Hi guys, this hand comes from my first 'real' session in a live casino. I've played home games, pub tournaments, larger events, and of course online though.

It's a regional casino, and the table is very soft, with only 2 other players on a ten handed table being decent. Below are my modified notes that I took at the time:

**Hand**

AT

**Stack**

800eff

**Blinds**

2/5

**Position**

Btn

**Notes / Reads**

Main villain is a 30's European male, who has been playing solid all night. Raising the right hands in the right positions, and limping his marginal hands, like weak suited hands and connectors to try and see a cheap flop.

**Preflop**

UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, drunk fish in MP makes it 20, CO calls, hero calls in btn, blinds fold, UTG+1 calls.

**Flop**

Q A j. Pot 87dollars.

Checks to hero, who bets 50, UTG+1 calls, rest fold.

**Turn**

5. Pot 180.

Hero bets 125. UTG+1 jams for 388. Hero???


Extra note: I realise that flatting the flop isn't optimal, and a three bet is preferred. However, the table has been loose enough that even 4x 3bets will get 2 cold callers. So I didn't feel that bloating the pot with a marginal hand was the right play.

3b pre

I lean call as played as he could do this with too many sc’s including lower Add

QJs, A5s make sense on his part. Just suckout and tell him that’s how we do it in america

3-betting pre is marginal. If you have difficulty playing marginal hands, even in position, I suggest avoiding them for now. No need to make huge mistakes later. It’s a part of your game to improve.

Given description it’s a call. You’re losing to 2-pair combos, however too many draws present, and it’s a good raise for fold equity if he’s decent as you’ve stated. Main bright spots are you’re not blocking the A flush draw, and you’re blocking KT. Villain also only called flop with 3 people behind him, which suggests a draw.

Turn is an easy check back for pot control — you can make a straight and/or evaluate river cards.

If you assume that QJs and A5s are not in his range because he would raise them pre, what do you narrow his range to?

I only ask this because that's how much I would narrow his range personally, erroneously or otherwise.

I don't think I have difficulty playing marginal hands, it's just that given the nature of the table, I think that a raise wouldn't have changed much except decrease the SPR, which is bad if you think you have an edge postflop (which I thought I did).

Reducing the SPR with a range advantage is not as problematic. It will be a much easier stack off when you hit a T, and if you know villain 1 to be large and villain 2 to mostly have raises with better Axs (which according to your description of both, he should), you're not doing that bad.

Also, I think that you underestimate the propensity for people to fold pre/flop in 3bet pots. As much as people play large, raise pre/bet flop always raises some alarm bells and you often get to thin the field much easier than you would think.

I would most definitely not make it my standard, but the spot that you describe seems like a good opportunity for a squeeze.

AP, it's a call. Too many draws and combo draws to fold. Villain never has 5s, Js, Qs or As, rarely has AQ or AJ, and he probably does not often cc/raise these. The most likely hand to lose to is KT which will also take the lead a significant part of the time when checked to on this flop. Otherwise, A5s and QJs also make sense as mentioned, and we're not dead in either situation.

Pretty big mistake going with large sizing (2/3 pot) on both flop and turn.

You are isolating yourself against the top of his range and ensuring you lose the maximum when behind and win min when ahead. As played check back turn makes the most sense. You will also more likely get value from Qx and worse Ax when you check turn.

But what is the top of his range here? I'm ahead of most of his range, and I'm getting called by worse quite often. if I check back turn, and he leads when one of the flush draws complete, then I'm in a terrible spot. I think checking the turn is the worst option.

He is the first to act on the flop, does that change anything in your analysis?

Out of curiosity, what is the buyin structure of the game? is it $500 cap?

Also, can you say a bit more about the table dynamics with regard to preflop 3betting? Are there any loose aggressive players at the table who are making light 3bet squeeze plays to try to pick up dead money preflop? Namely, is the action almost always limp, raise, call, call, call, call, … OR is it somewhat frequently limp, raise, call, call, 3bet?

At the time, do you think villain would limp with KTs or 55? Or would he raise? I think depending on what you think he might do with those hands would influence the decision. 55 seems unlikely because villain would probably fold on the flop.

I wouldn’t put him on any 2pair hands because they’re raises preflop.

I think checking back turn is giving flush draws a free card, but it also pot controls and avoids this x/r from villain. Is checking the turn too weak/passive?

Lastly, is this a fold preflop? MP’s opening range is likely much better than ATo?

Would love to get any feedback what I wrote!

$500 cap. The dynamic is just extremely loose, passive preflop at least, and almost the same postflop. One hand that I played at a 7 handed table last night, went limp, limp, limp, I raise to 35 on the button, call, call, call. Similar outcomes when three bets come out unless you 3bet massive. The only one doing any squeezes is me, but it doesn't seem to work here haha.

I thought that he would probably bet KTs even if it's just a smaller raise. KTo and 55 are possible, though 55 is a pretty sound fold on the flop, as you said.

Like I said in another post, I think that checking the turn is suicide. We get value from so many worse hands by betting, and if we check the turn and villain leads on a heart or diamond river, we're in a terrible spot.

Definitely not a fold preflop, the raiser is a fish, and MP's range is capped when he just flats, and I have position. If I thought MP was a better or tighter player then I might find a fold, but not in this case.

FWIW, the effective stack in this hand is $458, not $850. It is not your stack size, it is the smallest stack size in the hand.

At best, ATo is a call on the button if the raiser is loose. You categorize him as a drunk fish. Unless he's raising frequently as the life of the party, most drunk fish are raising only premiums. As a RIO hand, ATo mostly should go in the muck since you said a 3 bet is going to get a couple of callers.

As for the main villain, anyone who is calling with weak suited cards and connectors looking to hit isn't solid. They are a small bleeder. They don't spew lose their chips, but over the course of the evening you'll see their stack evaporate. They'll rebuy once or twice before leaving the room, bemoaning the fact that they never seem to hit the flop.

He has to be bluffing around 30% of the time to make a call profitable. You've all but told him you have at least TP. Unless you've shown that you can fold TP to a raise, he shouldn't be thinking he can get a fold here. Therefore, I'd follow Mike Caro's advice: If a villain wants you to do something, disappoint them. He's just not going to be bluffing that often, even if he is this time.

I don’t agree that limping in EP is necessarily bad in a loose splashy game where a drunk guy (possibly maniac?) is a couple seats to your left. If he’s frequently raising we might even consider limping 100% range in EP and make frequent use of a limp/reraise strat to iso the dead money.

I’d like to know what hands he’s limping with here. Do you think he limps suited broadways? I suspect he might show up with KTs/QJs. A5s also plays well in a limping range at this sort of table. I think KTo/QJo goes in the muck preflop. Maybe it’s okay to also open limp these hands, though, if the rest of the table is spewing off hugely postflop.

I think I let this combo of AT go. I think this is stone bottom of our value range when you use this large flop/turn sizing, and you look strong betting big on two streets so Villain shouldn’t expect you to fold often. If we want to call with some AT it’s better to not have a heart. Just fold.

Fold preflop

Flop/turn fine, just fold to jam though unless you have very strong read about preflop range

Responding to the bolded above, I agree, but compared to everyone else at the table, he was playing a lot better. It was enough for me to respect when he was in a pot.

What it boiled down to for me, is how often are LLSNLH players check-raising the turn with bluffs? My personal experience in home games says very rarely. All the advice I've gotten from reddit youtube, and here says very rarely. So I folded.

The only reason why it was tough was because his value range is so narrow in this particular case.

KTs and QTs can definitely be in his limping range, as can QJo and KTo, suited aces from A2s to A9s, low suited connectors, and pockets up 88. The problem is that we block the ten of hearts, so that removes KhTh, QdTh, QdTd and lots of the T9 combos are blocked too. pockets fold the flop, so 55 is removed. so that leaves him with a value range of KTo, QJo, and the other A5 combos, and only KhXh and Td9d hands as decent bluffs.