1/3 NLHE

H and V just sat down at newly opened table with 500 each. This is the very first hand.

V - MAAG, comes regularly, never played him but seen him about, has lots of money, fancy watch. No other reads, never played on a table with him but expect he's at least somewhat competent.

H dealt A Q in MP, folds to H who makes it 15, only V calls in CO, HU OOP.

Flop 30 - A 3 3

H bets 25 to get max from weaker AX and a peel from PPs. V calls.

Turn 80 - 4

H bets 75, V calls.

River 230 (385 back) - J

H decides this is a bad card and checks (?), V goes AI, hero?

Good bet on flop. Paired boards get called at a higher frequency. So we can bomb this flop. Good eye catching that.


Turn: played fine. 1/2 or 3/4 pot are standard. Don't mind going closer to pot.


River: mostly check. sometimes bet small. checking is fine. If I think V isn't studied enough to realize a small bet is proper here, I'll move up to about 50% so I don't induce a spew bluff that might blow me off my hand. If I have history with V and know I'm usually good here, if they are semi aggressive, I'll check to induce and call off. If they are passive and will call a 3rd barrel, I might size up over 50%. Just depends.

I think you could bet/fold $125 here with most 1/3 population.


Once he shoves, flip a coin. Calling and Folding are both fine.



Personally, I'm probably calling here without any extra info on V. If I have Qd in my hand, then it's almost always a fold.

Ouch. Probably go a little smaller on turn ($50). I think I bet the river again, too.

As played, gross. I probably laugh and muck. If I started with $300, snap.

I limp in but that's me. In the end we got this HU (good) but OOP deep to someone we think is a competent player (meh).

SPR is a large 16, so I definitely don't want to work towards playing a large pot, especially when it is highly unlikely my hand will improve beyond this TPGK. So with this in mind, I would often check this flop. Starts opening the door for him to bluff / overvalue / etc. and meanwhile we're completely cool with a street checking thru. If betting, I'd much rather bet way smaller than way larger; we are building too large a pot OOP against perhaps a competent player, imo.

Ditto thinking for the turn. What's our plan, just to PSB / PSB / PSB for huge $$$ just cuz we have TP?

Certainly a poor river card as now AJ gets there. If we hadda bet way smaller on earlier streets to keep this pot under control, I think I would bet/fold small against most. But think I'm ok with a check in this out-of-control pot. Facing the all-in from a competent player sucks. I mostly just fold although he can certainly have busted draws.

Overall, I feel we massively overplayed our hand and don't think that building huge bloated pots OOP against perhaps competent players with a small hand like just one pear is ever a good idea.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Would have preferred b/f 50% to continue targeting weaker A. There are still plenty of other Ax combos that can call.

AP, leaning towards fold. It's hard to imagine two PSBs getting called by FDs on a paired board with an A being one of the FD suits, and then bluff shoving the river. Hence my preference to b/f as I don't think V will get to river with many draws. On the other hand, what does he have for value? Suited 3, A4, AJ, AQ, AK (who knows if he 3-bets these). 44 if we stretch it? Would he not check it back with A2-AT?

Despite the diamonds out there his is actually a good spot to have a checking range, especially this deep. It essentially forces V to bluff or value bet worse instead of giving him the option to trap. Alternatively we can also x/r for the same aforementioned reason. Doing so probably kills the hand on the flop so we get less value but also forbids villain from hitting any flushes. If he does call a x/r then we jam this turn. If he 3bets the x/r allin then we call it off.

Going back to the x/c flop line, if we check turn he probably takes the free card and checks back since there's literally no FE in him betting turn, but it's live so dont be surprised if people just autobet every draw anyway. But in any case it allows us to just call down without getting jammed on like this.

As played, i've been thinking about it for awhile. I think folding is just too MUBS'y given our b/b/x line. Blockers arent too important here but it counts for something. Personally I dont feel live players go for max value jams enough so a bet like this seems more like a bluff than "i know you have AK so I can jam with quads and you will call".

He just bet 1.7x the pot. In general at low stakes these massive overbets are very nutted. He probably thinks you have AJ-AK and can’t fold. I would fold pretty quickly and say I missed if he asks what I had.

No history. 1/3. River overbet. I would just fold. You're being exploitable, but odds are you are wrecking them for it.

Now, the fact that he is a regular and seems to have a bit of money counts for something. He is a little more likely to be bluffing. And if you later find that he takes this line a lot and is capable of bluffing, you probably are going to have to put your foot down and call this hand at some point.

But if he only shows down the nuts when he overbets, screw him.

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