1/2.

V (covers hero) is fifty-year old loose-passive alcoholic slurring his words. He said he once lived under a bridge, and his face shows years of neglect. He takes a long time to make decisions preflop, moving his hand slowly, as if his battery is low on power. Today, he had a shower and got some money—he bought in for 500. He open-limps and calls a lot. He bets his good hands. I have never seen him 3bet preflop. Postflop, he’s folding boards where his opponent’s range is superior. When he has bet his hands or called down, he has shown the goods.

Hero (390) is TAG. In slurred words, V is commenting on hero’s play.

OTTH

LJ open-limps. Hero in CO raises to 12 with KsQh. V in the SB calls. BB calls. LJ calls. 4-way.

Flop (43 after rake): Kh3s3d. V donks 33. Folds to hero. Hero?

I call down with high frequency here to keep bluffs rolling. Another option would be to min-click raise flop but that caps Villains range and folds out bluffs. I think I lean towards never folding and treating this as the strong hand that it is against a LAG alcoholic; calling down and feeling good about it.

The read suggests a stronger range than your average drunk lag so would proceed carefully and try to avoid having stacks go in. It is a dry board so not much being represented here except Kx and 3x. 3x folds more often pre and might play postflop as a trap. You are ahead of most Kx and should certainly call the flop bet.

The alcoholic part is well documented but not sure where anyone is seeing the “LAG” part. OP describes villain as basically fit or fold passive. Never 3-bets, folds boards that favour preflop raiser’s range, only shows the goods when betting.

So he’s not donking 4 ways on K33 without at least a K based on description.

Not to mention he potentially wouldnt 3-bet AK pre based on OP.

So this comes down to whether he would value own himself with worse kings.

I probably call flop and fold turn if he doesn’t slow down.

I think 3x is very much in play here as is KK (though we block it) and also AA. Whether I want to call here is based on what I know about Villain’s postflop tendencies. If he has KT or KJ will he keep betting? Will he keep his sizing consistent whether he is value owning himself or betting a better hand? If yes, calling now to fold turn isn’t good.

I almost want to fold right now due to RIO considerations.

Calling flop to fold turn is based on the premise that V will not go for 3 streets against a preflop raiser with a hand like KT. This is speculative and I don’t really like it despite me advising it. It almost feels like “calling to see where I’m at”. I’m on board with folding flop as an exploit based on OP’s description but it feels bad too. Raising doesn’t make much sense. As much as it feels like bad poker, I’m ok with peeling flop and evaluating turn if H has a read that he can get a cheap showdown unless V has him crushed.

Min-click it. Fold if he comes back over the top.

I don't like giving up the betting lead to this guy when he donks. If he 3B's flop, we can fold. If he bets big on turn after we raise flop, we can fold.

I don't want to just call down the whole way, letting this guy take us to value town with AK or 3x. If we're beat, I want to know on the flop. If we min-click it, and he just flat calls, I'd expect him to check to us a lot on the turn, even with AK or 3x, expecting us to bet. We can check-back, and see what he does on the river.

Seems like a standard call doesn't seem like any other option is good.

I don’t hate a raise as much as others.

A small raise will fold his air which is bad but he has a bunch of worse Kx and worse that you can’t imagine (pps) that will call and check turn. You can pot control turn checking back and playing a straight forward river often betting for value or calling.

Obv fold to further aggression on flop or turn.

Stationing him all the way and soul reading might be most profitable.

I don’t drive to the casino to fold top pair to drunks on the flop for one bet but whatever.��

This is almost always a Kx hand trying to take control of the pot. Can't imagine him donking a 3 here but i've seen stranger things.

So we raise small, he calls, turn checks through, then he bets river and we call. How much did we actually save ourselves compared to just calling him down all the way? If anything? Especially considering that if we just call and the turn is a heart a better hand could freeze up and not extract as much from us.

I think if we are willing to commit more money to this pot than just the flop bet, we can call more than one bet. I'm not necessarily opposed to that if we think this guy will own himself on the turn. I just don't want to call flop to fold turn.

I think a call is in order here. Although he's described as never 3betting, what is the sample size? There has to be at least some chance that he's going to 3bet KK/AA/AK. If that's the case then this can be a weak King a lot, I would look to make this a 2 street game and thus intend to bet the turn if checked to (most likely to check back river, although that could b missing out on value).

I'm not sure given description I would call down 3 streets. But call for now.

Results:

Hero calls.

Turn (106 after rake): 5h

V bets 90. Hero folds. V mucks.

My takeaway was never underestimate your opponent just because he’s drunk. He was playing a passive low variance game, fit-or-fold on the flop, never did anything stupid. He’s not so reckless that he would barrel two streets with KT or KJ or even open-bet the flop with a three-quarters pot bet into three players.

I’d prob play exactly like this, small raise on flop check back turn and fold if he bets massive on river

I agree we shouldn't underestimate our opponents. Likewise, we shouldn't over-estimate them either. He could be playing a fit-or-fold game, but K9-KJ might be a fit, as far as he's concerned. He might think barreling off with top pair on a paired board isn't reckless.

Regarding his bet-sizing, I'd consider it within the context of the game size and his past betting patterns. In smaller pots and at lower stakes, it's not uncommon for players to bet larger proportions of the pot. So while betting 30 into 40 is 3/4 pot, it may just be a smallish 30 bet into a smallish 40 pot.

As for not wanting to call flop just to fold turn - that's sort of what I was getting at when I suggested a min-raise on flop. I don't like these situations, where a fishy, wild, aggro, or drunk opponent donks into us when we have a hand that seems too good to fold, yet probably isn't good enough to continue calling down on turn and / or river.

I don't see the flop as a binary choice between call or fold. Raising small on the flop to slow V down, likely get him to check to us on the turn, and get us to the river without bloating the pot is also an option, one I like better than calling or folding.

I also just like raising donk leads whenever we have a hand that's likely beating whatever V has, almost as a matter of principle. The effrontery of donk leads deserves punishment, and I've found relentlessly raising donk leads from weak players to be immensely profitable.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Next time I min-click raise. I’m ok with the results, though.

I know what happened, but with your reads of this player, I think I just fold the flop and never show. If he has worse than KQ, so be it.