$1/3 Poker room, BI = $100 - 300

V = loose pre, tight post, OWG, $450

H = LAG who has bullied the table a bit, $700. Both V and I have been at the table for hours.

I have AJss in MP and open pre to $20 which is what I have to do to only get 1 or 2 callers. V calls from LP

Pot = $44 Flop = 7h8s9s

I'm first to act here. Anyone think I shouldn't CB this gutter SD and nut FD? I bet $25, V raised to $50. His min raise is a bit scary. He wants to build the pot is my experience with him here. He's not the type to min bet to see if my CB was air and he's folded all day to my CBs unless he had connected solidly with the flop.

what to do?

My thought's are it is way too little to fold. Not sure if a call or raise is justified.

Min raises, IMO, are not strong at such low stakes. Shoving here seems too much. You could raise here and get it in on the turn. But if you read is really that strong I can just check call two streets and give up on missed river.

i'd start by checking the flop. in fact i dont think id cbet any hand here. this board crushes a cold callers range.

Can you explain why? I've been eating this guy's lunch all day. I know it hits a big part of his calling range of flop hope but two big paint is also a big part of his range. If he had come back with a big raise to price me out, I fold without a worry in a heartbeat.

I don't want to give him a free draw and if any of my draws come, he'll not put a dime in the pot unless I'm lucky enough that he also holds a str8 or flush.

why would you be happy folding your huge draw?

you are the one on a draw vs his range. not the other way around. i would try to realize my equity fully here which means trying to avoid getting priced out. because this board smashes his range and is wet, if you cbet odds are good he will make a big raise and force to you give up your equity which sucks. and if he has like KQo you dont want him to fold because he has 4 outs.

i think you're playing your specific hand vs. hands you "hope he has" rather than your range vs. his range. on this board your opponent has the range (and nut) advantage so its better to be passive, particularly when OOP. like if I had AA here, i still wouldnt cbet. and if i had AKo or AQo, id just c/f.

also if you're worried hitting the flush and not being disguised, most people wont put you on a flush draw if you dont cbet. so if you c/c and then hit the nuts on the turn you can still lead out for a good amount and plenty of people will put you on a semibluff like Ax with the ace of spades. or if you make your draw on the turn and it goes check/check, you can overbet the river and make it look like a bluff.

Totally OK with the cbet, assuming you mix it up a bit (like sometimes checking TPTK and betting sets). Given your description of the OWG, I would just call and take a turn as I would range him with an overpair, sets, two pair, straight, straight, and SF draws. You have enough flush and gutshot straight draws given the ~4:1 odds.

I would consider 3-betting, until I remembered that "tight post" description.

I like a smaller raise pre. On the flop, I think calling is the clear best option.

I'm playing LAG. I'm not trying to have the best hand, I'm trying to steal the pre caller's money. So I only want 1 or maybe 2 caller's and it generally took $20 to get there.

idk how u can play loose and open to 7x at a table with 30 bb stacks but sure. flop i dont think you should 3b since you're very deep and you cant really fold regardless of action.

but if you have been bullying the table, isn't now the ideal time to switch gears and just try to make strong hands and value bet them?

I started experimenting playing LAG to learn how to play against it. I can't make it work against smart players who will push back bc the know I can't be strong 30- 40% of hands. But if the table will only 3B you with KK+, as is often the case in bottom stakes, then it works well. If the CB takes down 3 or 4 pots to each one it loses, it's a good day bc eventually I smash the flop with my crap hand and my opponents don't see it coming.

Yes, I often end the day doing just that. It wasn't time for that yet.

OK, moving on...


I call the min raise and now the pot = $140


Turn is a golden card for me, the Th. Board = 7hs8s9sTh.
Now I have 2nd nut straight and nut FD.


Do I lead out, check since he had last initiative, or go to the men's room and rub one out?

bc my opponent is playing his hand face up. If he prices me out, it's only bc he has a nutty hand. That can't happen often. I can give him one pot bc I'll take many more than that.



again, I'm LAG. All day I've been having to show EP opens of 67su and LP opens of 2 gapper su and any connected off suit of 45+. I've been doing it for hours. He has to fear this flop is right in my wheel house, but it doesn't appear he's afraid. Playing LAG doesn't just mean you open wide and hope to get lucky. You have to apply pressure almost every hand until your V says he is willing to stand up to you.





agreed. AA would suck with that flop against a lot of Vs, I would x/f. But for that flop, I have a MUCH better hand than AA.



wow, disagree. If I just x/c, what am I calling with? That screams of FD. I guarantee this V wouldn't pay another cent if the board 3 flushes.

We're behind a really nutted flop range but the price is way too good to fold. Seems like an easy call.

Best to masturbate in the men's room, I don't know about where you play but the supervisors at my casinos are real rules nits about jacking off at the table. Said some pretty hurtful things about it last time, it's like c'mon where's the customer service? Anyway I'm tempted to check shove this turn and hope he has Jx for a stack sized free roll.

Lead $75. You're now ahead of, or tieing his entire range. The only thing to fear is a board pair on the river.

3bet flop to 150. If the turn bricks you shove. Im taking an aggressive line here

Perhaps you are the guy Daytona banned for jacking while getting a massage? True story.

Good plan and might have worked better than mine. I led out too much. $100. He folded saying, "you probably have the jack." Then showed T6cc. I told you guys he was tight post. He folded 2nd nuts.

It's no wonder I had been stealing his pre flop calls all day, the only thing he would defend is stone cold nuts.

He may consider you a one-trick pony ... and he had 3rd nut/ass end of the straight ... not that hard to fold.

My Suspicion is that he is very good at hand reading and your game has a lot of easy marks. If you don't play with him much, note it and move on. If he is a reg and you play with him a lot and is worth your effort, you need to start mixing things up and playing some lite mind games with him.

I love it when people attempt to bully the table with shortstacks, it plays right into my ~66bb shortstack strategy.

Anyoo, I would limp in but that's obviously my style. Our raise did get this HU in a very manageable SPR ~11 pot, albeit OOP, but likely to a guy who isn't going to give us much resistance postflop, so pretty decent result (if expected).

I'm fine with a flop cbet. We have a bunch of equity if he continues and meanwhile can easily fold out better hands (better Ax, underpairs). When a tight old white guy raises the flop, it's usually pretty nuttish, so we have little FE. But thanks to the lol minraise, we are easily getting the odds to continue. So I call.

ETA: On the turn I'd be attempting to take advantage of my laggy image and bet a decent amount, at least $100 (basically repping a busted flush draw that is bluffing this scare card) and setting up a river shove. I would hate checking because this guy is going to check back almost everything other than the nut straight on this scare card, plus half the deck is a river scare card (so it's not as if we're getting any more money when those come).

ETA: Whole hand is played fine, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Flop: Checking this all day with my entire range. Even with an overpair, we lose to just about everything. AP, just call because OMCs don't bluff min raise.

Turn: I like leading small 33% as a blocker bet. I might do this with 2prs, sets, straights and FDs. Make it look like I want to set my own price for draws. With our actual hand we still get value from worse hands and V can't hero fold his strong hands. And possible he will spazz out against the "weak" sizing.

Really disagree with checking all parts of our range here. I think we should be playing much more exploitively; guy is a face up just-playing-his-hand kinda guy, there's no reason to think this guy is going to massively outplay just cuz this board supposedly favours his range more than ours. So by all means, checking AA here can be fine/ok (small hand, small pot, only one pear, he can have a bunch of equity on this flop, etc.). But checking monsters or those with very good equity is very meh, imo.

GcluelessexploitablenoobG

GG, keep in mind I do not advocate to c/c with my entire range. I'm going to c/r, c/c and c/f some.

Ah, ok, fair enough.

GI'mstillonboardwithabetherethoughG