So here's another common situation I get into against aggro players post-flop that I'm trying to work through.

I think everything pre-flop is pretty standard so no questions there. My stats going into the hand was 19/13/5 after 71 hands.

Post-flop I have a couple of choices, I can check flop or c-bet (my current c-bet average in this tourney is 67%)..so let's go though that one. On a dry board, I typically c-bet with my full range as that wins most of the time. If I cbet, should I go higher? 30-40% flop cbets have been working for me and have adopted that strategy more often. If I c-bet versus aggro players, should it be for more to protect my range?

If checking makes more sense here, does a turn c-bet make more sense or just check-down?

Getting back to what happened...the min-raises represents something like 77, A5, 55, or something like KTc+. Since I hold the nut-flush blocker, I decided to call with the plan of pushing the turn to a bet if another club hits. Did my ego get in the way of a fold where I should have just c-bet, fold to the min-raise?

With the turn being a blank, I decided to fold as I'm only beating the KTc+ range and any pair beats me.

Any feedback here would be appreciated.


Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 100/200 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 6.1 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
SB: 47.34 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 30)
BB: 8.65 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 4.17, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
UTG: 20.76 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 6.15, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 66)
UTG+1: 7.1 BB (VPIP: 7.69, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
Hero (MP): 42.32 BB
MP+1: 35.67 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
CO: 43.01 BB (VPIP: 31.82, PFR: 25.58, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 45)

8 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.3 BB) Hero has A Q

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.65 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 2.15 BB, fold

Flop: (7.1 BB, 2 players) 5 7 5
SB checks, Hero bets 1.77 BB, SB raises to 3.55 BB, Hero calls 1.77 BB

Turn: (14.2 BB, 2 players) 2
SB bets 7.1 BB, fold

I think that small c-bet on a dry board with the whole range is fine. I have "33%" button for postflop bet in PS client and this is probably the most frequently used UI element.
the way you played this hand seems to be fine.

WP , but my main concern is why u label a unknown player (only 30 hands) fllatting from SB (prob 22+ , ATs+ AJ+ KQ and a bunch of SCs) as a fish...
He is probably a weak player based on the sizings used (min-raise and 1/2 pot)
Dont label people with no information is my advice

When the flop isn't good for your range you should CB less often and larger. This flop is terrible for your range and isn't exactly "dry".

So I would probably check behind 75% and the other 25% bet like 4-5bb.

When you bet small on a flop like this you give him odds to continue with a huge portion of his range, which you don't want.

^^ SB range is not the same as BB range. The latter has sh*t load of equity here, the former probably does not.

The flop is still way better for SB than it is for Hero.

Nope, it's more like 50-50. Depends on what you think SB's range here is though.

0% chance that is true. AA should feel a million dollars here.

Do you both honestly think Hero can have as many 5x and small connected cards as SB in this spot?

A low paired and connected flop will always be better for someone calling in the SB than someone opening from MP.

An orthodox reggy SB flatting range would mostly be suited broadways and middling pairs.

I don't see anywhere where it says villain is an orthodox reg. All we have is fairly aggressive stats in a small sample. There are lots and lots of low stakes players who will flat small suited connectors in the SB. Certainly more often than will open with them from early MP.

If you look at a reasonable SB range you will quickly notice how few good hands SB is going to have in this spot. He could mix in some traps as well as BB is short but most won't and will simply just 3bet those.

A5s(2), 88(3), 55(1), 75s(2), 65s(2),54(2). That's like 12 combos of nutted hands in total if SB is flatting super wide. It's not very like though that he's flatting 75s, 65s, 54s as BB is short and his stats don't indicate that likes to play that wide.

MP pretty much have the same amount of nutted hands in this spot, except that unlike SB his range still includes all the good pockets.

Anyways I like how you played the hand.

A sb flatting range should have basically 0 5's except A5s. We also have all the overpairs not just 5x, we block the club flush draw so he isn't as likely to peel flop, we can have a few combos maybe of 5's but prob not many potentially since we could fold 56s and 75s, we can have A5s we also are slightly more likely to have 55 here even though that's not a huge factor.

We have a much wider range opening MP than SB does to flat.

SB does not defend with 54s, 65s, 75s, BB does.

here are the baseline ranges I use for opening from LJ and defending from SB and their equities on this flop:
http://www.power-equilab.com
Board: 575
Equity Win Tie
MP1 52.87% 50.50% 2.37% { 22+, A2s+, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 87s, 76s, 65s, ATo+, KTo+, QJo }
SB 47.13% 44.76% 2.37% { TT-22, ATs-A2s, K8s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, AQo-ATo, KJo+ }

So, it's almost a coin and hero's small c-bet with the whole range is excellent!

Give opponents a healthy amount of respect until they give you reason to believe otherwise.

Regardless he's shaping up to be very reggy based on the sats and his aggression so far suggests he's less likely to flat a hand with a 5 in it not more. I'd go as far as to say he may flat no 5x hand sb vs mp (A5s is an easy 3bet, 56s can get mucked and 55 is a fine 3bet too)

My instinct is to call turn and evaluate river.

Vill's sizings leads me to believe there is a possibility of him just button-clicking and attacking our super-small cbet (exact min-raise followed by exact-halfpot barrel).

Against a half-pot sizing our call only needs to be right 25% of the time. Vill could be bluffing or semibluffing a decent percent of the time, and we could also hit an A or Q about 13% of the time which may give us the best hand.

One thing to consider is that we are facing a fairly active vill with effective stack sizes that a lot of weaker players feel are still deep enough to speculate with.

I don't think it's too far-fetched for a weak-active vill to look at our raise and convince themselves that it's only 2bb-out-of-47bb in their stack and that they are "priced in" with the SB. And from that logic they convince themselves to call muuuuuch wider than a 20bb vill in that same spot would. IMO.

I wouldn't be shocked to see 22-JJ/A2s-AQs/AT-AQo/SC/broadways in this spot.

Everyone...thanks for the great feedback and the insight on the hand. It's very helpful especially cizixap's running it through the equity calculator. Thanks again and I'll dig up a good next hand. Really appreciate the community.

How do you know that V is fairly active? If the answer is 'based on his stat', then it's not reliable, it's only based on 30 hands.

I don't think we loose equity by checking back and letting him bluff later streets. We have s sdv hand even if he stabs two streets.

As played... Id bet more otf.

I dont mind std cb here