£1-£1 in London

Reads:

Hero in CO TAG - 600BB
BU LAG - 600BB, doesn't mind making tough call and big raises if he feels he can make you fold
BB crazy 50+ lady with 90bb. Overbets pot on multiple streets if she catches a piece of it (any piece) and will station call with bottom pair no matter what the board is. Has already lost 250bb playing this way. She had a bit of an argument with the button guy and told him he will be lucky not to lose his pants at the tables, which he didn't take too well.

In this hand there are a couple of limpers and I raise to £11 with AJ, BU calls, Crazy Lady calls, limpers fold.

Flop: A K 2 (POT £35)

Crazy lady bets £50, given how she played there is no chance ever I fold, so I call, unfortunately button calls too.

Turn: 3 (pot £185)

Crazy lady goes all in for her remaining £30, I call (although probably didn't look too thrilled as there was this guy behind me), button raises to £130

What's my play? What's button holding? Could I have raised the flop to iso the crazy lady?

I really don't feel comfortable playing this deep and there is still one card to come.

What were you looking to flop? At least miniraise it there to 100.

Don´t let the guy behind you draw for cheap.

Also, being this passive postflop is not good - our hand is face up as an Ace that we are not in love with, and BTN can exploit this if he has a weaker Ace by forcing us to fold to get headsup with the fish.

You need a very, very good reason to just call a bet postflop.

The only times would be when

- villain has a bigger bluffing continuing range than calling range with worse hands
- you believe you have minority equity, but are getting correct direct / implied odds to draw to a winning hand

Most times, you should be raising for value / charge draws / fold equity, or folding your hand.

Also by playing this way, you are far less exploitable by thinking aggro players, who will take advantage of your indecision.

Calling Flop is fine for me although minraising should be o.k. as well.

I think we have to raise the small turn bet from the lady (~150 - 180). If Button than 3Bet I can easily find a fold.

River would be interesting if the Button calls our raise on the turn.

Good analysis, very helpful thank you. The idea behind the call is that BU is never calling without an ace and I give a chance to crazy lady to put her last £30 in.

I think BU has AQ-AK or maybe even A2s. Of course he could have AX and yes I am pretty sure he exploited me

They didn´t show down?

I was waiting for a few more replies but yes button won the the pot with A5. to add insult to injury the river was the J

Get up, take a break and come back with a smaller chip stack.

I understand this logic but I disagree for a large part. Raising when we hit top pair at the live low stakes is often a -EV play, especially when deep and in a position where you're not happy to stack off with top-top.

The reason is that for most low stakes player, a raise after a bet is read as top pair or better - because that's how they play: aggro with the very top % of their range and just calling with a huge range. The guy is going to put you on a good A or better and play accordingly when we raise, and the last thing we want is to be OOP with a face-up hand.

I've have been check-calling with top pair and acting accordingly a lot lately with good results. It also allows the bluffers to bluff.. Guys have value-bet middle pair on dry boards because 'i can never have the ace', and against semi-thinking player you can represent the obvious draws very well when they hit

You need to treat her turn all-in bet as a blocker and just make a normal raise over it. Take control of the hand. Charge the other player to continue.

While I don't disagree with your analysis of this particular hand, this is very bad general advice. There plenty of times when you're ahead of villain's betting range (even if his whole range is value hands and no blufffs) but behind the range with which he will call a raise (and yes, this can happen on boards with draws, albeit it does so less frequently), and flatting is the correct play in almost all of these instances. Although I'm sure you don't phrase it as such, if you follow the maxims you laid out in your post you probably "raise for information" frighteningly often, which almost all 2+2ers agree is not a good play. If you raise in the situations I described under the premise of "maximizing fold equity" then you are turning a hand with good SD value into a bluff, which can be a good play sometimes but it's usually more profitable to just win the $ from your SD value. How do you propose an aggro player is going to exploit your flats in these situations, by continuing to bet into you when he is behind?

I flat quite often. I raise too. It's cool.

this. and as stated i would raise the all in

as played i would call the raise on the turn. bad fold, obvious he is trying to get to showdown with the fish

*grunch*

Raise the flop!

I'd just make it $100 straight. It shows the guy behind you that you're actually interested in the hand, and the crazy woman will call 90% of the time anyway.

By flatting the turn you're letting the guy behind you know that you've got a piece of the board but don't love your hand. Once you flat the lol-small turn bet you've given the BTN a green light to bluff you off the hand. He could have an A, or a flush draw, or even a K given the way that the woman is playing and the line that you took.

Part of me wants to re-raise him to $300 here and punish him for trying to steal the pot. But that leave use in a sticky spot with the remaining stacks OOP. When you say he can make a tough call it seems like he's competent. There aren't too many river cards that I want to stack off for another ~250bb. Even when he's FOS on the turn he's probably got a good bit of equity since he's still got to beat the woman for the main pot.


As a side note, the line you took would be much better with a bigger hand like a set. You've got a crazy woman betting in front of you with a wide range and an aggressive player behind that'll pounce on your weakness.

Well I have to disagree with just about everyone here. We are playing against a lag. They have wide ranges all the time....they know (kind of ) our range. Good lags do not exist at 1 1.

Why on earth would we not want to let a lag who has a wide range the chance to try to bluff us off this hand. What possible good does raising the flop or turn do. Well the lag now gets to fold his weak aces and yes his draws....problem I thought the idea was to win money from him. Just call, and expect a raise...and yes expect a big river bet....

Your deep against a lag...not fun if you don't like gambling....but once you hit your job is to sit tight. Not raise with a non polarized range, so he can call with the hands that beat you, and fold the ones you beat. Your job should be to call with a non polarized range (stong and middle hands)...that beats his bluffs (semi bluffs) which are many, and looses to his big hands...guess what he can't have that many big hands if he is loose preflop and plays loose post flop.

put it another way what hands are you actually woried about...AK (well a lag might raise) Aq again might expect a 3bet.. a3 a2 22....what other hands can are lag friend have thats about 33 comboes....depends on how lag but

given he has to have some value to beat are crazy woman..

well maybe maybe all the other aces (54 hands)...wants to iso the crazy lady.... all sorts of kings (say 25 comob)... and maybe some draws??? ....it counts out to a lot more combo of hands your ahead of then your behind.

Now if you had observed that our lag friend checked back week made hands, and only bet polarized ranges....and given the protected nature of the pot...then maybe calling and folding to the riase might come into play. Otherwise you crush his raising range but do not crush his calling range if you riase....Hopefully you also have some idea of what big apsolute bets by this guy means...so if he shoves the river you can make a good decision...

Thank you for all the comments guys.

In hindsight, I still like my flat on the flop, I am crushing the lady's range and want to keep the lag in.

It's the first time I play this lag and you don't see £100 raises very often at 1/1.

I think as played I should have called on turn, would he have bet £250 with A5 on that river? Probably not.

Part of me just wanted to shove on him, I had a gut feeling I was ahead. I just don't have the balls and my other problem is I always tend to think more about the hands the beat me rather than those I beat.

Like many others I play recreationally and I am here to improve.

Thanks guys

At least at 1/2, calling down is a leak, because villains don´t tend to bluff, and they don´t tend to betfold.

This means that their betting range is strong anyway (in general), so we should be folding a lot to bets, and when we have value we should be raising. For value. Villains will bet call TPGK all the time.

Bluffcatching has its place against aggrotards, but I think playing a fold or raise style is better to exploit this level.

In this spot, we simply most likely have the best hand - pretty much any hand that beats us here raises, which is a very narrow range. This is made even more so by the nature of the pot we are in. We should be more worried about protecting our hand here than relying on him to bluff us off a dry side pot.

He has worse aces and diamond draws here which we should charge, plain and simple we are beating over 50% of his calling range. The fact that our hand in unlikely to improve is even more reason to get value against worse now.