Villian is a rich guy who plays in alot of bigger games, up to 25/50, and almost seems bored with 5/5. He has around 1600 in front of him, and is calling almost every raise preflop. Hes not a bad player, just one that seems to like to float and doesn't seem afraid to make a move.

Hero- 500
Villian- 1600

Hero is UTG+1 with AA

1 fold, hero raises to 35, 2 folds, Villian calls, button calls, SB folds, BB calls.

Pot(145): Flop is Q62

BB checks, Hero bets 90, Villian insta calls, Button folds, BB folds.
at this point in the hand im putting villian on kq with the diamond or possibly like jj with the diamond so i dont think many cards can hurt me

Pot(325): Turn is 8

Hero checks, Villian moves all in......
i was never thinking about folding this hand, just giving him a chance to make a move if he can't call my shove on turn.



I call and he shows K7 and i brick the river. Is this a laydown i should be making with my stack only being roughly 360?

No, never. Ever. Well played.

Nah, just get the money in.

It's fine. C/c the turn was good, but betting would be alright, too.

Is this game in NY? Is your opponents name Les?

No. its a private game in pittsburgh

I would carefully watch his physical reaction to the monotone flop. Most people will check their cards on a monotone flop if they don't have a monster (obviously, people with 2pair/set/flush know that they have a monster without having to check their cards). If Villain had checked his cards for a diamond when the 3-diamond flop came out, I would be very happy to play for stacks against him.

If you had noticed that he never checked his cards, then I would be worried if he started to commit a sizable number of chips. Usually, a player who doesn't check his hole cards on a monotone flop and fires a sizable number of chips has a minimum of 2 pair, or more likely, a set, or a made flush (or perhaps a stone cold bluff).

Given that this particular Villain is somewhat LAGGY, I would probably make a crying call, but I think it is possible to find a fold here IF AND ONLY IF you noticed that he never bothered to check his hole cards after/when the 3 diamonds came out.

On a sidenote, in lower limit live NL games, I find that this "hole card checking" tell is very accurate on monotone flops. If you ever find your opponent checking his hole cards when a monotone flop comes out, you can usually be confident that he has at best TP+flush draw and rarely 2pair/set/flush. This lets you know when it is safe to stack off with TPTK/overpair on a monotone flop, and it also lets you know that you can run a big bluff to push someone off their medium-strength holding.

thats a realy good point, and i do usually use this tell, but for this particular hand, he actually didn't check his cards. I just figured he had kq and that he thought he had the best hand when i checked to him on the turn(im repping 99-JJ or AKoff imo) so he didn't really care if he had the diamond or not.

You have to use both sides of this tell. If he had KQ, he would probably check his cards to see if he had the Kd. Therefore, if he doesn't check his cards, then I am less likely to believe that he has KQ. More likely, he has a monster (2pair/set/flush...almost never a stone cold bluff because it's 4-way raised pot on a monotone flop). When someone doesn't check their hole cards on a monotone flop in a multiway raised pot, their range usually becomes polarized to bluffs/monsters. When someone checks their hole cards on a monotone flop in a multiway raised pot, their range usually becomes air, weak pairs, flush draws, top pairs, up to TPTK/overpair+flush draw (absolute top of their range).

Minor Sidenote: At the same time, if you notice that Villain doesn't check his hole cards on a monotone flop, you can sometimes 2 barrel bluff his monsters out of the hand with air when a 4th diamond hits the turn (obviously you had AdAh here and not air). Obviously 2pair/set/small flushes are all screwed when the 4th diamond comes, so I often fire a 2nd barrel bluff on that card (first making a big show of checking MY hole cards for my supposed Ad before firing a big stack of chips) if I suspect that my opponent was slowplaying a 2pair/set/small flush when he called my cbet on a monotone flop without checking his hole cards. This is a great spot for a 2nd barrel if you are the kind of player who likes to cbet monotone flops regularly.

All of the above . . . or . . . villain knows to remember his hole cards and suits and never needs to check them after seeing them once.

Be careful; I never recheck my hole cards unless I'm trying to give you a false tell.

clorox,

Obviously much depends on the skill level of the opponent and the stakes being played. If I think that I am playing against a thinking player who knows how to send out reverse tells (especially if we're playing a bigger game like 5/10NL or 10/20NL), then I will discount this particular tell heavily.

On the other hand, I find that the majority of lower limit NL players (which is what I consider live 5/5 NL to be...lower limit NL) do not know how to disguise this tell. In my own case, I actually do my best to send out reverse fake tells in this respect because I often check my hole cards even when I flopped the nut flush (throwing off fake tells) and I often do not check my hole cards for a suited card on monotone flops because I know the exact suits of both of my offsuit cards anyway.

Regardless, I was just trying to offer useful information here that works on most low limit NL Villains. Obviously, 2+2ers and other thinking Villains know how to send out fake tells, and I would always adjust accordingly against Villains who know how to send out fake tells. Nevertheless, I still use this particular tell to exploit the majority of bad players who do not know that I am reading their physical tell so intently.

If the OP really thought that the Villain was smart enough to send out fake tells, then this is a mandatory call. If, however, OP had been observing the Villain enough to see that Villain had this particular tell on monotone flops, then I would be very wary of Villain's line after he showed significant aggression without checking his hole cards for a diamond.

Just because the good players know how to send out fake tells doesn't mean that I shouldn't keep using tells to beat the #@$@#$#@$ out of all the bad players who don't even realize that they are giving valuable information away.

i really don't read to much into the whole card checking thing... to many false tells IMO

The card-checking discussion is good and something to keep in mind in some situations.

Here, though, it really doesn't change our action or goal for the hand. That's mostly dictated by best overpair + NFD with $465 left in a $145 pot. Here you just keep betting until all the money is in ($120 on flop, shove turn seems good to me).

this tell is very unreliable in isolation. ive seen people check their hole cards when they've flopped a monster many times. and im not just talking reverse tells. sometimes its like, 'oh my god did i really just flop the nuts, i better double check'. of course sometimes it is the classic check for a diamond tell, but i would only use it to make a decision if i had seen someone do it and then show down a hand that confirmed this at least a couple of times (preferably more)