So a friend of mine who I play with regularly was in a multi-way pot with me and chastised me because my involvement cost him a big pot. Yes, we do usually soft play each other but ya'll can save that argument. I just want to know from a poker standpoint because I don't think my play is that bad. I'd like feedback on all streets and just how bad or standard it was. Thanks!

9 handed 1/2 at Maryland Live on a Sunday night

Villain 1 - UTG + 1 (~350): Mid 40's black male relatively new to the table so virtually an unknown. Hasn't done anything crazy in the first orbit he's been here.

Hero - (UTG + 2) (~650): Mid 20's white male. Won a few big pots in the last few orbits so image is loosening up a bit.

Villain 2 - MP (~350): My friend who has a very TAG image and is respected at the table.

Villain 3 - CO (~500): He's the only one that has been at the table since I've sat down and he is very TAG and solid. He hasn't been caught doing anything crazy but he has chased on some flush draws and hit when the pot odds were not in his favor.

Now onto the hand,

Villain 1 straddles to $5, Hero calls with 5 7 , Villain 2 raises to $30. Villain 3 calls. Villain 1 calls. Hero flats. (I know an argument can be made folding but we're all relatively deep and I don't mind seeing a flop multi-way like this closing the action) Thoughts?

Flop: ($117): 2 4 6

Villain 1 checks. Hero checks. Villain 2 bets $75. Villain 3 calls. Villain 1 calls. Hero calls. (So I am open ended and with all these calls behind, again closing the action, I felt like I was getting the proper odds to make this call. Calling $75 to win ($342) so I am getting 4.56-to-1 on my money and only need 2.17.

Turn ($417): 5

Villain 1 leads out for $70. Hero calls. Villain 2 folds. Villain 3 folds. (At this point, in my opinion I definitely see reasons to fold. Especially now that we still have people left behind. Seems like an overpair or set or similar straight draw are the likely hands. I picked up 5 additional outs if I don't think Villain 1 has a set, so I am calling $70 to win $487 which is enough even if only my straight outs are good.)

River ($557): 2

Villain 1 checks. Hero checks. (I could have shoved since effective stack size was about ~$180 but at this point I believe I would just be burning money because I don't see any hand that would fold to that river card).

Anyway, my friend would have won the pot and was upset that I was even involved. He said I shouldn't even be in the hand (with the hand I had) and while I see some questionable spots, I really don't think it is that bad. So someone tell me I am wrong haha. And I know some will say screw the friend it's poker, but we do usually soft-play vs. each other even though I am not here to argue that topic. I just want to know how I played this from a poker stand point. Thank you!

Fold pre, fold your friend

thread title grunch: probably awful


edit (read OP):

Your buddy folded on the turn with a pot of 560 and 70 to call.

And he would have won the hand?

Your buddy is a moron.

So this is what it looks like when fish try to collude...

Pre-flop is pretty bad. Post flop is fine.

hero probably won, and buddy might have had the good ol K5o

fold pre (and i hate doing that, but you are not deep enough, and open limping this hand asks for trouble)

as played, bet flop. better hands than 7 high are surely folding, you got nice equity vs the field, you can set yourself up for multiple street plays and are not capped in any ways which gives you much more room to maneuver later. you might pretty often win it right here with 7 high too. if everyone calls you make money too. sweet.

as played, raise/gii otf. texture doesn´t hit your buddy at all, if you l/c crap like 57s i´d assume every two pair, straight and set combination is still in your range, you got some decent FE even vs overpairs given your buddy is sandwiched and TAG probably means your standard cbetting all the time and b/f basically your whole range vs agression. if you get called/shoved on, you´re priced in and have to do the old get there magic. how can´t you raise???

turn as played, is boring, c/c.

even thinking about shoving otr and reasoning it behind small!! effective stacks shows quite some lack of poker fundamentals. or game theory fundamentals. or common knowledge. whatever.

and yeah, fk that softplaying/collusion ****, and making a thread about the best way to win doing some bs like that on a pokerforum isn´t your best idea also. can´t be your worst though, i mean, you are colluding with a guy who would have won the hand but folded getting 8 to 1 ott closing the action and afterwards complains about you. that action has to be high up your worst idea scale.

fold the limp straddle, fold to the raise from your friend. Whats your plan to win the hand? Your basically playing bingo preflop and your out of position.

Fold pre both times. In a straddled pot, you're nowhere near deep enough to be playing SGs OOP profitably. We could quibble about a few things postflop, but I really don't think any individual postflop decision was all that bad.

Except your friend's, on the turn. Add me to the list of people who have no idea wtf he was doing. Folding a hand that beats yours on the turn getting 95:1 (give or take) is ridiculous, softplaying or not.

I wouldn't be shocked if villain has 3x and checked with the intention of calling when the board paired on the river, while buddy folded bottom two on the turn and would have boated up.

Fold pre. We are not deep enough, and even if we are, playing this oop is pretty awful.

Pre flop is pretty bad.
You are calling off ~10% of your stack pre flop.
It doesn't matter that you are 'deep'. It doesn't matter that you have 300bb on the table.
It matters that you are calling $30 against a pre flop raiser OOP, when he only has ~$350, and he is (according to you) a tight solid player.

Everything about this is just terrible.

Flop is fine as a call. You are getting a good price. All of your outs are to the nuts, you ahve a back door fd (although not a great one) and you are closing the action.

Shoving the flop can also be ok given stack sizes and the amount of money in the pot *if* you think that your buddy will cBet with AK/AQ here, or if he will fold an overpair sometimes/often when you shove. If you think that he won't cBet with air, and he won't fold his overpairs then we are always getting called when we jam. And we might as well just take our nice direct odds plus implied odds.

Also, you say that you need 2.17:1 to call profitably on the flop. That's only if you get to see two cards 8 outs twice. If you think that someone will bet the turn you need to bet the turn then you need to get twice that as you only have 8 outs once and you need close to 4.5:1 on any one street to peel.
Turn is meh. Getting the price we are getting I'm going to call and just see what happens.

+1

Standard line. Your friend has the stupidz

Stop colluding.

Your preflop play is so bad. That know matter how good you are post flop. You won't be able to make up for it.

Limp calling 5-7 OOP is bad!!!! Yes you will ship pots (big ones at that). But your not gonna make enough hands to overcome the price your paying.

fold pre. Shove flop. your pot odd calc on the flop is wrong. that calc makes sense typically when villain is all in or you are sure there wont be a turn bet.

This.

And if he had a good hand, should've raised pre.

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