Hero is destroying the table, 1700 stack.

Raise A8d to ten in the HJ.

Button reraises all in to 32

SB (200ish) calls

BB (800ish) calls

I consider four betting in an attempt to get it heads up with AI at a price, but decide to try to win a big pot off the BB and just call.

Flop TcTh8h

SB checks and BB leads for 60 which is less than a half pot bet. I like my hand and raise to 160, which I know is a little small but I dont think he is good enough to come over me here without a ten. He calls pretty quickly.

Turn 3c

He checks and I think about dogging it because of his flop call. Instead I continue the story and bet 250 which is slightly more than half pot. He calls and I immediately think this crazy fellow is drawing or has precisely JJ or QQ.

River 8c.

He thinks for about 30 seconds and bets 380.

I???????????

Pre-flop looks fine. When it gets back to you, it's $22 to call with a pot of $106 (getting ~5:1 direct), and you're in position 400BB deep vs. BB. I dig it.

Why did you raise the flop? Was it for value? Against what range of hands? Liking your hand isn't really a reason, is it?

Why did you bet the turn? What "story" are you trying to continue? Are you bluffing?

OP needs to figure out what he is trying to do in this hand. Willyoman asked some pretty good questions. If you can answer those river is an easy decision.

FWIW, I hate how you played the hand. Raise and then call pre is ok, but of course it depends on V's and how we react to certain flops and bets. OTF I probably fold, but it's villain dependent. AP I fold river. His story looks a ton more convincing than ours.

Don't raise flop. Don't bet turn. Pointless thread without any reads

I probably fold flop.. AP Definitely fold the river - the guy has a 10 here almost always. (Based purely on the action) Because you hadn't explained any sort of reads on him. I absolutely HATE the raise on the flop. But after you raise the flop, and he calls I shut down immediately. He doesn't have QQ+ because he probably would've 4bet preflop, right? (Again I don't know if he has passive tendencies or what) If he doesn't have a ten here, i'd be extremely shocked. Again, with reads on the player (Is he a thinking player?) it would be a different story. The guy knows he has to win at showdown he would be suicidal to not do this without a ten imo.

Preflop is perfectly fine given image/stack size but definitely don't like raising the flop here. Just call flop....exercise some pot control. Figure the hand plays out differently from then on. You've essentially turned your hand into a bluff now and you put yourself in an even worse position now by betting out the turn big....tough spot now, you're @ 3.5 to 1 on making the call on river.

Unless you have some type of soul read....I'm folding. Looks like a T to me. Description of villain would definitely help a little though.

Asked by a previous poster what the thought process is from the flop onward.

I dont have a lot of history with this guy, but he seems like an ok 1/2 player. Interpret that how you like, but I dont think they are very tricky.

When he bets the flop at that size I just dont give the average 1/2 player a ten. With the cold call of the 32 pre, I think his range is heavily weighted toward pocket pairs and maybe some spec hands because of the price he was getting.

I should'nt have written that i liked my hand as much as I didnt really like his range once he makes that bet.

On the turn I have him on an unimproved pair or some kind of draw. A ten is still a possibility but i have discounted that possibility given his action of bet small, call, check.

When I bet the 250 I feel that it acts as both a value bet, if he is drawing or has say 55-77, and a bluff if he holds 99-JJ, which I think he would be hard pressed to continue with.

when I make the bad full house on the river, of course I am thinking is he so much of a donkey that he checked called a ten worried about his kicker?

the river decision is simply going to be based on how confident I was in my turn read combined with what I make of his nicely sized bet.

I'm assuming your hand is suited. If not then pre is horrible, but given stack sizes sooted ace is a good hand to play like this. On flop this is a call. You think a large portion of his range consists of pocket pairs and yet you are raising here?!? Makes no sense. Turn is a check. River is a fold. You pretty much repped a Ten and he is betting into you lol.

Spew

Wouldn't you raise a typical 1/2 player if you put him on a PP here? Should I just fold if I have strong feeling he wont continue? Also, everyone seems to be advocating a flop check, and I think that is just plain bad. I get folding if one is not comfortable with his read, but a smooth call does nothing but burn money in this spot. What turn can I continue on after just calling and being bet into on the turn? My honest answer is none. To me this is an easy raise or an easy fold, but a really tough call.

pre flop is okay, i really dont like playing a big pot with A8 but you were getting good immediate odds.

the flop is where the hand goes wrong imo. raising this flop makes no sense, it sounds like you are raising for value but i dont think you ever get called by worse because what 8x hands does v call pre with? seems like very few.

also we have to remember this is a side pot and people usually play straightforward in side pots.

i think your turn thought processes is flawed because you are basically admitting that you have no idea what he has and that you are just blinding betting and only playing your hand which can get you into trouble.

i think v plays AT KT QT JT just like this but idk what portion of those hands are in his pre flop calling range.

i think i just fold flop, as weak as it sounds, and just give v credit for a good hand.

i think your turn thought processes is flawed because you are basically admitting that you have no idea what he has and that you are just blinding betting and only playing your hand which can get you into trouble.

Actually, I am only playing his hand. I think the mistake is being overly confident in my read. Once he calls the flop raise, a good case can be made for checking the turn behind. I was just so in focus, that I completely eliminated a ten from his range and went with it, feeling that he folds all non ten hands 99%+ of the time. On the flop I felt I could be called by worse, but thought that my raise could create a pot size that would be conducive to blowing him off a pair with a reasonable (pot size dependent) bet on the turn. I just see too many players too often checking trips to the preflop raiser in this type of spot. They know I am going to bet a great majority of my hands when checked to, and dont want to lose even a little value by letting me get away cheap. From his perspective, I am going to be betting over pairs, big ace combos that missed, and almost all my lower pp's, not to mention a lot of my broadway combos. In fact, checking trips here could be right, given the players who are going to have to act behind me and may be more inclined to call a preflop raisers c- bet with a pretty wide range.

When I raise the flop my range shrinks to overpairs and tens in his eyes, I think.
The real question is if the card were marked and you knew he held precisely QQ, JJ, 99, would the 250 bluff into a pot of 440 be profitable? I think it would, that is why I bet. His holding draws would be optimistic on my part but not impossible.

The river is just another beast all together. 380 for 1320. I guess the question is what does he put me on? Getting better than three to one, it is a really tough spot, but I have enough confidence in my hand reading to follow through if need be.

You all are going to be shocked by what he turned over. Which I think demonstrates why having a LAG image is so beneficial at low stakes, against rec players. It just pushes them to freak out when they dont know what to do.

No problem with pre flop

I would just flat the flop bet

I understand your reasons for continuing on the turn but after he called our raise on the flop I am slowing down and checking behind

As played I think you are in a tough spot on the river and I would probably have to sigh fold expecting to see a T most of the time although I have seen enough players turn up with AK here to make me think long and hard about the call

Good luck at the tables

I think the main problem is that you played the hand as though you didn't have one player all-in.

I wouldn't mind raising the flop (and the raise could be even smaller) if it wasn't in a dry side pot, and if the pot wasn't already so big. But the point would be to freeze the action on the turn. You make money against weaker hands/draws on the flop but keep the pot small enough that you can bluff catch on the river against a range that likely includes a lot of busted draws.

But with a dry side pot very few players are going to bet a draw. And they are much more likely to bet a T to charge draws. Remember that the last pre-flop aggressor is all-in, so players can't rely on them to cbet. 60 is less than half the pot, but some people just don't bet very big.

Though it's weak, I like folding the flop best. This is an extremely marginal situation against the relatively unknown bettor, you could be behind the all-in player, you've got the SB still to act behind you, it's probably going to be expensive for you to continue with the hand, and you're crushing the table which means surely there are plenty of better opportunities to make money.

Once you get to the turn most of the money is in the side pot, so I can understand why you'd want to take it down. But villain isn't necessarily likely to have QQ or JJ (why not 4-bet pre with those?), and if he does have one of those he isn't necessarily folding if, as you imply, you have a LAG image. So, I think I'm just checking behind and planning to fold to a decent bet on the river.

As played, I might not be able to lay it down, but I'm usually hoping for a chop as I call.

The more I think about it, the more I like folding pre-flop. You have good direct and implied odds and all that, but the reverse implied odds on that kind of hand are enormous. There are so many times you're going to lose a medium amount of money on flops like this, or on A-high flops; and there's a good chance you're dominated by at least one player.

No, I'm not trying to fold out bigger pocket pairs and I don't expect to get value from smaller pocket pairs.

What did he have then

You saw enough players betting the flop OOP and calling a raise with air, check-calling the flop and barreling the river with AK?

Yah I saw them too and they went busto and never came back

LOL AK never shows up with that line

He showed J9cc for a flopped open ender, called the flop raise and turned a club draw, and bet out when he made clubs on the river. He said he put me on a big pair. In the grand scheme of things, he got very adventuresome with his draws on a paired board, but he was drawing tremendously live. 8 flush outs 6 str8 outs and any nine or Jack, I dodged a lot of cards. If he shows any real aggression prior to the river freak out he wins the hand.

Why discount all tens when that can make up a huge portion of his range. A lot of SC and suited aces can include a ten so why discount them? Villain had good enough odds pre to call with a very wide range of speculative hands. Also, seems unlikely villain would be betting a flush draw this hard on a paired board.

I completely get what you are saying. My default is to just give them a ten and fold. What can I say, he was, to me at least, giving off strong non ten vibes. I know a lot of online types discount and mock the value of live tells, and i usually do to. But sometimes, and I don't mean "he scratched his nose", casual players just ooze what they are holding. The lines they choose combined with their aura, just make some of these guys transparent. I am gong to stop typing because I am starting to sound gay.