Live 2/5 NL game in SoFla. Table is relatively new, mostly tight players. I'm talking with my buddy who is in the seat to my direct right. We both have about $500 in front. Villain is to the direct right of my buddy -- he lost $225 on the very first hand when he called a shove w/ JJ and ran it into KK and has since re-bought. Your questions are in CAPS.

I'm BB, buddy is SB, Villain is BTN. Folds to Villain who open raises to 15. It feels like he's trying to buy our blinds because we've been chatty and not focused on the game.

SB folds, Hero wakes up w/ AKcc

I've been trying to eliminate "cute" plays from my game but I think I can underrep here to catch the villain. I call. WOULD YOU CALL OR 3-BET?

Flop is Q85, one club (the Q).

Hero checks, villain c-bets 25. No reason to think villain isn't trying to buy the pot. I decide to float with 60% of a Royal. HOW'S MY LINE SO FAR?

Turn is Tc! I check again, villain continues for $55. OBVIOUS CALL OR SHOULD I RAISE IT UP?

River is a red J. I know I could lead out here, but I've been working under the assumption the villain has been betting light all along. WOULD YOU CHECK AND HOPE FOR ONE MORE BET?

Thank you.

3bet to $75 pre and be done with it. AK strength comes mostly preflop.

Agreed.


Turn is close, but if you're under the assumption that he's just looking to buy the hand, there's no reason to raise considering the fact that we're ahead way too frequently and raising pushes him off all air that your read says there's a lot of.

River carries on the point that you think a lot of his range his air...just check-jam

Seems like a stretch to label this guy as a button thief based on one hand.

3bet pre is much better than a x IMO, it's a good result to take it down with AK. Don't mind flatting AKs in position vs. a strong range occasionally, not the case here though.

Flop and turn I do the same. River, your plan was to let him attack with a light range, now we have the nuts, x/r.

I agree with a 3b, but I think $60 is standard OOP. We want SOME action. If we had AA I don't think we'd make it $75.

Agree with @WB that one hand isn’t a reliable indicator - and he isn’t stealing $7 but is possibly chasing losses - but imo u can absolutely get a sense of someone being OOL on a single hand so if that’s your read, test the fence a little

Call or 3! both ok pre, but mainly making it 65 then gii on turn

As played cc cc std but the J river gives much sdv to V range and he chks back too often so I think 1/2 pot lead also ok. V b/c and raise over lead ranges should be similar, but calling range prob wider than b/f range if he’s chasing.

With a four liner out there let him continue bluffing and pray he actually has the 9.

Call pre is terrible

^ especially if he’ll ever 4b light going for the re-steal

Super butchered hand, but hero might as well be greedy now and check

Since you have a huge sample size of ONE SINGLE HAND with opponent we have no idea what he'll do with KQ or 77 or 24o on the river. We have to lead out to ensure we get a tilted call rather than hoping he tries to barrel 3 streets into a texture that looks to get better and better for our preflop flatting range. Throw 3 greens out there.

Eh. I’ve adopted a no 3 bet strategy out of the bb in these types of situations, but if I played it like this, I’d c/r the turn like a mother****er.

how dare he try and steal the blinds??

3b, x/r river

after reading title: If this doesn't involve Hero 3betting, probably bad

after reading post:

You're not really "trapping" by flatting with AK if V has a super wide range. You're only letting him realize his equity with junk. He's not making much of a mistake by putting in 3bb as a 30% dog, with initiative and position. If you do make TPTK, since he's stealing so frequently, most of his range is going to be crap and you get no value anyway.

Make it 50 pre.

Appreciate the responses. Now I know I made a mistake by not raising pre. I think $60 would have been the right amount. No idea if he would have called.

But as played, most of you seemed to believe in the river c/r, which is what I opted for. Villain tank-bet $200 and folded to my jam of ~$400. He claims he had a 9 but I'm thinking he had junk all along and I got the max out of him.

^ lol folding 2nd nuts to a runner runner inside straight draw getting over 9000:1, yeah sure. He had air and is just trying to save face.

I'm not as dismissive of your read as many. It is possible to discern such things in live poker. It's good to do so. Quite possible that he has noticed you guys are distracted. Plus, you are friends and might be less inclined to get involved with each other, so SB might move out of the way a little more easily and 3b more straightforwardly. A good time to start getting his losses back. It sounds likely you were right.

AK is prob not the best choice to turn into a bluff catcher.

So, if you are floating the turn, that means you are calling to take it away a lot. I think you probably need to get aggressive when you turn big draws and trappy when you turn pairs, or perhaps if the turn is good for your high cards, e.g. board pairs.

With only 100bb, there's nothing to fear with a royal draw, especially holding over cards.

If you don't stuff it now, what do you do on blank rivers? It seems like he has an advantage. e.g. you can check and he can check back weak pairs and take the pot. You can make a weird bet and, sure he probably folds weak pairs, but he often gets you with better and gives up when you have the bbest had. Maybe he even bluffs with a better hand and you call. Or maybe he bluffs a worse hand and you fold.

Marginal hands OOP are not fun.

Having arrived at a perfect river, we have to show some weakness. We can check.

We can make a weak lead as well. Many of his hands that will be afraid to bet will sigh call. He might go for the bluff raise or, god willing, a value raise with k9 or even just a regular 9 and have no room to fold.

Yeah they always do that 'I folded a set' suuuuure you did buddy but thanks for pretending to think about it before mucking your air, no-one at the table will get that 2 minutes of their lives back.