2/5 NL, Good game with some loose and aggressive players.

V1 ($1500)- Big stack player. He stacked me earlier when I made a pathetic bluff/value/noclue stab at a pot.. Ugh.. He probably thinks I am a donk. He is a good player, aggressive.

V2 ($115)- This dude is playing bingo. He is on the button and has burned through two short stacks in 30 minutes.

Hero ($600) Just a dude playing poker. Who knows what other players think of me, I don't even know if they are paying attention.

V2 Is on the button and straddles for $10. --I assume he is going to push in if it is limped around to his straddle. (his is 3 for 3 in pushing on his straddle, lol)



SB Calls 10
Hero looks down at 77.. I limp, with intent of calling his push.
V1 - Opens for $40
Button Smooth calls
SB Folds
I Call to close action.

FLOP ($125) - 67
I check dirty, hoping for a C bet
V1 C Bets $75, Button Call (this puts him all in).

Action comes back to me.. Pot is $275.. With a player all in.

What is the proper play when dealing with a side pot, and a player all in? Certainly if V2 was "live", I would absolutely be raising this set and trying to get my chips in on the turn. Does that change with a player AI?

If I smooth call, do I have to donk out on the turn? I would like to get all in at some point.. I have $485 still to go!

BTW, I am only $600 deep, so I am not worried about stacking off to JJ in the least.. If he flopped nuts to my second nuts, congrats to him..

I don't think V2 changes anything. What are you asking? You're allowed to raise, and I definitely would be raising to about 200. This essentially gives you the betting lead, so you would be expected to bet again. V1 would have to really like his hand to bet the turn again after a x/r. You have to lead the turn OOP , you definitely shouldn't check again. IF you flat PFT you're also overbetting the turn to try and get your money in, making it harder for the hands you're crushing to call you...

I'm still raising on the flop, just sizing a little smaller than I normally would. Gonna raise flop to $175 and shove turn.

If you flat flop you do need to lead turn. Way toouch chance of turn getting checked through. Altogether I think call/lead is a line that looks much stronger than the flop c/r.

I think, if anything, the fish being allin will make any raise from you look looser than normal. This is because cbettor will think you could raise a top pair hand to shut him out and stand a good chance of your hand holding up against the fish.

For that reason plus the drawy flop plus the loose aggro deep stack I would raise every time in this spot. I want to raise something that looks like JX or even TT/99 trying to move V1 off the pot. It needs to be big enough to be read as a bluff or bad V-bet but small enough that you look like you could fold if V1 shipped. That way we give him every opportunity to ship or call with as wide a range as possible. However, your stack is probably not big enough to do that - you'll look like you are pot committed and thus V1 will only continue strong hands...

Pot on flop before your decision is $275, bet is $75 and you have $485 behind. A 3X raise of $225 only leaves you $260 behind so it doesn't look like you'll ever be folding. Even a min raise leaves you only $335 behind and that would give V1 good odds to draw at a flush or straight.

Probably the most bluffy looking would be an overbet shove on the flop. V1 can think you can x/r allin with an overcard + flush draw for sure and maybe an overplayed JX. I think he should find a call with AJ+ and NFDs some of the time.

This should work more frequently here than you'd expect if V1 just caught you making a bad big bet in a previous hand.

I'd shove but id like to hear others' views on this.

Interesting. I certainly wanted to look bluffy in this pot. Just not sure how the impact of an empty side pot, and a player all in would have on the spot.

I did not consider shoving. Perhaps I should have!

You might want to make a forceful bet in the direction of v1 announce "allin" loudly and stair him out initially before breaking eye contact if he stares back. These are all conscious "I'm strong tells" and usually mean weakness. Its kind of a double bluff tell. Only works once though!

Def raise, to $225 or $250 to set up turn shove.

It doesn't look bluffy to a good player if we shove. Any time we raise here we're repping all value because we can never win the pot without improving anyway. I would call and lead small on the turn to rep a weak J that's going for protection.

Making a huge raise on the flop is never working against a good player in this spot, and it only has protection value, which should not be our primary goal since his range way fewer draws than pairs. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to go for the home run and this is one of those spots.

Shoving wouldn't be my normal play, I'd just raise as others have suggested. I'm just wondering if we can leaversge V1's perception of hero as an idiot to get it in now vs a wider than normal range.

I agree v1 will never believe we're bluffin with nuffin because V2 is allin.

I'm suggesting he may believe hero is raising something that rates to be better than V2 but is likely worse than V1 in the hope V1 goes away with his good top pair or overpair and lets hero pick up V2's stack and the other dead money.

E.g. V2 could be sat with AA-QQ AJ and put hero on a range including KJ-J8, TT/99 Axss Kxss Qxss. Stuff that has good equity vs fishy V2 but would like TPGK and over pairs to fold.