[LOW] 1/2 - is trying to pot control correct here

Since the K smacks your range, I could dig a $10 flop bet to try to clear out hands that may have at least 6 outs to improve.

Yeah, I think you can probably range bet the flop if you want too, although I check multiway OOP a lot and would likely do so here as well.

On the river, you actually have a good amount of showdown value against missed spades and straight draws like QT. I would check to villain and probably bluff-catch a lot of reasonably sized bets, as I don't expect this player to have much Kx or 5x, and would not expect him to value-bet a lot of Jx here either.

couldn't agree more with this.. he would most likely have bet or 3! if he had a K or a 5

Cheers, all make sense - chose not to bet flop precisely because I was OOP in a 3-way, didn't want to increase the pot and get into a tough spot on the turn. Table was somewhat passive so expected at least a call if I did so. As played I see check/call is a good line here as unlikely he has Kx or 5x, and with Jx maybe he would indeed check back as to avoid being raised.

Thanks everyone

Might want to bet a skosh more at 1/2 than 8, but I'd only be bumping that to 10 or 12, so w/e. Get why you didn't cbet, but we're supposed to have a K so 10 into 27 seems appropo. Keep going on turn.

Bluffcatch for 1/2 pot AP.

PRE - is $8 the normal open in this game? Why do I think $10-$12 would be?

Even if it is the normal open, with the likely rake, I think I'd prefer a larger open size, especially if there are loose action players likely to call behind, but not overly likely to 3B us.

FLOP - good check from OOP and multi-way.

TURN - when no one bets the flop, I think it's fine to make a delayed c-bet on the turn. I think I might size up a little here, to 2/3 pot, but 1/2 pot seems okay.

RIVER - The CO probably would have bet a K on the flop, and raised KJ on the turn. Our hand is a decent enough bluff catcher, so I think I'd probably check and let him stab at it.

If he's typical for low-stakes rec-fish, he'll probably telegraph the strength of his hand with his bet size. I'd call anything less than a 2/3 pot bet, and fold to anything over a 2/3 pot bet.

Really no point in betting. Kx is going to call, if not raise. Jx is just going to call. All his busted draws are just going to fold, unless he's the type to pounce on thin value bets by raising with his busted draws. But if we don't know that about him, it's probably better to just check-evaluate than to bet for thin value.

Depending on how bad the table is, I think 10 or even 15 is a good raise size at 1/2. As an example, I played a 1/2 recently where there was an UTG limp, UTG+1 iso 15 500 effective, hero 3b KsQs in MP to 50, big blind cold calls, limper folds, original raiser calls. Flop is ragged, 3 diamonds. On the river it is 4 diamonds and a low paired board. Hero wins with KQ high vs KJo no diamond from both players as it checked all the way through. As long as people are calling our ridiculous raise sizes with napkins and we aren't getting aggressively 3bet, we should open very large. Just don't reciprocate. We should still play tight facing a large open raise and mainly respond by 3betting or folding when we don't close the action.

On the flop I think it is lazy to range bet on too many boards both OOP and multiway, but I could get on board with betting flop 10 to deny equity from all the overs to 88.

Turn is thin multiway. If we are planning to bet on overs to our pair on the turn, why not just bet flop?

On this river I would check and maybe call a small bet.

Because the J adds a BDFD and possibly some BDSD's. And because our PP benefits from denying equity from a lot of V's range.

Yes, it's thin, but not illogical.

Apologies for taking so long to reply again. Appreciate the last comments, gave me more insights - you are both correct as usual preflop raises usually ranges from $7-$12 so I'd say $8 is definitely on the low end. Given rake at 5% it might make sense to increase my raise bets.

Reasoning for betting turn was mainly because it was checked through - because we had some showdown value I wanted to make QT flush draws pay to see river. Problem is Jx can just call here as well but maybe its +EV to bet anyway?

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