This is a hand from a deep-stacked 1/3 game which gave me trouble.

Hero is a bit tilted and playing $1.6k.

V1 is a good LAG who thinks Hero is a weak and bad player. He relentlessly value bets me and bluffs when he senses weakness. In general I admit he outplays me. He has $1.4k.

V2 is a tight passive player with $1k.

OTTH

Button straddle is on ($10). I open to $40 from the SB with JhJs, V1 and V2 call from late position.

In general, I will size up here (due to OOP) and play a very tight range. Didn't love that V1 called me.

Flop Ts7s4s. (pot $130)

It's nice to see overs, and potentially outs if I'm somehow behind.

I lead out for $50 and only V1 calls.

Turn Ac (pot $230)

This isn't a great card in that he has a fair number of Aces in his range, but I think I'm still likely ahead. I bet $100 and he calls.

River 3s. (pot $530)

IMO, this is not a card I really wanted to see. I think a lot of his hands here are Axs or Kxs (if I wasn't dead from the flop).

I check, he bets $450.

Hero?

Thoughts on all streets appreciated. I feel like I got outplayed here and wonder where I should improve.

You need to figure out why you are betting and why it might not be a good idea.

There is little reason to bet the flop here, and even less reason to bet the turn.

To clarify, the whole hand you had no idea if you were ahead or behind but you succeeded in bloating the pot OOP with a marginal hand vs an aggressive player. This should be a good clue that you shouldn't have been betting.

This flop is also going to be bad for most of your opening range hence I suggest not betting here, even with your "good" hands.

I'm betting for value. I don't see any reason to give up on the pot just because it's a sub-optimal flop. I still have an overpair and there's no reason to give free cards to his single-spade or overcard hands.

What line would you take on the flop? x/c? x/f?

I guess x/f is an option but that seems extremely weak against a V who can effectively exploit that.

I'm pretty confident I was ahead, exactly because this V is aggressive. He would raise any flopped set, most flopped 2-pair, and most flopped flushes. He almost never traps, in particular because he knows another spade might kill his action.

He might be right...

I dislike the small flop bet. You admit you don't want to give free cards, but then you basically price him in with all the hands you said you want to charge. If you're going to charge him then do it. Bomb the flop or check. Think of all the possible runouts on this board into two players in position; the vast majority of them are bad for you.

Same story on turn, except now a bad card actually came and you're still putting money in the pot. The hand went farther off the rails with the turn bet, now you beat fewer hands and still don't know where you're at.

River is just miserable. Fold > ship > call

I don't deny that I still have a lot of things to work on.

In general, I've been sizing down my bets somewhat since I think I have a tendency to go for pot-sized bets too often. But looking at it now, this was a bad time to do so since it gives him the right price with his overcard spades. In retrospect, I think I should have gone for $100-130.

Turn is, in retrospect, a terrible card and should have been a check.

For the record, I folded the river.

Looking at this hand, I wonder if I should have limp/reraised big or even just folded. I don't know how to profitably play jacks OOP.

Raise and limp are both fine pre. Limp has a lot of merit if this guy who constantly owns you is in late position.

Would you limp/call or limp/raise?

(Honestly, not seeing a huge difference between limp/call and leading myself here. If anything, limp/call leads to a bigger pot OOP against more V's.)

To be fair I don't play in button straddle games and haven't thought this spot out fully. Being deep in the SB really sucks, especially first to act preflop. It's a huge disadvantage. It would depend on the action whether I limp/call or limp/rr prob. If the tight passive with 5% pfr raises large, I wouldn't limp/rr for example. IMO don't marry yourself to a limp/call or limp/rr without seeing the action first, there's a lot of nuance.

I agree with check/calling flop/turn. Snap call river. An aggressive villain who perceives you as weak likely thinks this is a great bluff card. If you're folding this then he's right. It's likely he doesn't perceive you to be very likely to play Asx this way, so you look pretty capped.

Yeah, this game has a button straddle on a majority of hands so it's a situation I play a lot. It's why my range is already very tight here (TT+, AJs+, AQo+).

The more I think about it, the more I like a strategy of limping 100% of my range from this position. If the old man raises, I can call to set-mine. If one of the multiple aggressive players raises, I can reraise and take down ~$100 most of the time which is a result I'm very happy with for Jacks OOP.

He also sees me as a station though, so he loves to make big bets in situations like this. I could see him having Qs,Ks,As pretty frequently here too. I'd much rather call with Queens or Kings (agreed I probably don't have the Ace here ever).

I never said I am giving up on the pot. You check and call, possibly multiple times. If it gets checked around it's not so bad with a marginal hand OOP. So many of your pre-flop hands dislike this flop that you should consider not betting here with any of your hands.

Giving up "free cards" should not be your primary objective here. Problems arise when you bloat pots OOP with too wide of a value range and then have no idea what to do on later streets and the pot is bigger.

And limping this spot with your whole playable range is fine.

He doesn't have any Ks/Qs hands unless he slow-played a flush. KQo is a fold pre, and if he called pre, it's a fold on the flop and a fold on the turn. If KsTx called pre it's a fold on the turn. He also doesn't likely have Asx because that should raise the flop, not call, unless he slow-played Asxs. You said he doesn't like to slow-play.

Also, you're contradicting yourself a bit. You say he can bluff when he senses weakness. You look pretty weak here on this type of runout given your action. Will he bluff here because you look weak or will he not bluff because he thinks your a calling station?

V is a LAG who loves to play pots against me. He's definitely not folding KQo or KsTx pre or on the flop, but maybe on the turn.

I don't think he would slow-play, but I think he could have AsTx pretty easily.

One thing I *have* been able to pick up on is a bit of a sizing tell. He bombs it with pot-sized or greater bets when he has it, but his bluffs are closer to half-pot.

I agree with limping, button straddle makes SB even worse position than usual. Has there been a lot of 3-betting at the table?

V1 likely knows that your opening range is going to be very tight from there, so he can pretty easily put you on almost the exact range you stated and play accordingly.

I'm fine with betting the flop but as mdelore said it should be more like 90-100. I'd be pretty happy to take it down right there since so many runouts are going to suck.

The turn is an ugly card, even if V1 didn't hit it he can easily bluff you off of JJ-KK, especially if a river barrel is a credible threat. If he raises the turn you have to fold. I'd check and see what he does... probably fold to a decent sized bet since you're going to be equally lost on the river. A check-raise on the turn would actually be interesting if you have any sort of read for weakness, he would have to fold a lot of value, bluffs, and semi-bluffs unless he has the A. Obviously folding if he raises back but it's way better than facing a gross spot on the river like you did.

River is rough... if you bet there's almost nothing that calls that you beat, but checking opens yourself up to getting bluffed or value bet and once again you have no idea which. Maybe a smallish bet-fold of like 175 to block getting bluffed out but it sounds like V1 is in your head so probably just give up and pray he checks it back.

Yes, this game generally has a lot more 3-betting than your average 1/3 game. There's the standard 3-bets but also plenty of players who will 3-bet bluff and 3-bet a wider value range.

Yeah, that's my concern about this spot. I actually think limping has the additional value of surprising him with overpairs he didn't see coming.

I'm fine with betting the flop but as mdelore said it should be more like 90-100. I'd be pretty happy to take it down right there since so many runouts are going to suck.

Interesting line. I don't think I can ever check-raise here (except as a bluff), but I think this is a good card to check.

I actually think I should've bet here. He might still bluff me, but it'd be a lot more expensive for him to do so and somewhat less attractive. I feel like $150-200 would do the trick, though maybe he's just always raising here (both for value and bluffs) so there's no point to it.

I would rethink whether he's calling those hands pre in this spot, or rethink whether or not he's good. It's a very, very bad call as it plays horribly post-flop against your range, which is probably something like {99+, AK, AQs} K/Q-high flops he only has a bluff-catcher with little chance to improve, KK/KQ/QQ flops he can win a medium sized pot against your big pairs but he gets coolered against AK/KK-QQ/AQ. 53s would be a better call (but still bad).

He shouldn't have this hand for the same reasons as KQo. Calling this is lighting money on fire. If you have seen him call UTG raises with hands like this he's not good, he's a fish.

Well, if that's your read go with it and fold, IMO. Be careful, though. If he's a good player he's not this predictable.

I think he over-adjusts against me (because he really likes to play pots against me) and makes too many calls.

Honestly, I think this is one of his biggest weaknesses against me. I think he plays much better against some other players, but thinks I'm enough of a sucker that he'll call ATs thinking I'll just blindly hand him my stack when he outflops me 2-pair or a flush.

I'm keeping an eye on him here to see if he adjusts his sizing in the future. But I also used to admittedly be much more of a station and he's still bombing it with mostly value against me.

Start bluff c/r rivers against him and maybe he'll leave u alone.

Bigger bet on the flop or check, AP; I think the open is fine but Limp raising is slightly better given the fact that playing a big pot multi-way OOP with JJ is not very ideal; unless it is a limp fest and you think that it will get limped around and button will check more than 50% of the time; I think opening size could be a bit larger if you do opt to open

The last thing I want to do is play a bloated pot OOP against good players. At least we're very deep where the SPR will never handcuff us into a commitment decision, so preflop the raise could almost be seen as a "juicer" for setmining with these huge stacks. But overall I don't like building stealable pots OOP against opponents that are better than me. So I would have limped.

Against good opponents OOP I typically lean to a passive get-to-showdown / induce bluffcatching mode (plus avoid bet-to-get-grossly-raised spots), so I probably check the flop.

Same sorta thinking for the turn. I mostly don't like that we are building a hugenormous pot OOP with a very mediocre hand against a difficult player, but that's me.

I'm also checking the river. I'm also wishing the pot wasn't so big. I probably fold.

GpositionisimportantinNLpoker,imoG

limping vs the button straddle is often a good play even with JJ, it might not even be profitable to raise, you may need QQ

i think i like checking the turn with my entire range but it's close

i think folding river is fine