In general, I prefer to play deepstack NL, but because Bay 101 only allows max starting stacks to be 100BB, I like to keep the pot small so that I have more turn and river flexibility, allowing me to make more deepstack-style maneuvers. I would only sometimes bet this board, and my bet-size would be $20. A pair of aces with a 10 kicker is very mediocre, especially out of position against 4 other players. More likely than not, I would check and see what happens. If a late position player bets, I would never fold. I would mostly call and sometimes raise. If a player bets and one player calls, I would mostly fold, sometimes call, and depending on my specific read, sometimes use the hand to make a squeeze play as I would with any garbage hand. (I'm an extremely exploitive player who bases a lot of decisions on betting patterns and physical tells. Unless I have a monster hand, I rarely go to showdown. So turning my medicre hands into bluffs is normal for me, even if I am bluffing with the best hand, so long as all signs say that I will win the pot uncontested).



I like this bet by XXXX. I've read many comments that say he is trapping with a really big hand, which might be true, but there are three possible scenaries: (1) He has fullhouse and doesn't want you to chase you off of an ace of flushdraw. (2) He has an ace and wants to see if you have the king or better, andif not, he wants to set up a river bluff in case you also have the ace, and (3) he has the flush draw.

Let's ignore case (1) since that beats you no matter what. If this is case (2), he has an ace, then since you bet the pot on the flop, you clearly don't have the king. You might have a fullhouse, but you don't have just the king. And since you checked the turn when the king turned, you probably don't have a fullhouse either since a fullhouse has too much value. So that means that your most likely holding is the ace of a flush draw. By betting 33% of the pot, XXXX is keeping the pot small and also creating a situation where you will only bet the river f you have him beat with either fullhouses or flushes. Whether a diamond comes on the river or not, it is safe to assume that at best, you have just the ace, and a big bet will get you to fold. And if this is the case (3), he has the flush draw, then if you bet the river he will almost never raise and if you check the river, he will value bet.

What can you do about all of this? Well, considering that you probably have a very tight/passive imagine, this is a great spot for you to turn your hand into a bluff right now. It's not really a bluff, really. There is $90 in the pot and XXXX bets $30. If you raise to $115, he will only call with trip kings or better. He will most likely fold all flush draws as well since he might be drawing dead against a fullhouse and you don't have enough chips in your stack to justify the call. If you are re-raised, you should fold. And if XXXX calls, consider check-folding the river. But overall, this play should earn you somewhere between $50-$70 EV in the long run.
It is by far better to do this bluff on the turn rather than the river since only now do you have the chance to knock out the flushdraws. Also the long term benifits of such a play is that XXXX and players like him will think twice about assuming your flop bet/turn check is weakness.

You have a few options here: (1) you can check and if he bets, you should fold. If he checks behind you, you win against QJ and Q10, and chop against AJ or less. Considering that you XXXX is a skilled LAG, you turn call of $30 is not a very good play because in order for you to make up that amount on the river in +EV means that he will have to check behind at least 40% of the time on the river, which isn't going to happen. (2) you can make a $35 block bet that will be called by all hands, pair of aces or better, but will probably only get raised by a fullhouse or the nut flush. Most LAGs will not raise here with an ace or king because your bet looks like a flush that is afraid of a fullhouse, or a fullhouse that wants to get called. For this play to be profitable, you have to expect XXXX to call with an ace at least 32% of the time, which seems high to me. So I would not make a block bet. (3) I would say that you have less than a 30% chance that XXXX has a fullhouse and an overbet of $160+ will only get called by fullhouse or better, and possibly the nut flush. Of all the choices, this one is the best, yielding a+EV of around $55. However, keep in mind that it cost you $30 on the turn to make this play on the river, which actually make this a very low profit/high variance play, and not a very good one at that.


SUMMARY: On the flop your goal should be to gain information as cheap as possible, which usually means checking, and your hand has very little value, you should try to keep the pot small. If you bet this board, you should bet no more than $20. A lot of players bet more, not for strategic reasons, but because theywant to end the hand early, but you should try get comfortable with playing post-flop in these kinds of situations. It is only scary when the pot-size grows out of control and all you have is a weak hand.
Since you bet the flop, you should either bet or check-raise the turn. In either case, if you see the river OOP, you will get outplayed, so unlike your flop bet, I recommend that your turn bet be significantly larger, close to pot-sized. You are in the big blind, so for you to have a hand like K-8 fits perfectly with your betting pattern and this bet should get an ace and flush draws to fold. You cannot make this play very often or it will lose its effectiveness. Sometimes you should check-fold, sometimes bet, and sometimes check-raise. Check-calling is an option also, but never against skilled aggressive players.

was vin diesel involved in this hand?

OP plays much better now than when he posted this.