J9 in HJ Facing a Straddle and a Pro
1/2. Rake+promo+tip is 6+3+1. Table is all loose-passive calling stations except V2. Most bets were to 7 or 10. Mostly limping. Most hands are going three- or four-way.
V1 on the BTN (225) is twenty-five years old. At first, I thought he was a rock. Then he open-limped, called several bets, and folded each time to bets on the flop. My read was that he's scared money. He told himself to play tight before he sat down and then got impatient.
V2 in the CO (covers) is an unloved pro waiting to play 5/10. In his bag, I saw an eight-inch wad of dark, used bills in a crumpled paper envelope. I’ve seen wads of clean money, but never this much dirty cash. (Later, before he moved to the 5/10 table, he counted out 30 in one-dollar bills. Wtf?)
Hero in the HJ (465) is playing super tight and aggressive preflop, mucking K8s kinds of hands and betting big, opening 10 + callers, 25 against the straddle, 50 against four loose passives calling a 7 dollar open bet.
OTTH
V1 straddles BTN to 5. Folds to Hero with Jc9c in the HJ. Hero?
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(Later, before he moved to the 5/10 table, he counted out 30 in one-dollar bills. Wtf?)
Hero in the HJ (465) is playing super tight and aggressive preflop, mucking K8s kinds of hands and betting big, opening 10 + callers, 25 against the straddle, 50 against four loose passives calling a 7 dollar open bet.
OTTH
V1 straddles BTN to 5. Folds to Hero with Jc9c in the HJ. Hero?
The 1s are for tips, is my guess.
Two left to act, and one of those weak, sure let's open J9s. You've been opening 25 first in versus a 5 straddle? So pot of 8? If it's been working, keep at it. Especially with the rake. (Though the descriptions make me think we're seeing a flop here.) Folding to either villain raising.
The ever popular fold pre works too, I guess, though I want to abuse every pot V1 finds himself in.
Obviously it's raise or fold. I probably raise it up -- $25.
I'm confused about why you are folding K8s but pondering raising J9s - against a 100 bb stack OOP I'd much rather have K8s. I'd be more inclined to speculate with J9s if we were deeper 200bb+ and 100% if we're 300bb+.
Around 100bb it's probably slightly losing to break-even play at best even with a reasonable skill edge vs V1. I'm not going to throw stones about staying active when its good for the game. But a hand like J9s will perform best when you have a lot of room to maneuver post flop because its wins will primarily come from semi-bluffing and being OOP that means pulling off a big x/r. When you're 100bb deep its hard to have a bluffing line that will fold out TP frequently enough.
What's our plan to bluff? Are we leading out $25, then we get called and are OTT with $175 behind and about $100 in the pot? Do we fire $75-$100 as a bluff? Check and hope for a check back so we can feel somewhat ok about firing on the river? That isn't a line I think folds many pairs.
Or are we going to check, hope he bets something like $25 and x/r to $100? That's half the effective stack. Maybe it works a lot but again if V hits a hand he likes enough to bet I don't think he's going anywhere. Or are we check/folding and only proceeding if we hit a draw or trying to start bluffing OTT when he checks back?
None of these plans seem to be winning long-term. If you have a specific read that this guy way overfolds to c-bets I guess raising and c-betting range is ok. But I think modern day most players tend to overcall c-bets.
Hero's hand almost doesn't matter. He has a tight image and he's against a "pro" who doesn't have any skin in the hand and a scared money straddle. He might raise K8s here, too -- just because he folds it other times doesn't mean he will in this position.
Mostly igoring rake, as rake structure might just mean Hero should open fold.
J9s seems like it would be near the bottom of Hero opening range (at best) in this configuration, but raising anywhere from $18-25 seems fine.
Light steal spot, no need to invest much more vs. resistance or play too aggro post-flop. Most live player ranges aren't well optimized for straddles, so Hero will frequently encounter opponents with stronger-than-expected calling ranges than a solver would, especially out of the blinds.
Also (again ignoring rake), if Hero wants to open light from this position using smaller opening size for entire range can be a good adjustment, even if that means opening smaller with super-premiums too.
Sorry to disappoint: I folded.
Because hands were going four way to the flop all evening, I was mucking non nutted hands all and raising big with the nutted hands. In retrospect, because hero was against a pro who probably overfolds against TAGs and a scared money / bad player, I would bet 20.
I’m folding this pre. You’ve got a tight image and a pro behind you who’s going to attack a ton. No need to open a dominated, reverse implied odds hand vs a straddle and two players who aren’t folding postflop.
I think folding pre is fine. We'll be OOP to CO or BTN, or both. BTN isn't deep enough to lay us the correct IO to get involved with J9s, and the pro to our left can make our life hell if he wants. We don't have any incentive to get involved, and every incentive not to.
