AKo, Shot-taking 2/5

Seems fine, bad luck. Calling pre would be bad. Could get tricky if you missed the flop with low SPR.

This is standard variance. With the straddle you have 70BB. Flat calling preflop just gives your opponents better odds. With the pot around $100 and you flop TPTK your still going to lose most or all of your stack.

Notice that UTG+1 was making a thin call. If HJ doesn't call also there isn't enough money in play to justify set mining, he needs to win with a pair of tens fairly often.

Low stakes players don't like folding to 3!s. Of course a thin call with TT this shallow. Tricky situation for both him and OP on a low board. HJ plays like a typical amateur, calling off a big chunk of his stack with suited broadway and then has to go with it when makes a decent draw.

You have to 3! AK, but nasty situation when you miss. On this board, TT is probably the only hand UTG+1 could have which is ahead.

If you had AA/KK, it would be really profitable, as you would get a lot of action, but more chance of being drawn out on.

If you flat call pre, you still get stacked post flop. If you raise bigger pre, you still get stacked post flop.

Don't see how you could have played this and not gotten stacked, unless you flat call pre, and check back flop. Maybe you could somehow get away from TPTK on some run-outs, but only if you play the hand extremely defensively.

I do flat pre some at these positions. Not sure if I’m more or less inclined to do it 70bbs deep, but maybe it’s even better since it’s the perfect amount to back shove if the blinds squeeze.

Flop is a little too big with these stacks.

We’re getting stacked regardless, though.

Shot taking means you can't afford to play at these stakes. The game is also garbage. It's a 2/5/10 game essentially with only 1 person at 100 BB. Find a better table if you're going to do this. If you're not bankrolled for 2/5, you're definitely not bankrolled to 2/5/10. The low stacked nature of it makes things more randon and takes skill out of the game.

For someone "taking a shot" at a bigger game, there's nothing wrong with flatting pre to keep variance low and if we don't flop an ace or a king we can easily fold.

The original raiser opened from UTG+1 to begin with (he's essentially UTG w/the straddle), and at these stakes players tend to be more sticky pre too so most of the time (assuming only UTG+! calls) you're gonna be heads up with ace high otf and only about a psb left.

The flop bet did feel a little big at the time. I think the size (1/3) I picked would be better if it was just heads-up. What do you think about $100 on the flop instead? Is that too awkward of an amount to shove turn, or maybe I just turn it into a 3 street game?

Yeah this is standard, i could maybe quibble about the flop sizing but honestly i think with not much more than a psb behind its sorta do whatever you want

$100-110 seems good

Flop sizing seems perfect with the Fish at 360 ... he might just call for less and doesn't reopen the betting for more.

Would happily tell the Reg he'd played the flop great, specifically the middle card.

Seems fine. Given it is multiway I like to default to a very small bet of 1/4 pot or even checking multiway can't be that bad. But we're not really betting small or checking back planning on folding many runouts, so it probably doesn't change anything.

I don't see any merit to just calling pre, especially after there is a cold caller. It can be okay to just flat AKo on the button from an EP raise with no cold callers sometimes although I prefer raising.

I like your sizing pre.

The pro played it great.

The rec complicates things postflop and unfortunately the nature of multiway is that one player can make a play that is -EV for them, but it ends up being -EV for you too and there isn't always a way to avoid it.

I couldn't disagree with this more. If we're making decisions where fear of variance trumps EV then we're making bad decisions and shouldn't be in the game. The whole point of shot taking is that you bring your A-game and play to what you hope is the best EV...and if you lose, you lose and move back down again.

Checking was something I hadn't considered. Do you feel like players would stab turn too often, and we can raise GII? Or is the plan to get to the cheapest showdown possible?
Would your decision change if the flop was A-high instead of K-high?

That's a good point, it is a little tough to find a game that isn't straddling when I play in the evenings / weekend. I feel comfortable playing 2/5, but my roll feels stretched when the straddle goes on. It feels like I'm stuck playing 1/3 until I'm essentially rolled for 5/10, which really sucks. Maybe I could try and get everyone to straddle at 1/3 but that feels much harder than at 2/5 or higher. Seems like there's way more shortstacks and zoned out players at 1/3, who just don't like the straddle.

You have any experience with situations like this?

When it's multiway, we just want to check more and bet smaller. We bluff less and our bluffs will work less often. It is a little more likely one of the players could have a monster. It is harder to get called for 3 streets by worse and we want to pot control in general. And yes players stab too often after a player checks.

Whether or not we try to raise all in on the turn depends on the sizing our opponents use. If it goes small bet, call, we may raise, but we can also call. If it goes big bet call or big bet fold, we call. If it goes bet jam we may actually fold.

A high boards aren't super different from k high boards, but aces up tend to be more represented in villains' ranges than kings up. At the same time, there are more weaker aces out there to get value from.

Yeah, you have to take into account stack depth and straddles when it comes to what stakes you are playing. At 2/5/10 you're going to have 10k downswings as a winning player reasonably often. Even if you are playing 50 straddles deep, you are going to have to get it in lighter and you're going to have a ton of variance, kind of like in tournament poker.

So I would ask yourself, are you comfortable with a 10k downswing? If not, maybe you shouldn't play the 2/5 game, or limit it to when the game is looking really good with some VIPs and not too reg heavy. When (not if) you lose 5k playing 2/5/10, are you going to stay away from poker, feel like crap, and not want to shot take again for a long time? If so, I don't think it's worth it to ruin a hobby you love and add stress to your life when you could cruise by with maybe a lower win rate, but lower variance at 1/3.