unknown who is at least opening suited broadways, decent pocket pairs and maybe suited Ax makes it 15 UTG at 1/3, next two players call, one of them seems solid but he flatted 15 UTG+1 so that seems like a mistake, other player is loose pre and has floated flops and turn with just weak Ax hoping to "hit an ace and I know i'm good, no one seems to have anything"

Hero has KcJc in the CO, another loose player in blinds will likely call behind or call a small 3-bet. Hero has 150$ effective been playing pretty tight but just showed a similar 3! jam with AJs. I'm trying to decide between jamming, 3! to around 60 leaving 90$ behind, just flatting IP, or even letting this hand go.

jamming and taking it down would be great, but im a little worried UTG will look me up with AQ AK 99+ etc. 3! to 60 will probably get called by loose player in the blinds and likely thin the field maybe a player or 2, then I can just jam good boards OTF, but without much fold equity pre maybe just flatting is ok, since this hand isn't that great. I'm so short I almost feel fine with just folding pre as well.

How would you play this?

I could go either way, raise or call, leaning heavily towards call.

You can’t really raise to $60 with any hand and fold to a 3bet, so I don’t like the $60 sizing. If you raise any hand it should be an all-in.

If UTG is an unknown, how are you so sure his range includes suited broadways and aces? If that's the case, jam. If not, call.

I would just fold.

Flatting for a huge 10% of our stack seems very meh. The IO simply aren't there, imo.

We're facing an UTG raise so some respect has to be given to the fact that we could easily be dominated (even if this guy is opening more than his fair share, although it doesn't really sound like he is remotely maniacal). And in passive games don't underestimate what UTG+1 shows up with; this is the most common spot to deviate and slowplay monsters like AA/KK, and meanwhile QQ/AK is often a calling hand for lots of people.

GcluelessNLnoobG

He opened and folded to a 3! With KTs from EP. Was the only info I had on him, the way he talked about the hand made me think it wasn’t quite the bottom of his range I was just assuming he probably has all suited Broadway and possibly some or all suited Ax and likely 77+ maybe 66+ since his neighbor had been playing those pairs and flopping sets, he would likely open those just per the conversation.

Jesus, just call and make a strong hand. You're not sitting here with $150 to start looking for spots to 3 bet light and the hand is too strong to fold in a jerkoff game.

Cannot emphasize that point enough. Never commit more than 25% of your stack pre. Jam it or don’t commit that much. Learned this the hard way many times over where I bet too much of my stack pre and priced myself into a Donk jam on flops. Similarly have 3 bet to something like $60 with $200 in my stack when I should have jammed for sure. Likely people fold out when you rip to $200 with only $40 in the pot but you’d be surprised how many people but you on AK and call thinking its a flip.

If there is no other significant dead money in the pot, then I actually disagree with this. I play with a continually topped up stack of $200 in my 1/3 NL game and in situations where it will likely be HU with no other dead money, my 3bet goal is to leave myself with a PSB left to jam on the flop. So on a $200 stack that means 3betting to ~$60 preflop to leave myself with a ~PSB jam. I believe this gives me the most FE (both preflop and flop) and meanwhile if I'm left with just overs on the flop and am called I give myself ~2:1 on a ~3:1 draw (not a horrendous ~worst case result).

Now if there's a crapload of dead money in the pot preflop then it makes more sense to just jam preflop in these cases, often because we won't be able to choose a smaller sizing that gives us FE both preflop and on the flop (plus taking down the huge dead money, and rake free to boot, is a big coup).

Gclueless3bettingnoobG

I can definitely get behind that thought process

This is NOT a good spot for a squeeze.
First of all you are up against 3 opponents already, not a raiser and a cold call, which is the classic squeeze set up.
So the squeeze is less likely to succeed than if you only had to go through 2 players.
Second, you actually think the BB will call your squeeze bet.
So it is not going to work.
Third, you don't have a full stack so your leverage isn't as great and if you get callers and they hit the flop also, they'll be able to call your flop pressure.

Which begs the question, do you think you would be playing this hand as a bluff or for value?
A bluff being able to get better hands to fold, a value bet hoping worse hands call.
It seems to me that you'd be doing this as a bluff but I'm curious how you see it.

Especially if you only have half a stack, you should be waiting for a value situation to get your money in. You can do better than KJ.

This is a fold for me. Calling raises that cost you 10% of your stack and playing fit/fold on the flop is not good poker AND it is just going to slowly bleed you until your stack is so small that people can call your eventual all-in with trash and suck out on you. Calling and then shoving this flop with a one pair hand, in a 5 way pot, is not great either.

I don't think you need to shove right now with KJ, which is a mediocre hand. This is a cash game not a tournament. The blinds remain the same. You are not that desperate. You'd be much better off doing this with QQ/AK or JJ/AQ. You are going to get one of these hands dealt to you in the next 2-3 orbits. Just sit tight.

This is NOT a good spot for a squeeze.
First of all you are up against 3 opponents already, not a raiser and a cold call, which is the classic squeeze set up.
So the squeeze is less likely to succeed than if you only had to go through 2 players.
Second, you actually think the BB will call your squeeze bet.
So it is not going to work.
Third, you don't have a full stack so your leverage isn't as great and if you get callers and they hit the flop also, they'll be able to call your flop pressure.

Which begs the question, do you think you would be playing this hand as a bluff or for value?
A bluff being able to get better hands to fold, a value bet hoping worse hands call.
It seems to me that you'd be doing this as a bluff but I'm curious how you see it.

Especially if you only have half a stack, you should be waiting for a value situation to get your money in. You can do better than KJ.

This is a fold for me. Calling raises that cost you 10% of your stack and playing fit/fold on the flop is not good poker AND it is just going to slowly bleed you until your stack is so small that people can call your eventual all-in with trash and suck out on you. Calling and then shoving this flop with a one pair hand, in a 5 way pot, is not great either.

I don't think you need to shove right now with KJ, which is a mediocre hand. This is a cash game not a tournament. The blinds remain the same. You are not that desperate. You'd be much better off doing this with QQ/AK or JJ/AQ. You are going to get one of these hands dealt to you in the next 2-3 orbits. Just sit tight.

For me this is fold or call. If I'm off suited its a fold. Suited with that many callers in the hand I might see a flop. Hope to hit a big draw and get aggressive from there. But I'm honestly leaning on folding pre and finding a better hand to jam on.

I see that error almost every single time I play on 1/2 or a 2/5 that has drunk recs on a Saturday night. People will put themselves into a situation where they don't have enough to fold post flop but are sure they are behind. I love the ones who walk away from the table and tell you, "I had to call, I didn't have enough money to fold."



Yeah, right. Who put you into that situation buddy?

I agree unless I know the table is so passive that they are all most likely to fold.

Another choice is to choose to not play short. I do like Gobble does; I continually top up. My reason is that if the flop hits me super hard, I want to get max double up value from my hand. If I don't have enough money or confidence to top up, it's time to go home.

And I’ll also add my voice to those saying to top up to the max buy-in.

As someone who likes to play short stack from time to time I totally agree with this. Gotta wait for good spots if you wanna be a profitable short stacker. You get a gambol image but you actually want to get it in good most of the time or with decent equity against multiple people.

Call and pray for a good flop or fold. With these players, I call.