DO YOU EVEN INTERNET POKER?!

Standard raise here, 9-12 bb. I would probably make it 9, but as discussed many times itf, bet as much as will typically get 1-2 callers, whatever your best estimate is for that.

If you believe that A9s is a good hand to MW-iso loose rec players with 50bb (or really any stack size for that matter) stacks then we just have to agree to disagree.

is anyone limping here in a double straddled pot? the game is passive and makes the hand look stronger in the eyes of V's.

If you can't play a9s profitably here, you are in the wrong game.

Raise 10.5bbs from CO.

Limping is terrible. That's how our loose passive opponents play. Let's raise to steal, and if they call, we can brute force post and hand read some thin to fat value.

Agree stakes matter. At 1/2 I go 11bb, at 2/5 I go 8bb.

We already have position, let's take the intiative and rep a hand against these guys that will likely call pf only to fold post.

Fwiw, I'm opening hella wider than A9s against these types of players. K4s, J8o, 45, let's go....gimmie the chips!

Fwiw this is 2/5, but we are asked to go bb in the pahwms

Sent from my SPH-D710 using 2+2 Forums

Against some villains I would. A villain who is never folding their straddle or one that will reraise here light can easily put you in a bad situation because effective stacks will be so short. Against one that will call with anything, the risk of ending up pot committed with TPMK is high and that is usually a -EV situation. Against one that will raise light A9s is is very hard to play because your probably right around the middle of his range.

It sounds like your villains are more likely to fold or check and then we can assess the situation on the flop. I expect to give up this hand a fair amount of the time on the flop or turn, but the ones we can c-bet steal should balance that because villains can't float when stacks are this short. They shouldn't chase either but low stakes villains will far too often.

Game is playing passive, a bit loose, but not crazy. This was one of the few hands that were double straddled during the night, so don't get carried away that this is a double straddle.

Hero (Covers all) has a TAG image, was looked at as nitty I believe by UTG+1 (70bb) double straddler because I was card dead since he sat down. I have a pretty neutral image at this point, not bluffy. I am 23 years old fwiw. He is stuck 1.5 BI and noticed as a result is playing looser than normal and suboptimal. Prior to being stuck, he was actually playing pretty decently.

UTG (130bb): Old man, loose preflop, passive overall, fairly fit/fold post flop. Fairly unknown. I have seen him flat a flop CBet and fold to a double earlier. Limping a fair amount, playing mostly his cards.

BU (145bb): Tight preflop, straightforward postflop. I feel I have the effective button often here.

Utg straddle 2bb, UTG+1 straddle 3bb, folds around to hero in the CO with A9 hero raises 10bb, button folds, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls, UTG+1 folds.

Nice result preflop against the best customer given stack size for my hand. I raised 10BB because I wanted to have the initiative in position. I made it slightly on the small side so I had more maneuverability post flop on certain board textures.

Pot (24bb): Flop comes out 1055

Villain checks, Hero?

You wrote "UTG calls, UTG+1 calls" but given the pot size and your further commentary I assume UTG folded.

On this flop I like to mix it up between betting 12-14bb and checking back. Since this guy seems more likely than most to c/r bluff, and because he's not the type I'd want to try to double barrel off a PP, I'd check back. Betting isn't bad by any means though.

Sorry utg was old man and he's only caller. I updated it

Sent from my SPH-D710 using 2+2 Forums

Oh well I'm more likely to bet against UTG than UTG+1

This seems like a good spot to continue. I'd make a slightly higher than half pot bet, say 16bb, in an effort to just take it down here. I would fold to a re-raise and consider checking it down on the turn if unimproved.

Ugh. That is not a good flop for our hand, as we are going to called down much lighter due to the nature of the board and we have no equity to the nuts. We are going to have to fire multiple barrels to get both opponents off their hands most likely. But we have some stack depth to do that with.

Since I am planning on firing multiple barrels, I am going to put a small 1/3rd size bet and expect them to peel lightly. If one of them c/r, I am obviously done with the hand.

It's hu

Sent from my SPH-D710 using 2+2 Forums

bets ~15bb/fold.... I don't expect to get c/r light by villain even on such a dry board. I don't see any reason to make it bigger.

The pot is 24bb. There are zero draws. There are absolutely zero hands that we want to call us. This Villain probably folds AK and worse and calls with his pocket pairs and better.

Since this is likely to be true regardless of bet size, why not just bet really small? Like maybe 8bb? Or if we think this Villain can get sticky with ace high, maybe 10bb just to make sure? But I think that sizing the bet any bigger does not get us any extra fold equity and just loses more when called.

Sometimes I'll tank check behind here in hopes he leads small so I can raise the turn...given he leads with a tiny size.

More often I'll bet 11bb. It has to work less often and against fit or fold players that will peel a flop and fold to a double barrel, it gives us more room later. Plus, if he's gonna get sticky, let's risk less.

If he can get leveled easily, I might go smaller than we raised pre and lead 1/3.

I would cbet half pot there.

Reason:
Let's put him on a range now:

Assuming he is calling wide due to the straddle pot, his range = 22-99? A5+? Broadway? SC and one gapper.

cbetting here should be able to take down the pot a large majority of times. True, a cbet here will have negative expectation because we are normally way behindwhen called. However, I believe that there are too much money in the pot to forgo a cbet which allow us to take the hand down most of the time.

As such, I would cbet the minimum amount that I need to chase him off (1/2 or slightly less than half if I can get away with it) and planning to give up when called.

stakes matter but 9 pre more is spew

If a cbet on this flop is -EV then we should never do it... but it's not. I cbet 1/2 pot here. He's just going to fold everything thats not a pair, and maybe even some small pairs. That's why we raised pre, so that we could cbet dry flops that our opponent probably missed. It's also fairly likely that we have the best hand right now.

I think you misread my post.

Based on the flop cbet alone, we are never going to get called by any hands worse than us. As such, a flop cbet here will definitely be -ev (Eg., if you cbet 10bb in 20bb pot, this 10bb bet is always -ev because no worst hand will call).

However, we can still cbet because of the number of times that villain is going to fold flop. It is a range vs range issue that arises preflop. If the villain is folding AK for eg., he is making a mistake preflop by allowing us to take initiative in the hand.

As such, the overall line of raising preflop and betting flop is definitely +ev because of the mistake the villain made preflop.

We are heads up with UTG, who is described as fit/fold. Against this type I'm c-betting any paired flop unless there is a good reason not to. We can get better AX to fold, and possibly get some small pairs to fold later if we take the initiative now. I bet 10bb here, a hair under half the pot. Fold if raised, obviously.

I think the action on the turn will be more interesting here. I would expect a bet to take this down a lot vs this type of villain, but obviously this wouldn't be a PAHWM if the hero takes it down with a flop c-bet.

11bb cbet.