would be much wider than that to include any 3 or 4 gapper spade (it was folded to him in the CO).

Also, why would he c/flat a baby bet otf? Our hero looked very weak to him so he probably called intending on stealing the pot later. The ace river was a perfect opportunity. The bet was less than a half pot bet otr. We also beat any Axsuited. AK, KJ or KK is probably not checking a drawy flop or calling a small bet otf imo, he would most likely be cbetting for value.

I don´t like the turn bet after we bet so small OTF. I think our line looks FOS. I would just check back.

I think the river is probably a fold. I definitely think he could have slowplayed a set, there aren´t a lot of draws that missed and I don´t give him enough credit to be turning all of his missed spades (I´m thinking there are only 4 or 5combos he can have here) and QJs/JTs into a bluff.

OTOT if he is looser and super bluffy (has more spades/jacks, maybe can show up here with AT,AQ) then I would for sure call getting 3:1.

KK,JJ,66--call it 15 combos
KJ,AJ---15 combos
QTs---4 combos

T9s,98s,87s,76s---4 combos
JTs,QJs--6

34:10

Discounting the sets by 50% and ignoring the single paired jacks might be more reasonable in which case we need 28:4 to call!

Edit: Yeah, maybe KJ doesn't make sense.

Lead bigger on flop (@150)...if called on flop, against a player known to c/r bluff alot on turns, I take the free card and just check back.

As played, only 2 hands I'd be worried about would be AJ or QT. Don't see him taking this line with AK, 2 pair on flop, or set. Would have to go off physical reads and try to get him to talk.

Wider to open in CO, maybe. But to flat a 3bet with a 3-4 gapper? I think we're getting unrealistic here. There's just not that many players who are calling re-raises with T7/96s type hands.

People do weird things when they flop sets. This is certainly one way he could play it. So his value range is something like KK/JJ/66/QT/AK/AJ, and his range of air (absolute or relative) is T9/T8/89ss, AT, AQ, KQ.

Can't see how we can call river looking at that.

I agree with you in general but when there's a whale/fish in the hand people love to get into pots with them when they have speculative hands.

After hero bets 75 and the whale folded, he still flatted. Why would he at least not minraise a set with flush and straight draws possible?

I'm not saying he's never good here but for a half pot bet we don't need to be right all the time.

No, we don't, but we do need to be right 1/3 of the time, and I don't think we are:

KK/JJ/66: 6 combos (discounted from 9 due to being played strangely, see below)
QT - 12 combos (discounted from 16 due to PF action)
AK - 6 combos
AJ - 6 combos

versus

T9/T8/89ss - 3 combos
AT - 3 combos (discounted from 8 due to action throughout the hand)
AQ - 3 (discounted from 6, only chop)
KQ - 3 combos (discounted from 9 due to action throughout the hand)

Ahead of 9 combos, chop with 3, lose to 30. Not close to enough to call.

I don't have an answer for you as to why he wouldn't minraise sets, except that one of my biggest observations from playing LLSNL is that bad players do very strange things when they flop sets sometimes. Sometimes they are just so averse to raising and "losing their customer" until the river, or they want to make sure the obvious draw misses so they don't "get sucked out on."

you played it weakly and that is what you had. so his bet on the end means he could easily be bluffing and there are a ton of hands he could really have here and be calling to bluff you later or maybe thinking your tiny bets mean you dont have much more than a draw.
so i go for a call after your bad betting.

he never raised so his chances of having a flush draw or some other pair go way up despite what his range may be during the hand.

your mistake in this hand is your betting. you bet so small anything might be calling you, you dont even have a pair and are enticing them to play.
this hand is so big for a flop play as almost nothing puts you in deep trouble if you get pot committed on the flop.
the flop pot is 25% of the villians stack so why not just bet like 500 or even all in. and win it right there and call if raised with a frown. the last thing you want to do is let them see 4th for a cheap bet.
you are very happy with 225 out there to win it right then.

Why did villain move from your left to your right? I think that's important for this hand.... If you are a strong player he wouldn't do that unless he had a read on you? Also, do you believe villain when he says he can read the players? His two bluffs, was it obvious the others in the hand were weak?

75+75+225+400=890?

there is much more information in the hand than just the combinatorics alone.
well the read on him is he's not a bad player and he travels the world playing poker professionally.

a funny seat move for sure. maybe he made it to see your hand better if you are lax in looking at it. that might explain why he played it this way. although might be a tough bluff after seeing what you have. but he may have only seen that you had spades and not the numbers.

The only issue with putting him on a floaty hand is that he c/c'ed a pretty big bet on the turn. It's hard for him to do that without a good hand or a good draw.