V ($370, UTG): Table mark, passive calling station, called an AQo squeeze in LP from Hero in the blinds, over a UTG raise and 2 callers, with 34o earlier in the session, and tripled up when he called Hero's $70 cbet and a shortstack's $100 shove on a Flop ($180) of K52r to hit his straight on the turn where Hero c/f and he scooped a $400 pot.

Hero covers.

6-handed.. 1/3

V limps, MP limps, Hero raises to $18 in CO with TT, BTN calls, SB calls, V calls

($80) Flop.. 973
SB checks, V checks, Hero bets $50, BTN folds, SB folds, V calls reluctantly

($180) Turn.. J
V checks, Hero ??

V has $300 behind.. thin vbet/fold or check behind?

Flop sizing? I sized it on the smaller side to bet/fold cheaply because the table was playing very straight-forward and nobody is raising as a bluff OTF.

Definitely b/f the turn - there are a lot of worse random hands this player may call with here.

Against this kind of player, I think it's right to pot control on marginal hands (like 2nd pair here) and go to value town when we really strong hands. His weakness is he calls too much and he's too passive. We exploit the calls too much with strong hands in value town and exploit the passive with marginal hands by controlling the pot.

I'd probably be raising more after 2 limpers if this raise size is typically seeing a multiway pot. Especially with loose V already limped into the pot; let's just raise to $25+ and get this HU with him, imo.

Postflop is now pretty tough thanks to all these callers. A small SPR of 4.4 where we can play for stacks in just 2 streets, on a pretty drawy board that we'd like to protect against, and yet at the same time giving 3 villains 24+ implied odds. It's not an easy spot, imo. I'd probably PSB+ the flop in order to shove the turn, especially with loose fish involved.

With this SPR, I don't think I'm in love with the $50 bet. Anything more than a 2/3 PSB on the turn then leaves a very small 40% PSB for the river, which is a little meh, imo. But on the other hand, I guess the smaller bet can give us an idea of who is interested in the pot and maybe (???) we somehow get away from our hand for cheap?

The Villain doesn't seem bluffy, so checking behind the turn to bluffcatch doesn't seem like a great plan. T8 did get there but is a little unlikely combowise thanks to us having TT. I'd probably bet/fold the turn, but I still think a better idea would have been to get in all the chips by the turn.

GIhatethesepostflopspots,anditisallduetopreflopG

If he's passive and calling too much, we want to widen our value range, not restrict it. We want to bet as wide of a range as can be profitable against Villain's calling range. If he was fit or fold, we would polarize; against these types of Villains, we should merge. We are missing out on a lot of value if we only bet the top of our value range against this type of Villain.

Based on the information provided, I believe Villain can call with numerous worse hands on the turn in the provided hand.

With Villain being passive, we don't have to be concerned about pot control in the traditional sense, as we don't have to worry about being blown off of the best hand due to aggression from Villain.

Not sure I agree with this. Against passive calling stations I think we should be betting a lot thinner especially on drawy boards; they'll call to chase their draws, and will rarely bluff rivers when they whiff. Against more aggro opponents (who might blow us off our mediocre hand on the turn, or bluff the river when missing) we could check back for value, but against calling stations, meh.

ETA: What that guy ^^^^ said.

GcluelessNLnoobG

not thin at all
b/f 85 and shove good rivers

I'm not saying we don't want to try and get more value here, but since V is so passive we can control how much. We have 2nd pair on a fairly wet board against a V who's range is any piece, but that range is not miles behind our hand. I'm just saying we don't have to try to get stacks in here. We can make this pot as small or as large as we want. We are only 3-1 against a random hand, and about 55-65% against an insanely wide range which includes any piece or draw. I would bet $75 on turn and probably check back river.

I'd check and maybe go for value on the river. The turn card sucks for us as plenty of his draws now beat us.

Flop sizing is a-ok. You do want to entice smaller pairs to call. Draws are eh but it's awesome if you get two draws to call. $70 is not good if that makes 7x, PPs, non-nut fds fold.

Pre is good, you might want to raise a bit bigger depending on the table dynamics.

Good flop for us for sure. Villain is closing the action, so we can assume he's got more draws in his range than, say, if the SB called.

Turn, T8 gets there but not much else changes unless he's turned two pair. We block JT so there are few two pair hands in his range. He's got a lot of flush draws in his range as well, so I'm confidently bet/folding $95.

For those of you who want to pot-control the turn: 1) why would we want to give a drawing hand a free card? 2) If the table is fairly passive, how do you plan on getting value on the river if the draws brick out? 3) If there is zero chance we're getting bluff-raised on the turn, why do you want to forego value now when there is a good chance we still have the best hand?

You just contradicted what you said earlier about pot controlling turn. Make up your mind!

Actually yeah, you're right, turn is much better to bet for value against this particular opponent.

Very clear bet/fold against a guy who will often call with worse and never raise you without better.

That being said, probably checking back most rivers or folding to a donk on the river. Lots of weird draws out there that will be hard to see, so not sure what river could be considered to be safe. Maybe an offsuit deuce or trey, but the number of worse hands that call you on river diminishes.

I fold to a river donk but if its checked to me I'm betting small to get looked up by a 9 or worse, like 1/5 pot.

So let's say we bet $75 OTT and he calls, making the pot $330 going to the river. When he checks, are you really betting $65 (lesser than the turn bet)?

Admittedly I didn't do the math, but yeah. That's kind of the idea. I'm trying to get value from his range on the river. Since we are assuming he's very weak if he has x/c three streets we can narrow his range to 9x or worse or a draw. I want him to make a crying call (especially if diamonds brick out).

Well, on the river we'll only have about 2/3 of a PSB left, so a 1/5th PSB is admittedly lol small. However, if we're targetting the lowest end of his range (which we are when we only hold 2nd pair ourselves), then it's probably worth it. $65 is about 3 hours worth of work, we can't be passing up on that. The danger is that we have to be absolutely sure that he can't sense weakness in this bet and then shove, where we'd have to forfeit a huge pot; so obviously we have to limit this play to the least aggro and non-bluffy of players.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I actually bet $75 on turn and he folded

If by "plenty" you mean his possible OESD with T8 when we hold two of the four Tens in the deck?

This is a super-easy value bet.