2/5, weekday night, 8-handed.


VillainA is a 50-year-old black male (85/35) ($1200). He limps in with all kinds of trash but raises a wide range also, although he tends to slow down postflop and becomes almost fit-or-fold on later streets but overvalues one pair. In early-middle position, he limps.

VillainB is a late-20's Asian guy (40/30) ($900). He's a very aggressive player who bluffs too much postflop, even against multiple players. However he also has a poor understanding of the fundamentals of the game and makes moves more on gut feeling and ego. He raises to $20 in the HJ.

Hero has 7s 7d and calls on the button.


Flop ($67): J63r

VillainA checks, VillainB bets $40. What do you do? If you continue, what is your plan on future streets?

Is this hand good enough to isolation 3bet preflop against these Villains?

Pre is fine. 99+ I might consider a 3bet. I think I call and see what happens on turn. No reason to raise him off his bluff, and we can't handle a re-raise. Plus, VA is still behind us.

If your player reads are correct:

Preflop I just call for set mining and keep my positional advantage. I want to keep V1 in if he overvalues single pairs and V2 if he is overly aggressive. Iso-ing this hand will result in taking it down pre only or playing a bloated pot where the flop likely won't be favorable. I'd rather give myself a chance to win a huge pot.

Flop I like a call. If V1 calls we are likely done with the hand. If V1 folds and turn is a Q+, I likely fold to more aggression. If turn is J or less, I likely call and evaluate river.

If the runout is all below the J and he triple barrels, it depends on the specific run out. For double paired boards or single paired boards under the J I'm more inclined to call triple barrels as V is repping less and less. One liner straight runouts I'm more inclined to call also as he shouldn't have as many straights as we would. All other runouts like backdoor flush and backdoor straight I will likely fold to triple barrel.

This is a really marginal spot and when I’m on my A-game I find a fold. With this hand in particular, calling down can’t be a big moneymaker on a lot of runouts.

It is OK to get bluffed sometimes. This seems like one of those times.

Pre is good, although against only v2 open and non-fish blinds I'm 3betting this pure. I expect him to flat too wide and way under4b and he seems like a guy who I'd happily play inflated pots with. With the atc-playing drooler limping here, or a very bad player in the blinds I prefer flatting to make them come along.

Flop is a trivial call and I'd look to bluffcatch a lot. If he really was obviously overbluffing this is a juicy bluffcatch spot, J is a high card but doesn't hit him as much as A or K, I expect him to triple all sorts of air hands. These type of players often miss thin value too, which is really helpful now.

Peel and ideally see turn for 40, continue calling once HU on 457 and some other cards depending on sizing/suit.

I'd call pre on BTN with no dead $ in between.

Given the V descript, I'd call flop to see a turn, evaluate from there. PFR sizing a little small for live, also.

Given VillainB reads folding is terrible (he's probably cbetting this at 100%) and raising is at least bad.

If VillainA overcalls flop then life sucks, otherwise I'm mostly not folding on any runout (unless we have bet sizing reads) but not betting either. It's not like we are printing, and villain can be betting even T9 and get there ... but he can also not get there.