1/2 game, $250 stacks. Hero puts out button straddle $5 (rare for me). One limp in EP, Villain limps CO, hero raises AQ to $20. EP folds, V hesitates and calls (read: it's a marginal hand)

Have had 3 pots with this villain that went hu past flop. One was checked down, 1 he bet $50 in position on river I folded, other I bet $50 in position on river, he called, i won.

Flop ($43, hu) T92
Check, bet $25, call.

Turn ($91) K
V checks, hero?

2nd best turn card of you, bet 40 and if he calls check back the river un improved

flop is probably a check.

turn bet at least 2/3 pot. maybe more.

I would check back flop because our hand is too weak to bet call vs a check raise and too strong to want to bet fold vs a check raise. We really want to realize more equity by checking flop and seeing turn when we have 2 overs plus backdoor flush and straight draws. I would definitely bet this turn.

Flop may indeed be a check, but definitely bet the turn now. Make it big enough to put pressure on a Ten.

i actually think you need to overbet this turn to get pair+gutshot hands to fold like JT, J9 etc. if you arent willing to do that just check. betting small would be pretty pointless. obv calling off a turn CR (which would hardly ever happen imo).

i think this is a draw youre less inclined to bet. A hand like A3cc or Q7 are better bluffs, because A3cc unblocks Qcxc draws you want them to call with, and AQ straight draw doesnt want to fold out other Qx because you can stack them when the J comes.

This doesnt mean you dont bluff it too, balance doesnt really matter, but if you were gonna check back a draw, this would probably be one of them. Im incluned to check back at least some of my draws here, and maybe all of them.

Almost every Tx is calling. KT hits 2p, QT JT hits straight draw, T9 flopped 2p. The straight draws KQ KJ hit top pair, QJ hit stright So maybe you fold out 9x, T8 or AT or something. Maybe you fold out random overs like AJ. Thats about it.

Pre seems way too small. Flop is fine. Turn I bet at least $75. Make it look like you don't want the draws to hit

I may be inclined to go a bit larger preflop. Remember, we're playing shallower with the straddle.

Flop, I'm checking back. This is a better board for the over-limp/caller than the PFR, and our hand isn't good enough to call a c/r. V should be checking most of their range here anyway.

Turn I'm betting larger and calling a x/r if that comes. Evaluate the river if we don't improve. I dont see a ton of value in bombing the river as a bluff if V checks unless V is capable of laying down 2pr.

I like betting the turn but you shouldn’t go too small. If you bet half pot ($45) and Villain jams ($205 total) you are going to be in an uncomfortable spot where you will have to call off despite not great odds. Betting $75 increases your fold equity and gives you a better price if Villain jams.

I agree that river is likely a give up as well.

This is such a standard overbet spot. Given the stack sizes I probably just shove. Flop is not a check but you should probably size down.

Flop is a check majority of the time with this board for MP vs Btn in a SRP

Eta: I just reread OP and this is CO vs BTN. But I think it's still valid given the overlimp. Though I don't have a spreadsheet with sims for that specific spot.

You can range bet this board
With two overs, uncapped range vs a live fish and two backdoors checking is going to underperform by a lot I would imagine.

Also I would be careful with trying to blindly follow some sim you pull up. You want to understand the drivers or incentives behind the actions for each hand class.

Not just trying to memorize some arbitrary flop report or something where the ranges and actions might not remotely resemble the environment you're playing in.

Yeah but also ace high is just good pretty often and you can often realize your equity vs fish.

I think checking is fine, maybe even a little better. I have been checking back flops HU more often, because population seems to stab too often and with a mostly linear range on the turn, which leaves their checking range too weak to face a delayed cbet, and leaves their turn betting range vulnerable to raises, including value raises when you hit your A or Q.

Its not that cbetting isnt profitable here, its that an even more profitable betting line is available on the turn. I have no problem with c betting with the intention of denying equity as well, i just think both lines are good.

It's because this type of villain tend to overfold and under check raise. So equity realization isn't a huge consideration on a board like this.

Solvers split because they have to contend with more defends and Cr's.

There is benefit to keep dominated hands in and gaining value on Ace and Q turns but the trade off is losing the chance to win the pot immediately and ability to bluff turn and river.

Not saying you can't bluff at all if you check it's just that it will be trickier to navigate for a lot of people.

what flops are you not cbetting HU in position vs loose passive?

Lol.

Fwiw, these are spreadsheets provided by UpSwing with corresponding in-depth analysis. I'm aware of the drivers behind it. Im not going to argue or go into detail here bc you're not really looking to listen. But I mean, look at the equity comparisons as a baseline. It's not really even a question that the overlimp/call range hits this board better than ours.

A lot of medium to low connected ones I'll be more selective on.

And Ace medium low and Ace low low.

T x xr is probably one of the top boards I would look to range bet because you can barrel off so many run outs.

It's not that I'm not willing to listen. I do understand the merits for checking and it's a viable line sure.

I'm very aware of the upswing material.

Other than the stuff by David Yan and some of Ryan Riske's stuff I'd say most of the material is meh.

But saying checking flop without a doubt is the best thing because you saw it on one of their spreadsheets and everyone else is lol wrong is a little whatever to me.

Like I said it's very dependent on the pre flop ranges and villain's responses.

But in either case seems like you're studied up well on these spots so not worth further discussion.

This is a GTOw sim btw for this spot.



Ranges used:

Apologies for being abrasive. In my OP, I mentioned checking because this isn't really a good flop for our range or actual hand. A-high isn't good enough to withstand a x/r, which V would be doing with a lot of their value range. We also want to keep weaker hands in. I used the spreadsheet to back up that assertion, not as a "blindly follow." Beyond that, this is against 2 limpers, so it's tough to sim the hand.

I stand corrected. Though, to fully solidify my pedantry, gtoW won't account for the limps. We'd probably need a PokerSnowie to fully sim the spot.

Yeah a little different because of limps, but the nice thing about GTOw is that the specific action taken matters less than the ranges you assign the villain(s). The solutions that are derived are not calculating "3bet, 2bet, limp". It's what those actions translate into hand ranges.

The main idea here is that you have both an equity and nut advantage by a pretty decent margin. So in other words you don't need poker snowie to get a good approximation of the spot as long as your range assumptions are reasonable.

You have all the overpairs and most of the top sets if not all.

And clearing out equity instead of letting 2 wide ranges get a free card to the turn is a good thing.

To comment on this specific item.

1. You are not going to get CR'd very often for a couple of reasons.
a. Villains are passive.
b. Even if they had a nutted hand they would typically slow play this type of
board.

2. This Ace high hand is strong enough to withstand a x/r. Surprise!

Can you expand on this point a bit more?