UTG: A rather fishy 30-something rec player who I've played with only a couple of times in our 1-1 underground room, so I don't have great reads on him, other than to surmise that he seems to like to show aggression when he thinks he can get away with it. In addition, he varies his EP raises from $6-12, although he hasn't shown down enough hands for me to see whether there is a strong correlation to hand strength or not. He's one of the two players that have led me to stay at this table after the departure of two drunken fish.

CO: A 20-something Asian reg who is so tight as to be almost nitty. He presumably sees me as a winning TAG.

Both players have about $170ish to start the hand, and I have them both covered.


UTG raises to $6...folds to Hero who flats with 66...CO raises to $20...folds to UTG who calls, Hero calls (too thin given stack sizes?)


Flop $60 (3 players)
K84r
UTG checks, Hero checks, CO checks behind.

Turn $60 (3 players)
K (I can't remember if it kept the rainbow or not)
UTG bets $25...Hero raises to $60...

Good or spew?

Are you bluffing or isoing? You're OOP to a tight reg whilst also in a hand with a fish. You barely get the odds to set mine the flop. You can definitely fold pre. Expect shoves from the UTG villain in this spot a lot of the time (a situation you're not happy with). I would fold the turn.

Fold pre

Spew: 2 reasons for this.


1) you have mentioned that you don't have a great read on your opponent and a reraise bluff should only be attempted if you have a solid read on your opponent. You have a very marginal hand, wich can beat Ace-high and very little else if you get to showdown.

2) The CO (who 3-bet pre) has yet to act. If you are going to bluff in a multi-way pot you should be last to act. The CO is likely to be setting a trap here.

Your call of 6 dollars is fine and once it is 3-bet you are fine calling the extra 14 since your against 2 players (it would probably be too thin to call $20 off the bat given the stack sizes) But as played everything is fine. Also 3-bet pots are often the best ones to set-mine with since you are often up against a player with an overpair who will stack off if you hit it.

When you miss your set you should be ready to fold to any bet. Middle PPs have very little value in a 3-bet pot. This may work some of the time, but taking such an aggressive line in a 3-bet pot OOP without the initiative and without a solid read will get you into a lot of trouble. It seems to me like you're trying to outplay the UTG player while ignoring the CO. Given your position and the preflop action, you really shouldn't be continuing in the hand without a set. So basically, there are times to bluff, this isn't one of them.

I don't hate the turn play.

I would think that the CO likely doesn't have a hand. There is only two kings left in the deck. Facing a bet and a raise, it's tough for your opponent to continue without a basically nut hand and considering 88 and 44 are unlikely to be a three-bet for your opponent, I think we can assume they are going to tank and fold a lot here.

We can rep 88, 44, Kx. Your opponent seems likely to be bet/folding a better 2pair hand than yours. The board is basically dry. It is unlikely UTG (based on description) is going to deduce that your range is either nuts or a middling pair turned into a bluff.

It is likely fancy play syndrome, however, I can certainly see the rationale for making a move like this. I think an important part in improving is having to explain why you did what you did and having people explain to you why your thinking may have been misguided.

So while I see myself being convinced that this is an acceptable spot to make a move and run a bluff, I wouldn't be surprised to see a smarter person than I come in here and use math to make an counter argument as to why this play is too expensive and won't work enough to be profitable.

Everything preflop would be acceptable if you guys were very deep. You're about to play a less than 100bb stacked multi-way hand versus a 3 bet from a nit with 66 in middle position.

Spew #1


Your MP range with the line you have chosen here represents basically 3 types of hands.

1.) mid pp that have not flopped sets
2.) broadway hands that may or may not contain a K
3.) pp that have flopped a set.

This is going to be a tough spot to get this guy to lay down JJ or QQ. Which I would seriously consider being a lot of his range here.

Spew #2

Call pf is too thin against most nits. Now if he's the type of player that is so nitty he can't lay down an OP no matter what, it is a marginal call.

The only hand you're repping on the turn with a raise is a FH. You have to get folds 42% of the time to make it pay off. I don't think you get the UTG to fold that often. I don't think a bad player can fold trip kings that often. You're offering him over 4:1 to call and he essentially odds to call, even if you do have the FH with trip kings.

As played, spew.

Although I was certainly more concerned with UTG than with the CO, I didn't raise to try to get UTG to fold a K. In fact, if he called the minraise I wasn't planning to put any more money into the pot unless I spiked a 6 on the river. Rather, I was trying to get him to fold any other hand better than mine (QQ/JJ/TT/A8s/99/77), especially since I was hoping that my small raise looked suspiciously like a hand that wants callers.

Once the turn brought the second K I was no longer concerned with the CO, since I could not imagine him checking behind on the flop with AA/AK. Since the board pairing made it extremely unlikely that he was holding the case Kings, I put him on either AQ or an underpair, and I had no doubt that he would fold to my raise, given his fairly nitty nature.

FWIW, I actually think that my overcall of the preflop 3-bet was spewier than the turn raise.