This is a hand from my $1/2 session last night. I had only been at the table for 10-15 mins. I knew two older guys as ABC regs, everyone else was unknown.

Hero is BB w $196.

Villain 1 (ABC reg, $127) limps utg.
Unknown 1 and 2 limp in mid and late pos.
Villain 2 (unknown but young, talkative, gambling-type. very active in my short time at table. covers Hero) completes SB.
Hero checks Ah9h. (Pot = $9)

Flop: 9s 5d 3d

Villain 2 in sb bets out $10.
Hero calls, Villain 1 call, Unknown 2 (late pos) calls. (Pot = $44)

Turn: 9s 5d 3d As
Villain 2 bets $30.
Hero calls, Villain 1 goes all in for $115 total, Unknown 2 folds, Villain 2 calls after about 30 seconds of thought.

So the pot is $304, it's $85 to Hero who has $124 total left. Hero goes all in, Villain 2 doesn't like it, but calls.

Main pot $389, side pot with Villain 2 $78.


I have some thoughts on how it played out, which I'll post in their entirety later, but what do you think?

Hand looks great imo.
Pre: No reason to raise this hand, def take the free flop.
Flop: We often have the best hand here, but raising just serves to push out weaker hands that have little equity against us.
Turn: A case can be made for raising here, as the nut diamond draw is never folding and is drawing pretty slim. Two pairs are also never folding. But we may lose value from weaker one pair hands. Once the SS shoves all in, we are going with the hand so might as well gii.

Looks fine to me. No reason to raise pre flop. You could raise flop if you think V2 is betting a draw but there is a lot of possible action after and you want worse 9X to stick around. Turn is a better situation for raising but the flop bet got a lot of action, the 42 draw got there and V2 is still betting.

Depending what I put in V1's and V2's range I might fold to the shove and call, but it would be hard. I would only be folding if I think V1 never shoves a nut flush draw or big ace, that he can only turn up here with a set. If your calling you might as well shove, the amount left is trivial.

Lead flop. You don't have weak top pair. You have a decent top pair with the best kicker. I'd bet fold $10 on flop, maybe up to $15 if there's a bunch of limpers. Shove turn as played. You really only lose to 42dd, or 55, 33

SB leads into us otf.
We can't bet.
Do you want to raise, call, or fold given this new information?

Fold flop.

Really nitty.

As played, can't fold. you beat so many lesser 2 pairs.

Raise turn. As played don't fold.

Hmm, ok. Is folding the flop too nitty? I felt like maybe I set myself up for a tough decision on the turn since there aren't a lot of 'safe' turn cards. My immediate thought process was 'meh, you're in pretty bad position, fold and move on. Buuuutt it is just one bet on the flop and you've almost def got this dude beat, call and reevaluate.'

The turn improves my hand and beats A3/A5 and the nut diamond draw, which all improve and will get it in. Thinking about it now, I have no idea why I didn't raise the turn when my hand improved and diamonds missed. Maybe a little MUB fearing 33/55 from V2, but that's still such a small part of his range.

Is raising the turn an acceptable alternative and if so, how much do we raise?

Obv flat. No point in raising only to isolate ourselves against better hands and big draws. If we started with $80 or less, raise flop big to commit yourself

Shove turn with your short stack to the first bet. Make his draws pay. You're short enough any raise commits u.

actually, you can and should often raise this flop.

Reason being, at LLSNL, if there is a flush draw on the board, villains will almost always put you on the flush draw and call way wider than they normally would.

Also, if any V has the FD, he is never folding.

So basically, in spots like this TPTK on a FD board, I'm a big fan of raising. Obviously, wish we were last to act so we could really put the screws to our villains with perfect raise sizing with the bloated pot. But as is, I don't mind a raise and in fact I think raising flop is optimal and sets us up for a turn shove if we are called by 2 villains.

There are too many hands that have too much equity when we flat. Come turn, about 1/2 the deck sucks for us if we are 3 or 4 way, but heads up our hand will have a decent amount of equity on the turn.

To be clear, flatting isn't terrible by any stretch. But I like a raise to $40. FD's are never folding and all 9x and underpairs "can" call because they will put us on a FD. Now, the interesting question is if we can/should raise/fold or raise/call???

Again, thinking about typical LLSNL psychology, most LLSNL players don't shove flop with their sets and 2p hands in this spot. Most LLSNL villains want to wait to peel a safe turn THEN they shove. So a decent percentage of 3-bet shoves over the top of our flop raise will be FDs imo. Obviously villain dependant, I mean, if the OMC shoves over the top of us on flop then yeah, odds are we are beat. But if the typical aggro shoves us on flop, I'm fine calling for under 100bb in this spot.

Basically, if we think about why we raise, it's to get better hands to fold and lessor hands to call. In this spot, a ton of lessor hands can call. Obviously we get owned by 2p and sets, but with the FD out there, the combo of lessor hands that can call goes way way up. So I like a raise on this flop.

Or put another way, I love raising in situations where villains will soul read me for an incorrect hand and put me on "a flush draw" and just click buttons and call me down so they can be awesome

Ok, I can see raising on this specific flop. SB def seemed like the soul-reading type. What line do we take if the flop was rainbow?