Game is $1/2/2 with a $5 bring in. Game plays huge, most players have $1K+, a couple have 300 or 400. I have 1000.

I've been playing pretty snug, very card dead, players are starting to realize I am a steady winner from previous sessions.

It's 9 handed and I am UTG+2 with 99. UTG kills it for 5. Folds to me and I raise to 15. Villain 1 (mid-late 20s Asian guy, fishy, too loose and limp calls too much pre, has 220) calls. Villain 2 (27ish white guy, seems to know what he is doing, has 380) 3bets to 75. Folds to Villain 3 (late 30s, early 40s Asian guy, always buys in super deep, has about 3500) on the button and he calls. Folds to me. I got a feeling that V2 was squeezing light here. (I know I am going to get lambasted for this and people and are going to say it's spew, but my instincts have been pretty good.) I hate flatting because I really only have the proper odds against V3. I don't think flatting is profitable. I'm pretty sure V2 can't stand a raise and V3 can't be that strong since he didn't 4bet. V2 has 300 behind at this point so if I 4bet him I put him in a tough spot where he has to push or fold. I make it 190, V1 folds and V2 reluctantly folds. As V3 was thinking, I realized that my 4bet size was too small. Offering V3 8:1 and position is just too good. I should have make it like 275. V3 tank calls, so I am pretty sure he has a marginal (in his eyes) hand to call a 4bet.

Flop(470): AK3 all clubs
I do not have a club. I decide to bet 225, since I think V3's range has a lot of middle pairs. He could have AK but I think we have to discount that a little since he did not 4bet pre and tanked on calling the 4bet. V3 takes about 25 seconds and calls.

Turn(920): offsuit K
Wasn't sure what to do here. I am very sure that V3 does not have AA or KK in this spot, he could have AK but we can discount that significantly. I thought about betting; I can get his middle pairs to fold, but get snapped by AK. Then I thought that his JJ/TT and AJ type hands would check behind if I checked. And I would find out more about his hand if I checked and he checked behind. I didn't really think this through because I didn't want to tank that long (since when you do that people can figure you're probably not that strong). I checked, and he moves all in pretty quickly.

I take JJ/TT and AJ of out his range. AK is a small discounted part. But I thought that he would be capable of turning his 66-88 hands into a bluff here. Maybe his naked Qc hands too.

I tanked and tanked, counted the pot and figured that I only need to win 25% of the time to call. So I called.

What do you guys think? Bet flop or give up? Bet or check turn? Good/bad turn call? Am I too optimistic in thinking 66-88 is in his turn range? (In retrospect, probably).

Did I level myself into a call because he has so few value hand combos in his range here? Then again, he might have no bluff combos in his range here. And I learned my lesson to 4bet bigger when so deep and OOP. Don't just post "4bet bigger" unless you have useful suggestions on sizing or something.

turn chk/call is pretty horrible IMO. I'd either fold or call pf (not sure on what odds you need to set mine and am too lazy to figure it out) instead of turning 99 into a 4-bet bluff.

I think your 3bet sizing is actually fine. It looks really strong like you want a call. Flop lead out is aggressive but fine as well. But once he calls flop, we are 100% f***ing done. We made our move, we made are awesome Durr play of the day, it just didn't work out. He folds all QQ, JJ and Ax non club hands except AK.

Check Calling turn is 100% monkey ******ed. And I swear if you called turn and won and this is a BBV brag I'm going to reach through the monitor and jab a pencil in your eye.

Yeah, I think I just needed to hear someone else say it. Pretty optimistic to think the he called the flop with 88/77 or called preflop with naked Qc.

I think that too many players on this forum have this mantra of "don't turn your hand into a bluff" drilled into their minds. Folding here is certainly fine in a vacuum, but in this case I am 70% sure I have the best hand. The term "turning X into a bluff" isn't really well defined. The way I see it is that I probably have the best hand preflop, calling and "playing poker" postflop OOP sucks, so I should charge these players to hit an overcard or set. I think my mistake was not raising to an amount that gives V3 the wrong price.

I really don't like my 4bet sizing. I don't think this villain is reading that much into it. Even if I have AA, he's going to call with his TT and try to hit a set. And I would end up stacking off on most flops. I think it's better to just give him a worse price. It's lower variance too.

Yeah, guess I just leveled myself into a call. This hand happened 1.5 hours after I should have left. I was getting tired. It's really hard for him to show up with bluffs that I beat here. Of course I lost to KJhh. I only post hands that make me look like a donkey.

Problem here is you're turning a good but not great hand into a bluff, deep and OOP. Your hand also has a big gap in its hot/cold equity compared to say doing this with AQ/AJ/AT as a bluff. When you do get called you generally have more equity to continue barreling with ie often 2 overs/backdoor draws instead of 2 outs.

Considering how deep you are, probably make more flatting and keeping the other guy in and trying to cooler them for a giant pot.

IF you feel he's squeezing keep in mind hes going to have a difficult time getting out of line when both of you are in hand so his play will generally be more straightforward post flop. Making it easier to call down light or fold.

Dude, yes you could have 4bet more, but your 4bet is actually not bad. Your bet conveys a ton of strength and you got villain to call with an inferior hand.

Your villain has to be absolutely brain dead super drooler to have called your flop bet. Seriously, WTF???

Did you know Villain was this big a drooler???

Personally, I don't mean to come across as an elitist, but I think this hand represents some decent advance play on your part. The problem though, isn't so much in your play as it is in your decision to make such plays vs the wrong type of villain.

I notice some really good LLSNL players get so wrapped up in playing like Durr that they forget that in LLSNL there is usually no need for that vs most villains. The line you took is optimal vs thinking players only. And its 100% clear that this villain is a ******o spewmonkey station. I seriously can't believe he called your flop bet with KJhh. That is just beyond ******ed on his part.

So vs this villain, the value in 99 is going to be in set mining and not so much stealing. I'm convinced that based on this villain calling flop he's calling any 4bet pre and still stacking off on the flop...

So your mistake here is really in understanding and reading your villain. Seriously, I can't believe he called that flop. He epitomizes the typical spewtarded LLSNL rec fish. And thus, you need to be playing more ABC poker vs players like that....

I don't think calling is profitable given that V2 only has 300 behind. V1 has even less, 200. so I'm only set mining against V3, who isn't going to stack off that often because he has a marginal hand (since he didn't 4bet). I don't think I have the implied odds here to make a call profitable.

If I were to construct a 4bet bluffing range in this spot, it would be better to use AQ than 99, I agree. But this is LLSNL and balance doesn't matter. Since I can't call my 99 profitably, might as well "turn it into a bluff", especially since I feel I am ahead the majority of the time.

No, at the time I didn't include any K-broadway in his range, except for a discounted AK. What I had observed of him so far is that he was playing fairly tight compared to the other super deep guys. I'm really not that surprised he calls the flop having flopped a pair. In his mind, calling the 4bet with KJs and then folding when you hit a pair doesn't make sense. He never folds AQ to my bet on that flop. KJ isn't that much more of a stretch.

If you think this guy is a drooler, then the entire poker room that I play in is flooded in saliva.

Just as a sanity check, if I had ___ I would ___ on the turn:

AQ with the queen of clubs, ship it
QQ with the queen of clubs, probably check-call, bet club rivers and check nonclub rivers if checked behind. Should probably check this hand on the flop.
JJ with the jack of clubs, check-fold
TT with the ten of clubs, check-fold
all pairs without a club, check-fold

I suspect your initial raise should be larger than 3x preflop but you'll have a better idea than me as to what a standard raise size with a premium hand is in this game.

I don't like the 4-bet but its not terrible and the sizing is fine. We had no idea that Villain 3 would call.

Once he calls us on the flop we should be done with the hand as dgiharris said. We have terrible equity against villain's range.

WTF???

I'm not sure we are speaking the same language.

Calling a 4bet pre w KJhh and then not folding on a AK3ccc board flop cbet is beyond awful and the epitome of how donks play.

This guy is a super drooler, like a brain dead coma victim.

And if his "play" comprises the norm in your poker room, then I swear to god I'm booking a ticket there immediately...