$500 max buyin NL

Hero ($600) Villain 1 is not a reg and just sat down maybe 1.5 orbits ago, so he probably doesn't know me at all. Should have an ok-neutral image to Villain 2. Took down one or two pots through cbets, but also gave up a few. Villain 2 played with me a few times before. I think I ran pretty bad vs him, but he seems to think I'm a decent player.

Villain 1 ($500) 20's white guy. Maybe a tourney player, since this hand happened during the tournament series. This is like his 2nd orbit at the table. I think he raised like 1 hand and took it down with a cbet. He looks like he could be decent, but I'm not sure. He's also waiting until it's his action to look at his cards and taking a long time every time it's his action - even if he's folding pf - like it's the WSOP or something. Maybe he's just used to tourneys. That stuff made me think he might be more likely to make moves - just a feeling I got.

Villain 2 ($450) 40's middle eastern guy. Pretty nice rec player. He plays pretty passively preflop and rarely 3b's. He plays relatively passively post, although I've seen him make somewhat spazzy plays at at times. Maybe 2 orbits ago he limped UTG, I raised from UTG+1, and only he called. Pot was about $50, and he insta-donked $80 into a $50 pot on a K85ss board. I folded and he said he had a set of 8's.

Villain 2 straddles
Hero (UTG+1) KQ raises to $35
folds to Villain 1 in BB
Villain 1 calls $35
Villain 2 calls $35

Pot~105
Flop: AJJ
Villain 1 checks, Villain 2 checks, hero checks

Villain 1 kind of tank checked, thinking longer than his usual several seconds to check that he does and villain 2 quickly checked. If no one has a jack I have a monster draw, but if I get check/raised it's pretty sick b/c I'm only about 22% vs trips depending on his kicker. I think the flop is good for a delayed cbet, because someone with an underpair probably c/f the turn, and I have as many as 20 outs (2 overs, gutshot, flush, ace double-pairing) to beat an underpair. I also have the nut no-pair so if someone either bets turn/checks river or c/c turn/checks river with some kind of draw I still win.

Maybe it's an obvious cbet. The semi-tank check kind of threw me off - otherwise I probably just cbet.

Pot~105
Turn: AJJ5
Villain 1 bets $75, villain 2 calls $75, hero calls $75

V1 could have a jack. He could also have an ace. He could also have a diamond draw, or total air for all that I know. It looks like a decent spot to steal.

V2 could easily have an ace which he would never fold OTT. He COULD have a weak jack also. He could also easily have a draw - probably diamonds are more likely than some kind of gutshot draw for $75.

I guess there's some chance he could have QQ or TT, but with me behind I think he might fold tens.

I have so many outs and I might have the best hand now, so I just call. I think raising doesn't really rep anything besides AA, AJ or quad jacks.

Pot~330
River: AJJ58
Villain 1 checks, villain 2 checks, hero?

Is this a decent bluff spot?

Villain 2's range is easier to figure out. I think he'd bet trips on the river when checked. If he has an ace here, I think he'd end up hero calling me if I bet because I'm not really sure what I'd rep by betting here.

If V2 has a draw I win unless he paired up the 5 or 8 which I guess is possible.

Would villain 1 ever check trips or an ace here? I really don't know. You'd think he could value bet a hand like AQ or AT, but if he's a really good hand reader even with 2 callers it's hard to see what calls another bet that AT beats. So maybe he'd check an ace and hope someone bluffs diamonds.

If he's on a stone bluff, again unless he paired the 5 or 8 I win with QK high. If he has some kind of underpair he was turning into a bluff I don't beat that.

Is this a decent spot to bet something like $175 or $200 specifically to try to get V1 of of some kind of weird underpair/FD that paired up and/or V2 off of a flush draw that paired up on the turn or river?

In a vacuum I'd like to, but what would that rep? I guess it could rep a scared AK/AQ type hand. If I had KK/QQ I can't really get called by worse if I bet. I never have trips, and if I had a huge hand you'd think I'd raise the turn.

If V1 is a very good hand reader (or very aggro) he could actually make a sick check/jam here because if I were to bet I really can't call with anything. I think 99% of 2/5 players wouldn't even consider that, but who knows.

If he's a less aggro but still competent hand reader, would he hero call something like 99 here?

Thoughts

im usually checking it back here, but maybe im just being nitty

what exactly are you repping when you bet the river here? youre last to act on the turn, wouldnt you raise with a jack in that spot trying to isolate with the draw out there?

feel like youll get looked up by AX a lot, and maybe even less pairs if they discount JX from your range (also not too many hands in your EP raising range with a J)

I think you played the hand fine. It sucks that your draw missed but most of the value from this hand comes from making the draw/ bluffing out an underpair on the turn.

It seems like they both have draws or an Ax that is usually check calling here.

This is definitely an interesting spot. I think there are two lines here.

#1, we lead out with a c-bet and reevaluate turn based on our villains' reactions. This will almost always include a double barrel

#2, we check flop and reevaluate turn but this line means we are drawing and have turned our hand face up.

I can get behind either line here and since we choose line #2 I don't think we have any fold equity vs Ax to include weak Ax suited.

As crazy as it sounds, our hand does have showdown value so I probably just check back river. Biggest reason is I can't see us folding out any Ax hand. Similarly, given that there is a busted draw out there I think we get looked up light here a high percentage of the time. We played our hand face up as a busted draw so I just can't see us having a lot of fold equity here thus I check back.

In other words, if there is a Royal Flush bonus choose option #2.

Gotta cbet here. You don't have to worry about someone raising AT or whatever on this board for value blowing you off a nice draw. AK/AQ probably reraise preflop.

Give up on the river. Someone is pot controlling Arag suited or whatever and is calling.

I think you answer your own question here.....

Grunching ...

Check back. By not c-betting the flop, the AX line falls apart. I would B/F this flop almost always.

V1 may have a weak Ace like AT or AXs and needs to check river oop given the resistance. I'd underweight diamond draws since the 4 biggest are out. TT- is also in their range.

Guess V2 could potentially have QQ. He called $35 pre with $450 to start, so I'd lean toward a pp, perhaps a suited A5-. I think TT- would have folded multi-way, so QQ, small Ace are there and will call.

check...maybe you win, maybe you save money

TT and QQ are the exact same hand in this spot. Almost all pocket pairs are of equal strength here. Either someone has the A or not. If not, then any pair works as a bluff catcher. Thus, the probability of us getting looked up light (i.e. any pair) is very high. Any pair that called turn is 100% calling all rivers unless we do something drastic like overbet shove.

^
Agree.

I wanted to point-out V2 is more likely to have QQ (than TT) since he called the turn multi-way.

Although this is true, I think that like 90%+ of LLSNL villains either don't understand this or don't do it in practice.

So for instance they might call something like QQ if they somehow got to the river because "queens is a big pair," but fold something like 99 or TT because it's "lower."

I've been trying to experiment with firing ~1/2 PSB bluffs when pots get big when I missed a draw just because most villains hate putting big bets into the pot.

So I'm wondering if V2 has something like A5s, would he ever fold the river because he's thinking ugh, do I want to call $200 with top pair no kicker even though my line might not really make sense?

Thinking Villain 1 has an Ax type hand and Villain 2 medium pair or possibly 9dTd type hand as played. That being said, c-betting flop here all day long trying to foldout med/small pair hands and weak Ax hands. If called and we don't hit our diamond on turn then giving up. Hitting K or Q on turn still gives us no reason to continue as we are still likely behind.

edit: if we don't hit diamond or 10 on turn then we give up.

I'll post results.

I actually checked back.

Villain 1 hand 44 and villain 2 mucked what he said was a flush draw, so I lost to an underpair.

I guess vs their ranges it might be hard to steal so I shouldn't be results oriented. It's just annoying that if I even breathed on the pot on the river I probably take it down. Sure, villains could have an ace, but I keep seeing this kind of spot in large multiway pots where like a 1/3- 1/2 PSB could take it down and I don't pull the trigger.

this, i would bet the flop and turn to build fold equity for a river ship

no ace could possibly call your river ship aside from AK or AQ, AQ probably will fold the turn as well

barrel all 3 streets to rep a Jack is the right play IMO

maybe a decent spot to overbet river

if you want to rep a missed draw that wants to fold out marginal showdown value, then ya. (this may work vs some who simply don't want to call big bets, but it should be really transparent) you are repping quads/aa-only hands that would play passive to the river, but those hands would typically bet smaller on the river since no one has much of anything after this action-so you are basically repping air.

Why exactly am I barreling 3 streets here? First of all it's a single raised straddled pot. Why do I think AK is likely in their ranges given their PF calls?

Second, is AQ really going to c/c flop c/c turn? If I bet like 70 on the flop and get 1 call the pot is going to be ~240. If I bet the turn any reasonable amount the pot will be >500 and I'll have like 250 left and little fold equity.

Also, why can't villains have trip jacks? If I bomb flop and get called, am I bet/calling the turn?

You have to think of villain's ranges. You can't just decide to triple barrel every time to try to blow them off of fairly strong hands just.

i think the flop no-cbet is fine, you get put in a nasty spot a lot when you get raised, which i think happens a lot on this board. turn is fine, not much else you can do since you rep a really narrow range when you raise turn.
on the river you cant really stab at it because your line makes no sense for a value hand. i think you played the hand fine.
not meant to be criticism but, why so big pre?

oh, did not see the straddle. that's why raise was so big. reading is hard.

Grunch

I have no idea how you don't bet this flop.

It is but given the lack of a more precise read on V1 image, you played the river well imo. I put V1 on a small/med Ace, TT-, so if I'm in their shoes, probably calling with 66 thinking the 8 did not help. Not c-betting flop would eliminate an AX for your hand. Not raising the turn would elim trips.

V1 is likely folding to a river bet. After missed FD, 44- is bottom of their range.

Aces aren't folding, jacks are raising, you'd think pp's will c/f to any turn bet, if 2 lower cards run into a pair on the turn (without diamonds) you'd think they'd still c/f the turn, I have the draw and the nut no pair so I don't need to protect/bet out king highs.

Assuming V1 doesn't decide to bet out and turn 44 into a bluff I bet turn which is tough to expect, V1 folds, V2 calls and I win with king high.

22-TT are prob folding. This flop hits our preflop raising range and we have initiative. You lost a pot you shouldn't have IMO