Just a little update on my 2/5 adventure, skip if you want...

I've been getting killed in my previous 2 (and only 2, in my lifetime) 2/5 sessions. It's partly luck, partly some mistakes I admit I made. I've lost 16 BBs per hour. Luckily I've been absolutely destroying $1/2, and I've logged way more hours of that in the past 2 months. For the last two months, I've been beating $1/2 for $30/hour (also ~16 BBs per hour).

Thoughts on this hand please? I believe this might be the worse hand I've played in a long time, but still am certain that the flop bet and turn call were +EV.

Reads: Seems loose pre flop and decent post flop. He once raised with 97s from EP (6 handed) and got a caller in the BB. He flopped top two pair, bet flop and turn. And amazingly he didn't value-bet river. He didn't have the nuts, there were some possible straights out there, but it was a relatively safe river and there was less than a PSB left.

My image is probably a total unknown, but TAG I guess. I've been at the table for about 45 minutes.

Folds to villain on the button who makes it $20. I have K6. This is a classic fold or 3-bet spot, so I make it $60. He flats. He has $395 behind.

Flop: A24. I bet $75 and he calls.

Turn: A24Q. I check/call $100.

River: 8. Check/check.

Now onto my thoughts/justifications:

Preflop: It's not a perfect 3-bet situation, maybe not even a good one. An ideal one would be if I had established a tighter image, were on the button vs. his CO raise, or stacks were deeper. But it also wasn't a terrible situation since this is a decent 3-betting hand and we know villain has a wide raising range. I thought it was a slightly profitable 3-bet, but maybe should have made it a little larger.

Flop: I think this is fine, but maybe larger is better. Another option is c/c or CRAI (I'm hoping to get discussions on these lines).

Turn: Finally, a street I can have 100% confidence in being at least neutral EV. I'm getting 3.7-1 immediate odds on a 4.2 - 1 draw. His range is fairly strong, at least a decent ace, and I need to extract only another $50 on the river to break even. If I hit, on average I could probably extract far more than that since the pot would be $470...

River: Pot is $470 and there's less than a HPSB left. With almost no fold equity except against a stone bluff or middle pair turned into a bluff, I give up and check.

vs a btn steal in a live setting i would rather not 3b this hand pre. it plays better in 3b pots in position (like pretty much any suited hand) but doesnt do as well OOP with shallow stacks.

in a complete vacuum on this flop texture, i would bet 45/95/jam.

i dont hate a CRAI on the turn, but feel you have more fold equity by going 3 streets. i find most players in live games are too passive in certain spots (such as betting their floats on the turn) to go for the CRAI. esp with the sizing you use, there isnt going to be as many floats in villians range.

the turn is probably the most interesting spot. b/c > c/r > c/c > c/f == b/f

the turn action you chose really handcuffs you on the river and makes it hard to get paid if you do get there and also takes away the opportunity to bluff.

but just think, if you elected to flat k6ss vs the steal, you could have done anything with that hand postflop on this flop texture

This.

Fold pre OOP this short. They are never folding for another $40, so if you're going to 3b just to steal, make it $85. Check/shove flop next time. If he checks back flop you have more options on the turn.

I'm assuming you're saying we have massive fold equity here if we're c/s the flop? Just wondering, what other hands are we doing this with that aren't a flush draw? Or are we just assuming that V's stealing range is so wide that when we do get called we make up the difference.

I'm just surprised that you'd advocate this line without more information on V, things like stealing frequency and aggression vs. someone who has 3-bet. In my mind he's checking back any flop that he didn't hit at least an Ace on, when he bets the only hand that we really can beat is a lower flush draw. The only history we're given here is that villain raises preflop speculatively and bets his hands, so doesn't this seem like just burning money to you in the general case with these types of players? (loose preflop, fit-or-fold thereafter)

grunching, FTFY

If you absolutely must get fancy I like c/r flop-jam turn

Edit: my bad, thought we were deeper - check/shove is a decent plan, you're not in a bad position to play poker on the turn if it gets checked back

Fold pre. But I mean, it may not be terrible. In fact, it could show an immediate profit against the right villain. Does he raise/fold enough? Whatever. I think folding is provably frequently best by far.

Flop is fine.

Turn, I do not like c/c. Maaaaaybe it's +EV. Maybe. I also don't like bet/anything because he sticks around with Ax, which is a large part of his range. Stacks seem perfect for a check/shove. Force him to a decision with his very non-nut average kicker one-pair hand range. If he checks turn back, you see another card. What's not to like.

fold pre

Fold preflop, save money. I don't think you considered the effect of your opponents stack after that flop call and turn bet here. Villain would only have $220 out of a $455 stack after the turn, so you didn't really have many attractive options there. He would probably call a CRAI on the turn for sure, even though he wouldn't like it.

He called your 3b preflop with 13% of his stack and decided he liked what he saw enough to continue. Villain has a made hand and will bet 100% of the time if checked to, but it's doubtful you have enough fold equity here for a c/shove to be effective due to the shallow stacks. He's going to need to fold roughly 40% of the time for that to effective (this is top of the head, no math done).

I think we can hold our fire on the check shove if villain pots it or something like that, but I can see a lot of smaller bets folding

I think my flop and turn line were +EV, just not the highest EV. I opted to draw rather than use fold equity, which may not have been the highest EV line.

Now that I think about it, c/r on the flop seems best. I first rep KK or worse by checking, which may induce a bluff. Then by raising, he may range me at exclusively AQ+ and lay down a weak ace. He'd almost certainly lay down worse than a pair of aces.

Results: Check check on the river, he has A9s to win.

I would like the 3bet better if the villain had between 100 and 150bbs or so, I probably just fold pre. As played I think barreling the turn is better than checking, I think you would barrel any big ace on the turn and I would want to use the same line for this bluff as I use for value.

pretty much everything you did in this hand is standard poker, UL

don't get carried away thinking people will fold top pair in 3bet pots, you played this hand in a textbook manner and had a good chance of getting paid off OTR

checking the turn is clearly better than betting vs most villains, they just won't fold aces in 3bet pots enuff