Hey all - first time playing live poker yesterday in about 6 months. Had an interesting hand that I was not sure if I played well or not, so I figured I'd post it here.

Playing $2/$5. I have about $1000 in front of me. Villain in this hand has about $800. My image probably looks pretty tight. I folded a lot this session and won 1 big pot earlier when I flopped 2 pair and turned a full house. Villain is a bit of a loose cannon though, so not sure if he would be observant enough to notice my image. He doesn't seem "bad" but has played a lot of pots and done some weird things.

We had one earlier hand where I had AKs. He raised to $20 preflop and I 3-bet to $60. He open mucked AJo.

In this hand, I have Q Q in the BB. There are 2 limpers, villain raises to $20 in the SB. I 3-bet to $60. Both limpers fold, and villain quickly calls.

Flop has about $125 in the pot.

3 5 7

Villain donk bets $60, Hero???

Obviously we're not folding here. Really, I am curious if this is a call or raise. If it's a call, what's our plan for the rest of the hand? If it's a raise, how much do we raise to? Are we willing to play for stacks?

It's a call.

Bring the turn on..

With stack sizes, I probably just go call/call.

Call. V has a lot of weak-ish overpairs that would have a tough time calling a raise, but may lead turn if you flat. You can't stand a 3-bet if you raise.

So I call with a plan of calling down turn and river on most run outs. I also would bet one of turn and river if checked to, but probably not both.

Call and plan to call down. I probably only fold if he barrels again on A/K turns

Can we maybe get some reads on the 'weird things' that he's done?

Often those are helpful when trying to plan a hand against someone..

RE: the weird hands - I don't remember the hand playouts as I wasn't in the hands. I just remember him showing up on the river multiple times with really weird hands. There was one hand that was a super wet board and he called 2 sizable bets on the turn and river with top pair, bad kicker. There was another one where he was in a hand with a low pocket pair and calling down bets with other overcards on the board.

As played I didn't think 88-JJ and overcards would have called a raise, and may have lead out the turn. So I called the flop with the plan of calling down safe runouts and betting if checked to.

Turn is a K

He leads out again for $60. I just call the turn again. AK or KQ got there, but I still am ahead of AQ and all his middle pocket pairs.

River is the A

He leads out again for $60. There's about $360 in the pot. Cringe and call? Or is that an easy call? Or could this even be a fold despite the price we're getting?

call/call/call. you might be beaten by the river mostly, but i believe you have enough odds to call on all streets.

Well you're obviously losing to quite a few pairs at that point, but for a price of 7:1 with some missed draws, if you think he is bluffing here more than 15% of the time you call

Run out is lousy here, but given the bet sizing I think you just have to call down. A on the river is particularly bad because his NFDs now beat you.

Yeah the runout was terrible. The K was very meh but I could deal. The A on the river made me really sick.

As played, I did call both turn and river. Before sharing results, what would be the max bet you guys would have called on the river?

I don't think there's a max bet we call, because if the villain is competent he would be adjusting his bet sizing.

60 looks like very thin value here to get you to call with hands like QQ, but giving you too good of a price to fold when he is bluffing.

80-180, which is slightly bigger than the turn and flop are probably a fold, as he is repping an ace or two pair and trying to get thin-ish value from your pairs.

225+ is interesting because his range here is bluffs on missed draws and sets/top two.

We have pretty much the very bottom of our range on this river. Maybe just some lower pairs or FDs. He seems like a bit of a calling station, so I don't care for turning our hand into a bluff. I think we are good often enough to call anyway. To me his line screams 88-JJ putting out blocking bets on the turn/river.

V open mucked AJo to a 3! Earlier, his range is super tight if he's calling OOP while raising from the SB, granted that his PFR looks more pot-sweetener like than value.

Then he donks 60 and follows that up with 2 more bets of 60 when overcards come. It feels like turn/river are blocker bets and he's sitting with a middle pocket pair that didn't hit a set.

AP flop/turn/river: never raising and always calling for that price

Thanks for all the comments / feedback. It was a weird spot and glad to hear others would have played it the same way.

I called the river, and villain showed 99, so my hand was good.

If this is the case - then are we winning the maximum as played? Or will we be able to get more value in by raising the flop? A flop raise would surely get 88-JJ to fold as our range is JJ+

I would not call very much. If he bombs turn/river despite those cards being great for our range he is repping pretty huge, and QQ becomes a bluff catcher in a spot where hardly anyone is bluffing. It's rarely going to be a mistake to fold a hand near the bottom of our range in this type of spot.

Just for kicks I am going to guess he had AA.

I think this is a super standard call down given his sizing. I think one good evolution in my game has been developing the guts to call down in this situation, as when I first started playing my inclination was to raise flop in these kind of spots, which gives you a false kind of reassurance that you're making the right play because V will usually fold. However, I've decided I was getting called by better and getting worse to fold, and that the benefit of cleaning up my equity was not worth the missed value when V would have continued bluffing.

In particular, in this hand you had one of the worst run outs to get value from a worse pair, and still made an additional $120 total on turn and river.

I think the way V played this hand we have to sit back and bluff catch. Raising doesnt do much good because we have a good hand but not great compared to his preflop range. He's uncapped here, our best hands are only overpairs/FDs. If we had a hand like AQ/AJ, I'd probably call flop and raise turn to specifically fold out hands like this

No. Playing for stacks with these stack sizes with just one pair is a huge mistake here. Stacks are deep and you have position on a LAG who would lead out with a wide range. You also have a flush card, which reduces his odds in case he has some **** like AhJh/Th/9h.

Call and play poker.

EDIT: Need to get a new pony, this one is damn slow.

Yeah, the 'same bet' sizing compels hero to call it off. Not only because of the odds, but because villain reveals so much information. He would bet more if the turn or river improved his hand.

I think the fact that he open folds AJ earlier against us means he's also folding a lot of Broadway hands to our 3! Pre. This means I think he's more heavily weighted towards pocket pairs up to JJ and I guess considering his image a lot of suited connector/two gapper type hands (?). I think it's hard for him to have many Ax or Kx hands particularly after he donk leads for this size (not really a blocking bet). I also don't think he donk leads sets as he'd be looking to check raise against our range if he's thinking we are married to our overpair (which we mostly have here) I agree we probably grit our teeth and call it down.

I like a bigger 3! pre with that dead money in the pot and stack sizes. Maybe $75.


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