1/3 NLH in TX. Game is uncapped. 9 handed.

Hero: 30s WG, running like god this session, in for $1k, at $3.8k after 4 hours

V1 ($1k): 20's HG, clean cut and fit. Hero stacked him his first hand 20 minutes ago with KQs vs his Q10s on a KQ3 flop, single raised pot, all in on the flop $500 effective. He bought back in for $1k and hasn't played a hand since.

V2 ($650): 30's WG, down about $1k this session. Playing ok but running horrible.

V3 ($3.4k) 30's HG, has played maybe 4 hands in 3 hours. Keeps adding onto his stack to cover the table. Ultra tight and played passive in the few hands he played so far. He sat in the game waiting for a PLO seat but didn't take is after it came available multiple times.

OTTH:

I'm just going to skip the open bet sizing part:

Hero ($3.8k) raises K K UTG $25 (standard sizing)

V1 ($1k) raises to $60 +1

V2 ($650) flats CO

V3 ($3.4k) flats BTN

Hero?

Playing 4 ways OOP with KK is bad. Hero needs to raise something likely to get hero heads up. I like $200 to $250 depending on players. V2 will be in a shove or fold situation. Still likely to end up facing V1 and V3 but your deep enough with V3 there isn't much you can do about it.

$255 imo. Esp with being OOP.
Best case shorty shoves, so you want to be extra sure it reopens the action if that happens.

Unless you think V1 only has AA, raise to $350/400

$209 in dead money out there, so I don’t think $200 is going to cut it to get heads up. I just feel like you’re pricing them all in.. If the players in position were loose enough to call a 3b they might be loose enough to overcall if +1 does as well

I have never played in Texas but I think you need to raise huge for value OOP multiple ways against loose passive opponents here

Is $60 a standard 3b size? Have we seen V1 3b much? Preflop reads are important vs. someone willing to GII with second pair…

Yes 350-400 seems good here especially with the 3.4k stack on the btn

Also 3bettor stacked off with QT on KQ3 in a single raised pot so im assuming he’s not very good at the pokers.

The fact that a standard open is 25 makes this play more like a 5/5 or 5/10 game, in which case effective stacks are between 3-600bbs.

Being OOP w 3 callers a larger sizing makes sense, I’d probably go to minimum 300. If V1 or V2 shoves, great, if V1 flats it might incentivise V2 to jam. If both fold there’s a good chance we can expect a call from the BTN who’ll be getting 2-1, in which case a heads up pot is much easier to play then a three or four-way one, especially against a passive opponent.


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$400

And not folding to a jam from v1.

I’d treat this like a 5/10 since standard open is $25. So his stack is basically 100bb.

I play a game very similar to this. Anything less than $300 is likely to end up going 4 ways to flop.

Drop hammer. If they want to call off $400 with the usual trash hands likely calling $60, so be it.

If there wasn’t a 3.4K stack in position on us we could go 300 but with him lurking I would go 400. Picking up all that dead money is a fine result.

350ish pre or a sizing that gets this HU.

Never flatting, I don't mind getting it in with the 3bettor either since he only has 1K and he made a terrible 3bet sizing (almost a minraise?) raise to 300, we're gonna have to call V1 obv. but if v3 jams it would be interesting to say the least (which is why I don't wanna go too high in my 4bet). Hero opened UTG, and UTG+1 3bet, could the button be flatting with aces waiting for hero to re-raise? He sounds like the tightest guy at the table.

$300

Definitely raise. $350 or so.

Villain 3 is likely to be set mining (or less likely, if your read is accurate, overrating the potential to play something like suited connectors passively for a profit). He's the deep stack by far, so should be a large factor in your bet sizing. I don't think he has aces very often, although the 3-bettor certainly could.


A PSR here is $300 which leaves SPR < 6 if HU vs. V3, which is fine for a likely overpair. If called twice it's under 4 which is obviously fine for committing with an overpair unless you have a supernatural read.

You could shade the size down a bit for exploitative value if you don't think $300 will get a call, but don't shade it down by much. $275 if called twice leaves you with a SPR still around 4 or so vs. V3.

What's your plan if V1 shove-5 bets for $1000?

My initial instinct was 200-250, but having read other replies this is wrong and it does need to be larger.

Not folding to a V1 jam, but if V3 backraises (regardless of action from V1) that would make for a spicy spot

$300

--------------------------------------

Hero raises to $325

V1 jams $1k

V2 calls all in $650

V3 flats the $1k leaving $2.4k behind

Hero?

Now we hope he has QQ and not AA.

Ship it and fade the snap from V3. V1 who stacked off 160bb with QTs on KQ3 has lots of worse hands, and sure, V3 could be trapping AA, although, I’d say it’s fairly unlikely given his action flatting on the BTN. Tight passive V3 could just as easily have AK/QQ. You just have to go with it and live with the results. I think you’re usually good, and I’d be happy to be in this spot in a loose Texas game.

Good grief, what a hand. Without reads it's highly likely V1 has aces, maybe rarely one combo of KK or two of AKs, but even if he plays aces face up, you're putting in 675/3600 (19%) of the main and first side pots. You probably have almost that equity four ways, three ways on the first side pot.

Since the likely aces are all-in and it seems like V3 would be crazy to slowplay the other two aces this way, your best play is a small-to-medium 6-bet for value. You want to win a nice second side pot the times you don't outdraw the (apparent) aces but you fade whatever V3 has. So ideally you'd like V3 to stay in but without good odds to do so; that's hard to do now....

EDIT -- I thought better of it but want to document my thought patterns. If V1 is doing something wild rather than on KK+, then you're pretty happy to drive out V3 or charge him the max. Just shove, I think.

Given you posted the thread, I feel like V3 is going to show up with the case aces here, ha.

Agree w/ Chaos.

Agreed with read on V3 but are you trying to get him to fold QQ? (We unquestionably would love for AK to fold, just in case aces are still in the stub.) The only action left is the second side pot HU with him, and I would like us to get value from KK.

On second thought--maybe V1 really is acting erratically and we're ahead. So I don't like my prior analysis. Just shove. Depending on results, go full time pro or quit the game.

Also I really want you to win this because I want V3 to rebuy for $8500 in a $1-2 game.

Idk about your experience with uncapped Texas 1/3…Lodge capped their 1/3 at $1k last year, but I used to play their match the stack 1/3 pre-Covid and that game plays as big if not bigger than a 5/T in Vegas — it was not unusual to see 20k on the table on a typical Friday night— and the typical player is much, much worse than a vegas reg. There’s just no way to assign V1 a range of 90% KK+ given we’ve only seen him play for 20 minutes and he already stacked off very light on his first hand. V1 certainly has an incentive to squeeze a hand like QQ to force out players behind after hero raises more than 30% of the effective stack. Villain should recognize that he’s committed with QQ/AK on almost any flop (SPR will be <1 if he flats) and that Hero could be squeezing wide given the two overcalls.

Yeah, I have no experience in these Texas games but I'm about ready to move there based on reports. You convinced me that V1 is a lot wider.

The match the stack, $1,000 buy-in "1/3" game I used to play in was insane. No problem raising/calling $500 or more pre w/ 56 or J9 just to crack someone's AA. No idea if this is the same, but I have zero problem gii w/ KK here. I don't care if V3 folds QQ and/or AK -- I sure as heck don't want to flat and have him hit some crap hand to stack me. Just gii now.