2/5 game but this is what I like to call the "pro" table. I recognize most of the players here as good regs in the room. Those that I don't recognize are sitting deep. Every pot is straddled, some are double straddled. I didn't really plan on playing a big deep game against good players and I'm honestly about ready to get a table change when a new player sits down, buys in for $1000, loses half of it the first hand, loses the rest of it the next hand, buys in full again, and looses it all in the third hand before rebuying full once again. Seems the game just got better and I'll see how things go.

V1 is the whale. He will limp call a raise, limp call a 3-bet OOP, cold call a 3-bet out of position, all with trash trying to get lucky. The guy is just clueless. He's already stuck a couple of buy-ins and his range is about a mile wide in every spot.

V2 is a LAG. Gives off pro vibes. I've played with him before; I posted a HH in here a while ago where I bluffed the river vs. him with the naked Ah.

Straddled pot, V2 is the BB, V1 limps in MP. I make it $50 OTB with AJdd and both call.

Flop ($150 after rake): 10c 8d 3s.

Both players check. 3 ways, this is an optional c-bet for me but with a couple backdoors I decide to bet $75.

Both players call. Huh.

Turn ($375): 10c 8d 4s Ac.

Both players check again. I bet $150 (too small?) V2 calls and V1 check-raises to $425.

This feels like A4 or A8 to me although V1 is capable of bluffing. I don't know if he's bluffing here or not though. With V2 in the hand it complicates things.

You said V1 just sat down and lost his money quickly. How did he lose it? Has he bluffed? What line did he use and in what context?

If the answers to those questions don’t make me confident about this spot then this should be a fold.

Tough spot, V1 probably has all the A4/A8/AT (incl. offsuit) in range. V2 can have AQ here as well, though, I think if you call he gives that hand up.

What are the effective stacks?

He lost it by calling with the worst hand and folding or mucking. One thing I did not see is any of the hands he played. I only saw him lose money.

I don't know why I can't remember to include effective stacks. I have about $1600. V2 has 2500 or more and V2 has maybe a little less than I do.

V2 is a real LAG. He can have suited one or two-gappers and he could have even turned a combo draw.

Really tough spot...

Prefer to check flop. This isn't H's range advantage on multi-way flop board and getting check-raised would be bad.

AP Turn: The "fold one pair to turn aggression" Baluga theorem applies here against the population. Of course, this guy V1 sounds atypical and capable of floating flop with all kinds of crap that could have turned more equity - KcQc, QcJc, 7c6c, 9c7c, Aces up - and of course can be slow-playing sets. The Ace turn is a weird card for him to bluff because H is uncapped, can have AA or TT, even 88.

Indeed, having V2 here isn't great but I think we can discount ridiculous floats from him and I think he might bet his sets/two pairs here on a board that got wetter (FD and back-door broadway gutshots).

We get over 2-1 to call. But what river do we want to see here? It's so strange because H has taken a value, not polarized, line and the V1 check-raise just seems so strong. I probably fold but I suppose this guy can be bluffing a lot. We cannot even beat AQo. I think higher in our range - like AQ/AK - this is a tougher decision.

I think it’s just a fold for me: this is probably the worst A in your range, and you don’t have to defend that wide multi-way.

I feel like V2s range is pretty concentrated on combo draws. I don’t really see how he floats flop with a player behind with A-hi unless it’s AQ/AJ/A9 with a BDFD. Since you hold diamonds the only available combos are in spades. More likely is that V2 has KQcc/KJcc/8xcc/4xcc/etc.

If V2 usually has clubs and not Ax, it should mean that V1 is more likely to have value than a semibluff.

I guess you can call here if you think V1 may be the type to overplay a worse A like A9.

Absent a hand history that shows V1 will aggressively overvalue hands, I would let it go. You said you didn’t see any showdowns, but did V1 have many hands where he raised on some street and then slowed down on river and lost at showdown?

It's funny you say this. Not too long after this hand, I raised with $50 with TT, V1 called with 64o from BB, flop T64. We get $2200 stacks in on an offsuit A turn.

So he's not thinking at ALL about my cards. He is only worried about whether the two cards in front of him match the board.

If I wasn't on the BTN, or maybe CO, I'd def. only bet $50 on flop ... on the BTN $75 seems fine though. We can rarely call turns if we check.

On turn, I think it's a check ... certainly much better than $150. It's possible betting big is better, overrepping your hand so you can check pretty much all rivers but that sucks more if you get raised. There's roughly a million draws and nobody is folding any of them for $150, and might raise some of them, so you mostly get folds from stuff that you have crushed. Also got two flop calls. And we can induce bluffs/thin-value (from worse) on the river.

As for if you should call or not, I'm not sure you have enough info. ... villain seems like he might well overvalue A9/A7 here and have all the combos of them. Is also allowed to bluff randomly. It's hard to make 2 pair+, esp when you are playing everything. Flip a coin and lose money.

How aggro is V1 preflop? Have you seen him open raise or does he almost always limp?

I think given the 2 players described we should start checking back at a higher frequency. We can still range cbet this texture but i might go a little smaller. Say 50-60.

Even against a whale, this is at the bottom of our preferred bluff-catchers and we block semi-bluffs with jx. Hard to feel strongly without more detailed reads on villain but I think folding is more likely to be correct.

Would certainly bet larger on turn. We can even bomb huge if we feel like it on this texture.

I want to x somewhere with a good player in the hand, hell I probably x flop vs. a known turbofish and then bet turn; but if I bet flop I x turn with both players still in the hand, obviously if good villain folds flop then I bet the turn. AP this is an easy fold without reads and I'd want to be stronger to continue given we're multiway with a dangerous villain who has shown interest flop and turn.

I did end up folding as I really couldn't see V1 taking this line without two pair.

V2 called the check raise.

The river was an ace (puke) and it went check-check. V2 had 8c-9c and V1 had 8-4o and they chopped.

In this hand, I’m expecting the range of the two villains to be super wide, given that one is a whale and the other is a LAG and also defending from the BB a raise from late position. One thing you could consider is betting bigger preflop with a good hand, and isolate the V1 whale while you’re in position.

I think your betting on this flop is a good idea, because even though you hold premiums with AJdd, it’s the top of the range that you could be holding from the button position and can have a bunch of stuff that hit the flop like 108, 97s. It’s interesting that both of these players call your bet, but with that sizing I guess they would be getting a good price to continue with:
10x, 8x, and for the whale, maybe they’re calling with 3x as well.
You could also expect potentially some low Aces to continue here, especially if they have some backdoor flush potential like A6c or something like that.
Open-ended straight draw also possible with 97, and maybe J9 but luckily you actually block some of those combos since you hold a J in your hand
Overpair above 10 quite unlikely IMO, there would’ve been a 3-bet preflop.

Now on the turn, you hit top pair with a decent kicker, but see a flush draw now with clubs, a potential wheel draw, and a few 2 pair combinations that are possible (you do block an ace). To me, the $150 sizing is okay, you could try to go bigger to get out the flush draws, but you might get value-owned some percentage of the time. The other option you could try is, knowing the players, opt for a check-call instead in order to pot control the hand with just top pair.

While V2 is getting a pretty good price to continue with your bet size, I feel like them calling two streets of bets from you indicate that they do have some kind of strong hand. To me, it’s feeling like perhaps a lower pair and flush draw here, because I’m not sure if V2 would be calling two streets with just 8 pair or less.

This V1 check-raise feels like this guy is representing some made Ace pair, given your description not sure if he would even be calculating his draw odds and perhaps just raised because he saw his Aces pair.

Right now, you’re beating Ax that’s not A8, A4, and A10, they’re unlikely to have AK, AQ because I would expect more preflop aggression. So A2, A3, A5, A7, A9.

I don’t love this spot, especially since there’s one more person to act behind. If you’re confident around your read of V2 being on a draw, you could shut that down by jamming all-in and denying him equity and getting him to fold. Then, you can just hope that V1 will either fold or call with the worse A hands.

I was folding before I even saw this. You folded when he had you beat, so you played it perfect. You shouldn't regret folding just because an ace came otr. You made a great fold.

Fold as played, I think turn is a check against a LAG.

Folding, with main consideration being a good player calling in between on a turn that hits PFR range hard.

I first thought you had AT. With AJdd I would bet about 110 on this flop and then bet fold turn for about 220-240. heads up I don't think I would check here most times unless I had some sort of live read that the player calling is strong. If I did then I would check behind and evaluate the river. Because there is a 3rd person in there I would be more inclined to check behind turn because once I bet and it goes call call I want to be cautious. I don't think a ten will raise you here and a draw or bdfd probably doesn't raise either. I guess some good players can find raises here to get the A to fold but against the general pop I would fold aj here too. I know my bet sizing is big but where I am currently playing its better to raise and bet big because they will call and also because you want to get full value since top pair and any draw is going to call. Players holding middle pair on a flop will often call a big bet to try and turn something or they put you on AK. So I generally bet big on the flop and on the turn depending on what I am targeting I adjust bet size.