$2/$5

Very weak passive game. The only aggro fairly solid player is directly on my right OTB in this hand. 4 limps. The aggro button makes it $25.

Im in the SB with 55. I was going to 3 bet him and think its probably the best play, but I had a good feeling that all of the limpers would call so I decided to call and set mine.

I call and 2 others call.

V1 ($500) limped in EP. Hes a passive fish but has hit numerous straights and flushes and chipped up to $500 from $200.

V2 ($350) limped in MP. Seems fairly straight forward avg rec player

V3 ($375) raised the button. Uses position wisely. C-Bets almost every time though even into multiple players. Gets a little too stubborn and has bluffed off several hundred on scary rivers and gotten called. Stuck $600ish

Hero (covers everyone). Playing my normal game. Mostly TAG but slightly LAG when in position with probably what seems like random craziness.

Flop ($100). 7c 5s 3c. Since there's 2 guys between me and the preflop raiser I normally lead out here, but this time I checked because V3 will C-Bet every time. If I lead out I dont know what he will do with or without a real hand but I suspect his range is very wide meaning theres a good chance he has nothing which is why I wanted to 3 bet preflop. Checked to the button who bets $30. Im sitting thinking and the first limper picks up $30 and gets ready to call when the dealer tells him the action is on me.

Call or raise?

Call is fine pre especially against a villain who is stubborn and could put you in a difficult spot post flop with a hand that very rarely flops well.

I really like leading out here as you mentioned just because having it check through would be a disaster, but if you can be 100% sure btn will c bet then I actually like a C/r.

That said this has to be a raise. Flatting would give any draw a great price to stick around which is terrible for our hand, and there are a good amount of cards that can come on the turn that could kill our action if they have a 1 pair type of hand, not to mention you put yourself in a really difficult spot on the turn having to act first. I'm raising to at least 140 here and jamming safe turns.

3betting pre is horrible especially when you're up against an aggro who will get his money in if you hit. What are you doing when he calls pre and you flop air? I think 3betting small pairs from the blinds (or anywhere) is FPS at it's worst and just blindly clicking buttons.

Raise the flop.

Have to raise, while V3's range is really wide there is always a chance he has a real hand and might get way to sticky with it. The fish also might still call your check raise if he has a strong draw and you should not give him a great price for it. I'd make it 145 to go and then lead all safe turn cards.

I don't mind 3! small PPs from the blinds if it can generate folds, it's a great way to flop huge and disguised when Vs do call. From what it sounds like in OP, this wouldn't have been an optimal situation for that.

If V3 is going to cbet every flop, how would he react to a donk? Personally, I'd rather donk out, get money from V1/V2 in the pot and then let V3 go bananas.

The problem we have now is everyone checked to the raiser and were first to act after him. If we raise, we scare off the V1/V2, if we call, we give them great odds to catch something.

As played, I'd probably raise and hope V3 thinks I'm playing back at him

Pre fine. Flop lead or X/r both fine. If villain is Mike Starr or Ed Miller obv lead slightly weak

AP lomper has FDs, pair+ draws, a couple overpairs that will all call some kind of raise. PFR may only continue with overpairs and decent draws but I think not raising is a mistake. There are hands we can get value from now that might give up on a lot of turn cards.

Also not worried about our turn action including xing bad turns oop to passive fish guy after raising flop. Since he's not Agro and since fish size badly.

Lead 75 and jam the turn, sell the A4 story.

What would be the plan 3betting a short stacked sticky button? Are we committing unapproved?

Pre fine

As played on flop: Min raise to 60 to fold out other 2 and get HU w/btn, hope he spazzes out to your min raise. If he calls jam turn with any safe card.

Don't like 3 bet pre. Call much better IMO as long as limpers are calling.

If he's cbetting 100% then cr. Don't call.

Unapproved hands itt.

cAi'mCAMandIapprovethishandAm

Leading flop seems best because it increases the likelihood that the limpers between you and button will add money to the pot. C/r denies the other two a chance to lose more money very often since they will prob check to the button and then fold pretty much everything when you c/r. Leading gives them a chance to call you before the button does anything.

You flopped damn near the nuts also, so start adding money to the pot.

Against any other villain who won't cbet then lead OTF, however since you have a read on your villain then the check is great.

When deciding to call or raise think about how he views you...

If you 3bet and he 4bet shoves, will you call? is there anyway he has 4,6s or a club draw in his range since he's on the button? If he has flopped a straight and he shoves your 3bet wouldn't it be better for you to simply call and pair the board on the turn or river?

IMO this is still a 3bet since he only bet 1/3 pub and in the long run you have to get this villain to put in more money so when he does hit you'll be getting +EV. If the villain bet 2/3 psb then I would highly consider calling since he's probably hit and is looking to double barrel.

3bet pre is massively profitable and is my default but i can def call if i know button always c bets. If so then ckeck flop is ideal

Raise pretty std here

Why would we want to fold out the other 2 when we have the 3rd nuts? And that sizing is giving them more than 3-1 on a call so they are getting great odds to chase their draws. This sizing is extreme FPS IMO

I think this flop spot is a great lesson in why knowing that someone else will bet does not necessarily imply you should check all your strong hands to that person. Now we are facing an undersized bet, out of relative position, and our options are to raise now before the 2 people in between have put money into the pot, or just call $30 and risk getting outdrawn AND losing value on our hand because of a terribly sized bet.

It has to be better to lead out for the bet size we want, than it is to check the flop.

I agree that leading out with the set is best. Hardly any one does it, which is why raising a donk bet is so profitable.

The last 2 times I hit a set, I led out and everyone folded, which is another reason nobody leads with a set. Its still the best play when there are players in between hero and the preflop raiser, but I didnt do it this time. As soon as I saw V1 reaching for chips, I wished I had led out this time to trap him in the middle.

Anyway, I check raised to $100 and V1 thought for a while but then folded. The button reraised to $200 and I shoved. He instacalled.

Turn 7.....river 7 and I just about puked until he slammed his cards down in disgust. He had 64. I thought he rivered me but I outdrew him.

Im running rather well this month for a change....and my instinct to 3 bet him was correct. I told him I almost did it and he said he wished I would have....

Very rarely 3b this from the sb, we are oop against aggressive player while our hand is most likely best, against a player that is stubborn I think he will be calling the 3b a lot and will put us in difficult spots post flop.
Plus calling might induce others to come along for the ride so when we flop a set more chance to get paid off.
As for the flop I can get behind the check/raise or donk bet as both have pro and cons.
I think leading is a little bit better as then you start to control the hand a little more.


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Flat pre, 3b would be atrocious. Lead flop is better, but check/raise is ok too if we are positive he bets. Though it will allow the fish in between to fold guts shots and 7x while folding out buttons bluffs. Which is why lead is significantly better given our position. If we were on his right X/raise would be better


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I wouldn't 3bet since is stack is so shallow and he is stuck 600. It's too likely he will do spazzy things either by calling too wide or shoving too light. Either way, he's not folding, which is precisely what we want him to do when we 3bet here.

Also, the fact that he is only playing < than 75 BB's and is opening with 64 means he is already playing exploitatively bad. He's going to win tiny pots by stealing blinds, than mostly be spewing left and right in medium sized pots, and then not get paid off big enough when he finally hits.

I dont mind his preflop raise at all, although I would prefer it be suited. I raise hands like that with 75 BBs all the time. The amount of things that I hear wont work at 2+2 but yet do work is amazing.

Also, he isnt going to steal blinds. 4 people limped in. Its really easy to say you will exploit him, but you wont 3 bet him even when I hinted that I that thought he was weak here so its obviously not as easy in reality

I wouldn't light 3bet this guy in any circumstance. Contrary to your "respect" for him, he is the big fish in your game. In poker, its pretty wise to avoid bluffing the fish...especially OOP. Depsite of that, you literally have the perfect type of hand to stack this guy. There's no reason to get fancy here. You don't need to start a leveling war with an aggressive player that is spewing unless you are cool with a large amount of variance (which I know you are not based on your previous posts).

And yes, I am aware that he is stealing from limpers. I do it as well. But his image is bad and he is playing at a short stacked table. With a bad image, he is going to get called more (as evidenced by your hand history), so he needs to have stronger holdings now since a larger percentage of hands are going to go to showdown. 64 is an atrocious holding since he is literally crushed against anyone he gets action from at this table, and now the table is willing to call him lighter than what they normally would.

And why does it matter that the table is short stacked? Because now his bets carry way less leverage. He will never get anyone to fold top pair unless the board is super wet. Nobody is going to believe him when he tries to rep big hands (as you have described how he has been getting called down and losing in your OP)

This should be basic. If you think he is playing a winning strategy than I have suspicions about how much money you claim to make in poker. Not trying to sound like a hater, but some of the things you have said have some of the experienced players alarm bells going off

You called the button fairly solid, but as others noted, his pre flop play was laughably bad.

If he makes it $40 we are somewhere on the spectrum of ambitious to spewy.

But $25 is somewhere on the spectrum of completely clueless button clicking to absurdly arrogant.

Alot of this has merit (mostly the part about 3 betting lite against most of these guys), but let me just say that I always buy in for $300 and work up from there and I raise speculative hands in position with $300 and I do it profitably. I also get people to lay down TP and even show me their "great laydown" alot of the time even with that stack size, so those parts of your statement are not always true. Its all player dependent.

OK, maybe I misused the word "solid". He's selectively aggro and tricky and not afraid to push chips around which makes him more difficult to play against than your avg player that might as well play with his cards face up.

He was spewing too much that day for sure but 2 of his river bluffs that got called would've worked against me. He just picked a calling station to bluff which was a mistake obviously.