5/10 NL $2k buyin max. at FW. Game is loose, semi-aggro. Lot of hands raised preflop (4x-8x), but very little 3-betting (mostly by me if at all). Dream game if you are deep IMO.

Hand #1: Straddle pot. Hero is in MP2 with 66. I flat, bunch more callers including blinds. 8-way to the flop for $20.

Pot ($160)
Flop: J68

Checked to me and I bet $100 (probably not enough in hindsight). Folded to the button who calls, SB calls, everyone else folds. Button was very loose and bad. SB was a middle aged woman who had not been there very long. Bought in for the max. Not very many reads on her other than I saw her check-raise the river with the nuts in one other hand, so she mght be a bit tricksy.

Pot ($460)
Turn: Q

SB stands up, peers at my stack, fires $275 into the pot. She has $1300 or so left, I cover. Hero?

Hand #2: J7 in SB. Limped around, I check my option. 8 players.

Pot ($80)
Flop: 564

I check. UTG leads for $75. Button flats, folded to me. UTG villain was a decent player, but seemed to like to play table captain when he was in a hand, firing multiple times with marginal hands, so I have his range as pretty wide here. Previous history is one hand where I saw a free flop in BB with 53o, flopped two pair on 8 high board, c/c flop, c/r turn and he folded. Button was very loose and generally bad. UTG has $3k, button $2200, I cover.

I decide to flat here for a few reasons. First, I thought letting a card peel off had a lot of value given that I had blockers to 2 of the 9 outs for flush draws. Both players ranges were very wide, so I wanted to potentially give one pair a chance to improve to trap for more $$. I was willing to allow the board to pair and/or have a 4th heart come and maybe have to fold.

Pot ($280)
Turn: T

I check again. UTG bets $250, button reluctantly folds. Hero?

Hand #3: MP2 with 98. UTG +1 raises to $50, I call, SB calls, the rest fold.

Pot ($160)
Flop: J75

SB checks, UTG +1 bets $100, I call with my double gutter/backdoor fd, SB folds.

Pot ($360)
Turn: 8

UTG +1 bets $200. I call again given I have picked up more outs versus anything but a set. Hindsight, raise is probably better?

Pot ($760)
River: 2

UTG +1 quickly bets $500 (with $1200 behind...hero has $1500ish). Hero?

Thanks in advance for the input.

Shorn

hand 1 i think you can go either way. if you think shes never folding QJ or J8 or Q8 then id just get it in on the turn. if not, i'd call and rep a draw and let her bomb again.

hand 2 i think calling down is the best play because hell continue wtih all bluffs and youll pot control if he has you beat (i think this is pretty rare though)

hand 3 i definitely raise the turn 1000%

1. I would just raise the turn. I guess its a little obvious but lots of scare cards and she could have Qcxc which isn't folding.
2. Calling down seems fine. Part of me wants to lead a blank river, in case he is pushing something mediocre, and then you randomly lead he might put you on a busted draw etc. Though then you lose value if he has nothing and getting raised is a little gross.
3. Unless we have a read that villain is going to fold AJ+ on the turn, raising the turn seems bad. Calling seems fine and on the river I think it is a very standard fold.

1. Don't think she's firing big on the river given your lead into a crowded field on flop and the fact that you didn't fold the turn. I'd actually raise the turn to get her to play for stacks, hopefully on turn. Her having you beat on turn is incredibly slim.
2. Think calling down is fine but agree with IB, i like a river lead on a blank, though i differ in my opinion that the lead should be small enough to induce a raise which you'll happily call.
3. There's something odd about his sizing, especially on turn. I think if he had a big hand he would bet bigger to protect against all straight and flush draws, unless of course his hand is in that range, something like J10 suited (which beats you and you'll have trouble moving him off given he's put in over half his stack on this hand). Seems like you're beat here and a fold is logical.

I'm not saying lead small to induce. I'm saying leading the river looks suspicious. If you get raised its kind of tough actually.

Hand 1 I raise / call turn

Hand 2 I call turn, allow villain to fire 3 on river

Hand 3 need to know villain a bit, but if villain is good/thinking I like raising flop.
Need stacks too
(esp if villain knows I wouldn’t be raising Jx by itself.)
Against certain players I like a turn raise too, but that is super risky.

Hand 1 - Raise and get it in. She's in the small blind so any two pair can be in her range, and your hand is a big favorite against [all two pairs, straights].

Hand 2 - As played, I don't think you can really go wrong with any line, although I prefer leading the flop.

Hand 3 - I think raising the flop is better than raising the turn. As played I'm calling the turn since we have some decent showdown value if he checks the river, and if he bets river obviously fold unimproved.

OK folks, thanks for thoughts so far. A few continutions:

Hand 1: I decided I would flat the turn to make my hand look more like a draw so she would potentially bomb the river with most of her range. Additionally, the button might come along as well which I was OK with and if he backraised, then obviously I am OK getting it all in depending on what sb does.

So, I flat, button folds. River is T. She pauses 5 seconds and checks. Hero?

Hand 2: I again flatted the turn thinking I would get more value by allowing him to bet all rivers. River is 8. Hero checks. UTG bets $400. Hero?

Hand 3: Definitely agree that I screwed up here and should have raised somewhere (I like the turn best, but I see merit for flop too). Anyway, I mucked because I didn't know villain all that well, although I suspected his range was polarized to nuts/air. I was right...he showed whiffed AK. Grrrrrr

Hand 1 - "I decided I would flat to make my hand look like a draw so she would bomb the river." So you think she is bluffing on the turn? I strongly disagree, I think she has a very strong range on the turn, which is why you should get it in there because your set is still better than that range. As played I'm betting really small for value on the river, like 35% pot, something she can call with two pair.

Hand 2 - Stack sizes are a bit awkward for a raise, but since I don't think he's ever going to 3-bet bluff, you can probably make it like 1050 and fold to a raise. Or just call. Folding obviously out of the question.

Hand 3 - Meh, **** happens.

Hand 1- Actually, I think I am ahead of a lot of her range on the turn so no I don't think she was bluffing. But I see your point about getting it in there when she appears willing. I guess I traded AI equity with her to try and get the button to come along which failed. In hindsight, probably a bad trade. Anyway, remembering her previous CR on the river with the nuts (and given the atrocious river card) I checked behind and she showed down T9 for the turned str8.

Hand 2: These were my thoughts too...thanks for the confirm. Clearly I am not folding, I just wasn't sure if villain would call a small raise with worse and I would be in a pretty tough spot if he 3-bet pushed. So I ended up just calling and he showed T8. Still not sure if I squeezed the most out of this one.

Hand 3: I know, I know. Just sux when a good amount of your poker fibers want to call, you fold, and then villain shows you the dirty bluff.

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Shorn

There's a problem with your logic here. You said you want to call to disguise your hand as a draw so that she will bomb river. But if she puts you on a draw, she will only bomb river if she herself is bluffing.

This logic works on the flop --> turn, but not turn --> river. There's no reason to bomb the river with a made hand if your opponent had a draw on the turn, since they either outdrew you or ended up with nothing.

In general, the "I didn't know if he would call worse" thinking is going to cost you a lot of equity. People make crazy calls all the time. Small value bets/raises work wonders. If he bets 450, make it 1000 and watch the value roll in.

What live players don't do that often is go crazy on the river with 3-bet all-in bluffs. You might think you're in a tough spot if he jams, but against 98% of opponents you can very safely fold without much concern.

hand 1 is definitely a raise/call situation and it's really not close imo.

hand 2 i definitely would have lead the flop and now were in a situation where c/r kinda sucks because we're basically turning our hand face up and not to mention in the event that we're getting coolered it's not exactly minimizing the damage. Leading the flop allows you to not have to turn your hand face up and allows you to dictate the action. As played I guess i'd prob just go c/c again and pray for a non-action killer and c/c or c/r the river depending completely on his bet size.

hand 3-
depending on the villain I prob raise the flop, or if I flatted the flop then I think im raising the turn. As played..fold??? Now you see why I like my lines better



BTW names of villains would allow my input to be a lot better as i know most of the regs

Hand 1 is only really annoying because she's really close to being short enough that you can easily raise/call and chalk it up to a cooler if she has T9, yet not quite there. Obv if we raise and she insta-shoves then we're almost getting the right odds to call yet almost never having the best hand.

I'd still probably get it in a large amount of the time, but I think it's fine to just flat turn here if you pick up any significant tells that she's way stronger than her usual range here. OTR just check behind a club, shove any board-pair on river, and possibly soulread fold if she howitzers river blank but it really depends once again on how light she'd bet river (which I don't think is very since she's probably fairly loose-passive).

Hand 2 what everyone else says, and hand 3 I would raise flop since it leaves your options so much more open for future streets while with a turn raise his hand might feel strong enough in a vacuum to him regardless of the relative strength you're showing that he'll make a crying call. When the board might come gross you can get him off, while if the turn comes raggy but you bink the river then it'll be tough for him to put you on 89 exactly.

by fw do you mean foxwoods?

Yes.

1. You didn't post stacksizes but i would def raise/get it in, can't call and let BTN overcall and hate life on the river, i doubt she's folding anyways.

2. I lead flop here a lot but as played I would c/c down.

3. I'm ok with mixing it up here between raising flop, raising turn, flatting turn but i would fold river as played. Whether or not I raise flop or turn is villain dependent.

While I agree lots of live players fail to make thin value rasies on river im not sure this is the right spot. Villian easily could have been bluffing with bare ace of hearts, and even bad players will realize this is a decent spot with stack sizes to jam all in as a 3bet bluff on river.

Also, if the opponent has a lower flush they still might not pay off the raise, since hero will probably only value raising medium to large flushes. In order for hero to be bluffing he would have to check called two streets with a hand like pair with ace of hearts and turned it into a bluff on river which doesn't seem likely. I just don't think a raise on river gets called enough to offset the chance you get rebluffed or are beat.

Hand 1 I definitely raise turn since she has 2 pair here very often and you lose a ton of value if bad rivers come since she might not put money in anymore, while she would have gotten it in on turn since you can rep a draw. This is apparent since she failed to value bet river with straight once the flush got there.

I am also curious who you are/villians are since I play at foxwoods 5/10 a decent amount

I don't play often enough to be recognizable TBH. I come down maybe 5x per year either on Friday or Saturday. The villains seem to play more often, especially the one in the flush over flush hand. Apparently, he had won a tourny recently for $40k or so in one of the lower buyin events at the last FW event as lots of folks kept coming up and congratulating him on the score.

Ehhh hand 1 I think is closer than you all think. This is live poker and it's a woman. With no other reads, I put her on T9 almost always - I call and see what she bets on the river. If it bricks and she shoves I would likely fold - if she bets like ~600 I'd probably call.
Hand 2 I actually really like the idea of a turn raise against certain players. Here, against a standard live player, I am calling turn and deciding on the river.
Hand 3 I think your only play is to call down. I mean there aren't many flushes that you beat.