Blinds, game size number of players: 2-5, 9 handed, 300-1000 buy ins. Effective $975

PREFLOP ACTION: $15 Straddle on BTN: BB limps, Hero raises with AhKh to $60 from UTG +1, CO calls. (POT: ($142)
FLOP: Kd-6s-7s Action: Hero x/x
TURN: Ac Action: Hero x/ V bet $120/ Hero raise to $360/ V calls. Pot: ($902)
RIVER: As Action: Hero shoves for $555/ V folds face up 77 [$1457 in pot and $555 left to call.]

I sure hope you didn't show your hand after V showed his, haha. Never let these nits know they made the right laydown!

Since you're looking for advice, I guess here's one thing I like to do when I see a Villain make a huge (correct) laydown against me: what bluffs *could* you have had in that spot? Can you run through the hand and think of any times your River shove would *not* be for value? (Would you ever play, oh, QsQd this way? 6h7h? Td9d?)

What kind of image do you have where V will play a flopped set so passively in such a low SPR pot? If the answer is a total nitball, bluff more.

Yeah I have no idea how opponent didn't jam the turn after OP c/r him. When these kinds of things happen it takes the wind out of you but if I was OP I wouldn't worry too much. In the old days people down at the shark tank called this type of hand "nit on nit violence" hahahah. As far as how to play it better, ask yourself what does your turn c/r range look like. How often do you c/r draws with 1 card to come, do you ever c/r 1 pair hands ott? c/r turn and then jamming river you're telling the opponent "hey I have a nutted hand or nothing". So ask yourself how often are you jamming river with nothing on this type of board texture.

I agree with Keef, however I would add would you typically check this flop after being the aggressor preflop, I understand its heads up but just make it easier for your self and lead flops when you hit top pair especially with draws on board, either way money goes in on turn and you get lucky on river, thats poker I guess,

Given the action, he probably (correctly) put our Hero on KK+/AK. That preflop raise, followed by a flop check and a turn check/raise screams strength.

Bottom line, is you either ran into a chicken little, or someone that plays better than you. That's all.

45s, 89s, and 910s (only with a back door flush draw hoping to gain equity to continue barreling over turn and River). I think I would take those as a check raise line similar to here. I am more prone to open 45s rather than 89s due to the way 89s interacts with boards where I’m in the position to get coolered so the 89s can get discounted to partials. So, 9 bluffs. I just felt this was an auto call as any strong Ace I have, whether it is AQ or AJ or A10, I’d take a similar line. I’m mostly betting 67 on the flop to get value from top
Pair. I don’t think I have any other than that.

I feel like I have a good image as well. I’m 27 and look young. I also usually have one of the higher VPIPs preflop, but play pretty TAG post flop due to large amount of multi-way pots. This man was an old man too.
I was curious as the spade flush got there whether checking was a good idea as any flush should go for value once I check right? With that idea, any full house should as well. He said he just sat down and had a while to play and didn’t want to start stuck so he’s going to wait for a better spot.

I didn’t show him either. I told him that’s a big fold and that I couldn’t believe he folded the winner, mucked my hand and went to break. It was my last hand with my chips racked as I was heading to take a lunch break which I think persuaded him to fold.


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I think I have a good image. I’m a younger player and I look younger than my age. I couldn’t believe he played it soo passively either.


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Thank you both for your thoughts and help.
Personally, I usually (probably 90%) of the time C-bet this flop with this hand in particular. I decided not too this time because the old man (Villain) called my BTN 3! Last orbit from the SB and then blasted into 3 opponents on a disconnected King high board on the turn with Q4o. I wanted to protect my checking range while allowing him to blast off with draws/air balls/ TPGK that I beat. The total blank turn and pot sized bet made me think he had the latter, which would let me get the money in on clean rivers. I’ve changed my strategy a bit in these situations because I’m used to 100bb stacks and starting with 200-300bb I’ve tried to slow down fast playing TPTK as I’ll only get 3 streets if I’m behind and being OOP he can abuse me if I play too forwardly.
Is this a concept im mis-applying or just a bit of unluckiness you think? We played maybe 2 orbits together when this happened


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Your line sucks. Your line with Ax sucks. Your line with 54s/98s sucks (and is even worse than your other lines). This is live low stakes, ffs. Learn to bet your own hand.

Hahahaha. I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.


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BUT, then i cant have any value C/R ever if I take this advice and take advantage of what I perceived of an old **** who likes to randomly blast off


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Don't you think it's kind of important to put this in you player description? Maybe start by saying he's an old man, and then follow that up by saying you think he randomly blasts off (regardless of whether you read is actually correct).

Also, I'm confused as to what you mean by saying you play TAG postflop.

This. Bet the flop for a million reasons. Any argument for checking is results oriented bad poker.

Hi big Mac, the cutoff cold called, his range looks like all the pairs , I would probably down bet this king high flop 30% pot maybe around $40-55 , try to keep his smaller pairs in , also I think betting flop in general makes the overall hand easier to play ,

When you show no strength on flop and then check raise like Superman on the turn your basically saying I have AK+ and your villian made a simple read based on that action and deduced that, I'm surprised he called $350+ then mucked river to be honest , his chance to get away was when you cr the turn,

I think in these stakes we don't need to balance our range at all as vs most opponents no one is thinking on that level , it is generally way more +ev to just value bet value bet value bet , even when the board comes scary just VB VB VB , the flip side of this is no one bluffs enough either so when they do play back at us we can easily fold knowing they have it ,

One thing I would add is ask yourself if your opponent is capable , vs capable opponents we are not gnna be able to go for multiple streets , likely one less street etc , otherwise we can get taken advantage of ,

I think to your point of protecting check range it's ok but generally turn is more suitable for this when oop , especially vs active villains who will stab, when you are the aggressor pf and get a K high dry board we are probably c betting this a large % so when we check it looks very odd /nutted in my opinion , I think having a smallish sizing on the flop suits the purpose much better

Thanks for you post big Mac man !

Thank you for the response! It was very helpful and I agree with everything said.
I think you are right regarding the player pool after playing the 2-5 stakes for a bit now. I felt starting at about 200bb would make a bigger difference than it actually does. I’m going to change my strategy more towards just value betting and making tighter folds to aggression.
Of course on a draw heavy board like this, I’d assume your line would go 30% por flop bet and then, if raised, continue to the turn and once you turn top 2 to check call.
(Hypothetically say you used a $50 bet on flop, Villain raises to $175 (approx. $490 in pot) you call, and then you call any turn bet)
On the River, due to the lack of bluffing at these stakes, are you inclined to call the River if we don’t improve and draws get there and call if not?

Also, due to the large amount of draws, what do you think about the flop play when raised? Would you put in a 3! To try and deny equity to the IP raiser so, if he misses his draws it won’t go check/check turn when the draws miss? Further, if the IP villain checked turn and if front door spades come in, are you leading small and folding to a large raise on the River? What are your thoughts once you reach this part of the hand if it came to this ?


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Fair enough. I guess a better way to phrase it is that I typically play pretty straightforward post flop, unless it’s a board that favors me and I have important cards to minimize the likelihood he has TPGK like A10 on K-Q-2 where I will likely be bluffing 3 streets, but once I start taking the aggressive line on the flop I tend to follow through barring any crazy run out


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