Blinds are $1-$2, game is $2-$100 spread-limit. Effective stack $300. Friday night, I’ve been at the table for only 30 minutes.

UTG opens to $10. Folds to me in CO with Jc3s. UTG’s previous preflop opens were to $42 (with TT) and to $30 twice (didn’t show either time). I decide this means he’s weak so I 3-bet to $30.

In one sense I was right, because he was weak and did fold. But in another sense I was very wrong because the Button cold-called the $30 and so did the Small Blind so we see a

FLOP: Jd8d8h (pot: $100, 3-ways).

SB checks, I bet $20 (seem ok?), Button and SB both call.

TURN: Jd8d8h 7s (pot: $160, 3-ways). SB checks, we…?

I am not a spread limit player ... but in NL in my experience at low stakes - you're almost always going to be toast here if any big bets go in.

Yeah sometimes poker is just a massive cooler. When you get J3offsuit in the cutoff I'm pretty much always going broke here.

Yeah, automatic 3-bet with J3o in CO at low stakes. 3-bets almost always take it down preflop for a big $12 profit. Standard 20% pot cbet 3-ways.

Clicking buttons preflop and your 3b is small it’s ok to give up. Check/call or check/fold. You made a fancy play and got got. Next hand.

Billy, the easy way to avoid this is to not 3bet J3 at low stakes.

You posted another hand when you 3-bet J9o OOP based on a read the raiser was weak, he folded, and someone else called. 3-betting on a read the raiser is weak might work late in tournaments. In low stakes live cash, your 3-bets are likely to be called multiway. So only do it with premium hands. If you are going to bluff 3-bet, do it with hands you could call with that have good playability. The objective would be to hit or to take it down maybe with a barrel on the turn, representing QQ+ or AK.

I am all for pouncing on weakness but can we at least wait for 85s?!

Hasnt been my experience. I find that i only reallh get cold called by like AQ AK 88-QQ or so. It happens, meh. Not saying im 3 betting J3o. I think reads based 3 bets are good, but i need something a little better, and i mean T7s id be more ok with it. Even J3s im much more ok with. But you need to make sure youre actually getting folds preflop or otf very often, cuz if you arent this might be a play of pure cockiness or degeneracy.

Also, most people with these type of reads will continue to have them so you can wait for a better spot

On to the flop. Id feel pretty good about checking thru to the river here, i feel like its a lot of 99/TT or AK AQ peeling for their 6 outer.

lol. 8/10 troll.

UPDATE: I checked. Button bets $40. SB calls.

Obviously we’re getting very far off the rails here. I quite wish we’d caught a Q88 flop so I could simply tuck my tail between my legs and fold.

What should I do? Yes, obviously “fold pre,” but now I’m getting 6:1 and have a Jack on a J887 flush draw board. Fold? Call? Turn it into a bluff and raise to $160?

Did you take into consideration he raised from UTG?

Just because we sense weakness doesn't mean we should 3bet with ATC (especially with several people left to act).

Not much you can do here. Just top up and take a walk if tilted.

You block the mediocre hands and unblock the nuttish ones. Even getting 6/1 you can fold. 8x isn't folding, most of them have a boat or a gutshot.

Haven't read all the posts.

Has anyone mentioned 3B'ing J3o isn't a thing?

When we flop top pair this way (a stoopid way), I think the best approach is to play it the way we'd play top pair if we raised pre with A5 and the flop was AT2rb. We have a decent bluff catcher, but we're not looking to call multiple or big bets in a multi-way pot. We're more looking to bluff catch when we're heads up and the pot isn't overly bloated.

The big difference between J3 on J88dd and A5 on AT2r is that, while both hands could easily be best, the J3 needs a LOT more protection.

RESULT: I raise to $140 and they both fold right away.

While my determination at the time was that I likely had the best hand and wanted to deny equity (any 9, T, Q, K, A or Diamond is really bad), but based on what I saw later that night, I think it’s very possible I bluffed the Button off a better hand, a QJ or something. He was very reluctant to call big bets without a monster.


I thought it was an interesting hand. It’s a very difficult spot: you bluff preflop and catch a tiny piece of the board. (These spots are much easier when you whiff completely—then you KNOW you have to keep bluffing to win!)

I’m happy with my preflop and flop play but I have absolutely no idea what I should do on the Turn. Folding for that price seemed too nitty, and just calling (against two villains when so much of the deck kills me) seemed really bad as well. But raising is so dangerous since I have two opponents who’ve each put in money on two streets—either could very easily have trips/straight/boat. I got lucky to catch them both at bottom of range.

Yes, preflop was perfect!

Can we just all collectively agree to ignore these posts in the future? They crowd out real decisions that people have posted.

I don’t think there’s an easy solution to the question of what to do when you catch a J88dd flop after 3-betting J3 and getting two callers.

The range of hands that can cold-call 3-bets (66-JJ, AQ+) doesn’t connect with this board extremely well, so even with two cold callers I’ll have flopped the best hand a decent amount of time.

If this exact hand had happened but I caught a 774 board, then yes, it’s a different question. There’s no logic beyond “just bet huge and pray they fold.” I don’t post those!

The decision is pre. I've replied a lot to your posts, but if you're unable to accept that pre is a mistake, then I just don't see the point in entertaining your threads.