Hero: mid-30s, $600, lag image. Haven't three-bet much, but I'm the most frequent raiser at the table.

Villain 1: early 30s, asian, $475. Been at the table for about 90 minutes. More focused on tv and mobile devices than the game. Raises from late position pretty frequently. He's folded once to a 3-bet preflop. Postflop, tends to get very sticky with one pair. Lost a medium-sized pot to him earlier in the night when he defended his straddle with a7o against my preflop raise (one other caller), then check-called two barrels on an aj44 runout.

Villain 2: white, mid-60s, $250. Fairly tight rec player. Pretty abc.

Table is generally very limp-happy, with a couple players who like playing bingo on every flop. Flops tend to be 4-to-6 way, and there haven't been a lot of notable/tricky postflop plays.

Preflop: 3 limpers, V1 raises to $12 from the cutoff, V2 calls from the button. I have ahqc in the small blind, decide to raise to $40. I think this will definitely prevent playing a 6-way pot oop, and I might win the pot uncontested. Folds around to V1, who calls but doesn't appear to consider a reraise or a muck. V2 folds.

Flop (2 players, ~$100) is AdJc10c. Good-not-great flop for us. I think V2 either has a pocket pair or broadway cards. This flop smacks the hell out of his range.

I lead for $50*, intending to fold if he raises. My read is that villain is more of a station than an aggressor, and my hand should look a lot more like AK than AQ due to the preflop raise. I don't think he'll bluff-raise here, and I would rather bet-fold than be stuck check-calling.

Villain calls. [Great. Now I have zero idea where I'm at.]

Turn (2 players ~$200) is the Kc. Flush got there, 4-card straight on the board, and I have broadway with redraws to the royal flush.

What should our bet size on the turn be?



*In retrospect, this bet should probably be larger. $75 or so.

What are the stakes?

1/2nl, sorry.

Yes, flop bet should have been a bit bigger. I probably go about $125 on turn, but if he raises it pretty much sucks. We could be drawing to one card or dead. Tough one, because the though of bet/folding is horrible and what's he calling with besides a chop or flush? Wouldn't he have raised two pair+ on flop? Maybe a check/call is better? Can't wait to read more responses.

PF: Fine. I like to mix up 3betting this hand and flatting this hand to a late position raise.

F: You fire half pot with your TPGK, giving him 3:1 odds. Pretty draw heavy board, but he elects to flat. He's asian and straddles, so he likely has a bit of gamble in him. So when he just flats, what does he have?

One Pair/Gutshot: AK, AQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT
Two pair hands: AJ, AT, JT
Broadway: KQ
Sets: JJ, TT
Open Ender: 89

Probably raises with: Sets, Two Pair.
Probably flats with: One pair hands, broadway, pair/gutshot, open ender.

I'm fine with the half pot bet, but probably should of been more. I remember reading somewhere that if we're not exactly sure what to bet, then 2/3 pot is good. I would of bet something like $65. We are betting for value with our TPGK.

T: The action card comes: Kc. Well, we don't have the nuts. I'm still thinking he has a one pair hand or a pair/gutshot, and if he had KQ he just got counterfeited. The King completes some pair/gutshot hands into two pair. He might be scared of the clubs/broadway. I'd bet something that two pair will call. Pot is $200, I'd bet something like $90.

RE: flop. Everything in life is a compromise and I don't think there's any crime in putting out a smallish flop bet, I do it when I'm trying to get value but see a high risk in getting snapped off, which I guess was your concern here. I understand the 2/3PSB is established science, is unequivocally optimal. But, this is 1/2, who's playing optimally here anyway. Given your read -- that the guy overplays pairs, tends to get sticky -- I would personally go with a 2/3 psb but would not criticize you for betting lighter if you have a good reason.

RE: turn. In a multiway pot you really need to worry about the flush. Heads up, it's not as big a concern, especially if villain is on an uncapped range, which he is.* I do think there's a question of whether he ever calls a turn bet with anything you beat. If you really think villain is a calling station, it's definitely a bet. I don't know that I would jump to that conclusion, villain sounds like a pretty strong TAG to me. I can see an argument in betting the turn light or even checking the turn. In both cases, the intent is to keep villain's entire range in play for a value bet OTR. If I were to bet, I would go about 75; I would personally check but w/e. Just don't shove here or bet pot, ime.

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*He ain't on AcKc, AcQc, AcJc or AcTc is he

Preflop: I 3 bet more. I feel you should generally 3 bet more oop than ip. So around 4x-5x say $48-$60

Flop: bet a tad more is fine.

Turn: The call can be a good sign. I bet small like around 60-90.

I like AbqDave's 2nd paragraph ..

PF ... good mix of flatting and raising with this hand OOP. I do like raising/3-betting when multi-way with limps/flats since you can pick up dead money or pretty much 'assume' pp or above average holdings when/if you go HU. Don't raise this too much if you are 'always' getting multi-way a high percentage of the time (or raise more).

Flop .. I actually like this bet. It could be either a blocking bet or trappy sized bet from OOP. I think 60 would be the max since you really aren't interested in playing for stacks until the River and large bets or a 3-bet on Flop or Turn will generate the risk of committing your stack too early here. Betting conservative like this allows you to b/f as well depending on your read of the spot and the size of the raise if one shows up. Something could be said for c/c, lead Turn in this spot as well. Then you control the pot on the Turn ..

Turn - See post #6 2nd paragraph. I lean towards a c/f or c/c here. It really isn't that much of a stretch to c/c and then lead River with a board like this. If I am playing regs, which is most of the time, then I can pick up some value from Turn semi-bluffs.

River - What is your plan here with the draw to the 2nd nuts? That will dictate how you play the Turn IMO. Are you calling all Turn bets and folding to all River bets if you c/c Turn and check River?

This is one of those pots where you could win a little or lose a lot .. or maybe get lucky and win a lot. I don't really mind the conservative route against regs or a more aggressive route against an unknown OTT. That way we can generate a response that gives us some information going forward. GL

My problem with betting less than half pot on turn is that it looks so weak he might bluff/raise and I hate folding here. I think I'm liking the check/call.

Without revealing results, couple more notes on villain...

He's definitely not standard tag. In the earlier hand where he called two streets with a7o, the river was a third 4 and he just auto-checked. He's also limped plenty of hands and called plenty of raises, regardless of position. Much more of a station than a TAG.

That said, he's a little difficult to get physical tells on, because he constantly watches tv while the cards are being dealt. That's a little unique -- it's not a look-away tell, it's not a watch-the-player strategy, it's more like a superstitious tick.

My point is that he's more of a sticky station than a thinking tag. I think that's probably very important for our strategy on this turn. Against a maniac or tricky-aggressive player I'm definitely checking to induce the bluffs in his range. Against a nit I'm either betting small or checking to induce a call on the river. Tags and stations should each get their own lines...

Great discussion so far, and I think I probably made an error here. Will now shut up and listen for a while longer.

Does hero have Ac or Qc?

Qc. It is in the original post. If he is more of a calling station, get another bet in there. I still think $100 to $125 is good.

Well, in retrospect I'll say this: everyone took a better line than I did. :-)

In the moment, my thinking was

(1) I'm not worried about a made flush here. He'd need to have a9cc-a2cc for that. Possible, but very unlikely.

(2) I think he would've folded an underpair on the flop. Therefore...

(3) he's usually gonna have two pair or a set here. We might both have the straight. If so, he's occasionally free rolling with the ac, but I'm free rolling with the QQ more often.

Then I decided he was likely to have trouble folding sets and aces up, because he's a station and will want to see if he boats up. And I definitely want to charge him for that draw and set up a river shove if the board doesn't pair.

So I decided to bet $150 into the ~$200 pot.

Villain started tanking and checked his hole cards (note: yep, definitely has ace-x here). Tanked some more. Eventually folded. So I guess it wasn't the ace of clubs.

In retrospect, I think he would've called $60-75 for sure and $100 most of the time too. Got greedy, cost myself value. $150 shouted "I have a straight or flush!" so loud even this station could hear it.

Thanks for the feedback.