1/3 live. V1 ($450 CO) is a bit sticky and opening on the wider side pre. V2 (sb $225) is pretty nitty. Hero (button covers) has a fairly tight image.

Two limps V1 $12 H $40 with AcAs v2 cold calls and v1 calls.

V1 is going to be pretty weak when he opens to this sizing and v2 is pretty face up to mostly 99-QQ and AQ+.

Pot: $120

Flop: TT3r. One club.

Xx, H $50, V2 folds and v1 calls.

Turn:

Qc.

Pot: 270

Xx.

River 6c.

X, H$150

Thoughts?

Against v2’s range I’m absolutely betting turn but against v1’s weaker range I’m hoping to either get just get two streets from a small pair or induce a bluff as well as pot controlling against Tx.

WP, may have gone more polarized on the river though. Otherwise, I like the turn check.

If V2 calls the flop though, I think you're facing KK-JJ here often and I'm not sure the Q is the best card to lead again into two callers with the Q hitting smack dab in the middle of one of them. It's marginal though.

Flop is so small. Way too small. Look at their ranges and look at that board. 99-QQ, AQ+ likes this flop. Other villain is "pretty sticky." Any level 2+ villain is thinking "of course he's cbetting this flop." LETS GO. Value City Furniture.

OTT, why are we trapping against sticky villains with a big value hand when we have plenty of money behind? I'm confused about our plan here.

Here was my thought process:

V2 has an SPR of 1.5 so we don’t need to be betting bigger on flop to get stacks in on turn. Out turn shove is going to be like $130 into $270. A smaller sizing flop has a chance of getting floated by AQ/AK.

V1’s range is almost entirely hands that have us crushed or hands with no pair no draw that we want to float. He has some hands like 44-88 but it’s a small part of his range. Against those hands specifically I would want to use a larger flop sizing but I still think checking turn is good against those hands and then checking turn has the advantage of letting his floats fire river as well as pot controlling against Tx.

How many hands are we getting 3 streets from in a 3 bet pot with a fairly tight image when villain opens to only $12 over limps and calls on a TT3r board? Now let’s weigh that against how much Tx he has.

Imo flop sizing is perfect

Agree re flop, but turn is not a trap, we just don't have a good enough hand to value bet twice more. That Q is a bad card for a lot of his flop calling range. A ton of his continuing range OTT is stuff we lose to.

Edit: Looking at V2's stack size I think flop sizing is fine actually. He can't really call flop and fold turn.

forty dollars is a pretty small 3bet in most 1/3 games when it goes limp/limp/12

Yeah maybe being aggro OTT is too spewy.

I go more preflop (about ~$65) to offer poor IO of 8:1, especially since it'll be unlikely we'll be able to fold postflop, but I'm conservative like that. We ended up offering the deeper guy twice as good IO of 16:1 which is kinda meh since we ended up in an SPR 3.5 pot where we can't fold.

Even though the SPR is quite small and opponents can make us play for stacks easily, we don't necessarily have to aid them in that, especially if our hand becomes a little face up. So I'd actually lean to checking this flop back (especially since our hand is so robust and there ain't any draws to charge). Is he really going to pay off 2 large bets / 3 large bets for stacks with a worse hand? If he's that sticky, by all means bet/bet/bet. Otherwise, I perhaps aim for getting reasonable bets on the next two streets.

So as played I'm cool with the check turn / bet river line. I feel overall we had more-or-less the same postflop strategy and just differ slightly on which street may be best to check (although I don't hate a bet/check/bet line at all, but I just feel in a 3bet pot with a tight image a flop bet may lose him too much plus we're also cool with him hitting an overcard on the turn to start paying off).

GcluelessNLnoobG

2008 called. They want their flop c-betting strategy back.

ETA: Badreg2017's thought process is spot-on.

I'll bet small or check back flop with value often. I don't see it being correct against this combo of ranges, villain types, and board texture. One of our villains is very sticky and the nitty one, and perhaps the other too, is likely to put a lot of bluffs in our range, as they should.

$2-$3 NL

V1:EP $1500 (currently on a massive heater and hitting everything under the sun, i'd consider him however to be a recreational player.)

V2: MP $400 (recreational player, polished off his first buy in after stacking off 450 bbs with TPTK first couple of hands to V1)

Hero: LP $195 (would be perceived as a having a tight image, haven't been involved in many hands whatsoever and i'm off to a slow start with this session.)

I'm in LP with K 9

4 players limp in

12$ Flop: K 9 A

everyone checks it down to see a turn

Turn:2

checks around to V2

V2:raises to $25

Hero:re-raises $100

everyone folds to V2 who tanks for some time and eventually folds, I'm wondering if my check on the flop was a poor line and if my bet sizing is way off ?.

Got it in one here, it's a disaster. What was your reason for checking?

to be honest mate I don't have one, I played this one like an absolute fish, hence why I'm posting. I presume betting is good here because it polarises our range more to my opponents and we get an extra street of value, is my thinking on this correct ?.

It's good because:

- You very likely have the best hand and plenty of worse stuff can call (this is like 80% of the reason)
- You'll want to go for 3 streets on a lot of runouts
- Against 3 opponents on a wet board you want to protect your hand where possible
- There's no positive argument for allowing a free card, like with AK on the board already it's pretty hard for the opps to draw into something that can pay you off.

Fold pre, bet flop.

Was the heater guy a quiet young dark haired guy, total calling station?

Just a couple of spots from my last 12 hour marathon session, long time since i had the energy/desire to post some of my own hands- so here we go. Brushing up on some spots that may seem "standard" to some people,but i find that valuable from time to time.

1) I raise AA from UTG, get called by MP, button and both blinds. All players are fairly sticky with pretty wide ranges. 9-3-2 rainbow flop. 200 blinds effective stacks,everyone covers. Are we checking here or betting here as a default? Since we have so many unpaired overcards that have to give up here multiway and not c-bet, are we looking to throw in some big pocket pairs in our checking range for some balance? (I play in a small playerpool and log tons of hours with the same 15-20 players, so yes balance matters to me- at least some degree).

2) I raise KJ suited diamonds from early pos, same scenario as hand number one- get 3 callers with around 200 BB stacks. HJ, Button and the BB calls. Flop comes pretty nicely 9-10-4 two diamonds. BB checks, hero?

Both are pretty easy bets.
But sizing matters a lot and is dependent on your pre flop sizing.

Also, it doesnt matter if balance matters to you. It's more about if balance matters to them, and if they are paying attention to that sort of thing.

Also, if you've got tons of hours with them, how do they normally respond in spots like this to a half pot bet? Full pot? Quarter pot? What do they do if you check. If you want more complex responses based on history and balance you'll need to give us more complete starting information.

Some of them are for sure, but maybe not so much that they will exploit me for it- unless i go with very big sizing wich insentives stronger folds. I have 2-3 very good regs i my pool, wich i know is capable of putting me in difficult spots- and i have readjusted to that with alot of success calling down more bluffs correctly for example. Non of these good regs are in these hands though, just mentioning it regarding the need for some balance in my games.

Villains callingranges in these hands are mostly not inelastic, absolute money amount matter to them in many spots.

So yeah, good point that both are pretty clear bets, but sizing matter alot. These villains in this hands will rarely (if ever) bluffraise me on the flop,but a small sizing around quarter to half pot will potenially get alot of light calls. Especially in the AA hand where the board is pretty bone dry, even for wider ranges. At the same time they are stab happy if i check the flop (giving up in their eyes), so i can se merits for both checking and betting in both hands actually.

Also i am more comfortable stacking off in the KJ combodraw hand, than i am in the AA hand plus my K high benefit for some fold equity- so i see alot of merits for a larger flop sizing in that hand.

Well, yeah. In general you want to be betting larger on wet boards than dry ones. Also, in general, you want to bet smaller multiway than head-up.

Balance matters much less in multiway pots. Bet your stronger hands, check your weaker ones.

In the first hand, I would bet 99, TT-AA, and A9 and check everything else. Bet size would be something on the order of 1/4 to 1/3 pot size.

I am less sanguine about getting it in with big combo draws in NL than many people. It is at least as important to think of them in terms of what they block among villain's holdings as in terms of raw equity. We block a bunch of diamond draws and many OESDs. Villains who continue for a bet are going to block a lot of our outs. Our only nut outs are the Ad and three offsuit Qs. (The Qd is a nut out if and only if both the 9 and T are diamonds.)

You need a big hand to bet in a multiway pot. I don't think a GSSFD is big enough. It is certainly big enough to call a reasonably-sized bet, though. Check and evaluate.

1/3. Loose-passive table. V1 is older Asian lady reg with $200 eff. BTN/V2 is unknown middle-aged Asian male.

V1 limps EP behind one limper, hero iso's to $17 with AKo. BTN calls, V1 calls. Pot $44.

Flop: A-7-7. Hero bets $20, BTN folds, V1 calls. Turn ($84): 3r. V1 checks, hero bets $30. V1 calls. River ($144): 2. V donks $40 with $85 behind. Hero calls.

Did I play this OK? Should I be trying to stack her Ax or avoiding doubling up her random 7x?

nh

Although I might size up on the turn. Say, 3/4 pot.

I thought I played it OK, but not "optimally," as we like to say.

Her ch/c flop and turn basically scream Ax - I'm assuming we would have heard from 7x at some point? - and river lead for $40 was very small in relation to the size of the pot ($144). Isn't her sudden river donk a transparent blocker bet trying to set her price for showdown that we should we raising for value?

Of course we sometimes run into weirdly played 7x....

Aria, 1/3

Utg limps, hero ($600) in utg +2, winning (for a change) TAG image, bets $15 with AQdd. Agressive BB ($350) calls on button. Limper folds. Flop 48Tdd. Hero bets 20. Villain pauses raises to 75. Although he's been loose agressive pre, hes been more moderate post. Hero?

Ship? Seems straightforward. It's an overbet I know, but you can't really reraise less and you definitely want to reraise.