TTÂ’s on flop mw.

I would pot the flop and hope to take it down.

This flop smashes your range, but doesn’t look great for your hand. My strategy is to attack and probably be done if called. Continue the story of strength and fold to a 3bet. This is not a good spot to bet small, if they both call, you learn nothing.

A big bet looks strong.
With a big bet on this board, even a weak ace might fold. You probably take it down often.

If you do get called, you’re very likely beat, but you can probably take a free card on the turn, there’s still hope.

Nothing that hit this flop is going to fold to a c-bet. Not an ace, probably not a king, and no draws are folding.

If they both missed, then any bet will fold out their residual equity.

Bet $30 and give up if called.

I’d bet 35 on the flop. You have lots of A and K in your range to represent. If they call or raise, give up.

These guy’s aren’t folding an Ace or King even to a big bet on the flop.

Grunch:

RE, your reads - I wouldn't assume we have a nitty image unless someone makes a comment about how much we're folding. In a low stakes games with a bunch of loose-passive fish, they may not even notice we've been folding all the time.

Also - you've got UTG1 as posting the straddle and UTG1 calling. I assume you mean UTG straddled and UTG1 limped first to act.

PRE - I like the big open size. Apparently it's not big enough, if we're still going to the flop multi-way. If we know BB is calling anything up to $20, we might open to $40 here, with a big PP.

FLOP - Obviously a terrible flop for our hand. Do we have any reads on how these V's play post flop? If either of them is likely to start stabbing on the turn, I might c-bet really small here, like $10-$15, just to keep control of the betting. Folding if we get check-raised, but I'm not expecting that.

If we c-bet small and get called, I'd probably just check back turn and evaluate the river. We may need to bluff-catch vs small river leads.

Alternatively, we could check back, and make a delayed c-bet on the turn if action checks to us again. I'd probably just c-bet small on the turn, and over-fold to river donks.

It would be helpful to know the suits of our T's. Can we rule out TXdd flush draw combos, or some combos of ATs/KTs?

On one hand I feel like a small bet is best targeting their misses and moving on. My concern here was that even though the BB was super loose he was aware I was tight and 35 was a fairly big raise for him to just be in there with junk. Do players like this fold to a small flop bet with a hand he may have called with like 99’s, JJ’s or maybe QQ’s? If this was HU in a normal raise size situation I would probably bet big on the flop. My concern here was betting small here, getting called and having the pot taken away from me on the river after I check the turn. The BB did seem bluffy.

I have trouble against extremely loose players. For now I think betting small and hoping for the best is probably the right move. Maybe I take it down. Maybe my hand is good and we make it to showdown.

You are correct, UTG was the straddler and UTG +1 the caller. UTG folded pre to the raise. Only the BB and UTG+1 called. Also, I just noticed I wrote Kd. It should have been a rainbow board. I apologize and will try to do better editing.

This is great information. Thanks!

I would check back flop and evaluate a turn lead. I check this spot back with a lot of smaller suited AX hands as well, which is probably less important from a "balance" perspective than from a psychological perspective, knowing that I don't always have some pair below an ace when I check flop and an opponent stabs turn.

I don't think this is a good strategy, personally. I see a few semi-competent players in my pool do this and it always makes me cringe. They play poker in reverse, betting small or checking this flop with AA, KK, and AK, then piling in money with QQ, JJ, and TT just praying to get a fold. The fish in your pool are not folding AX (let alone KX or even a hand like QJ) to a big bet, and the good players (if there are any) will quickly take note of this strategy (which isn't exactly face-up, but is certainly poorly disguised) and exploit it.

We have a made hand and only got two callers. Relax. We don't need to use spaz sizing because we're afraid of a 3-way pot.

So, you want the BB to fold his dominated hand? Is that what you're saying?

But is it a terrible flop for our range? Remember, other people can't see our cards.

Here you go again imagining fictitious stabbings. You like to play "gotchya-poker". Hence, you're on the look out for anyone making a play at an orphan pot and labeling them a "stabber" so you have an excuse to try and bluff catch. If that's your game, cool. But PLEASE stop trying to pretend it's good advice.

What the holy hell does that even mean? "just to keep control of the betting"? Sir, we bet for 1) Value 2) As a bluff. There's no third option where we bet to maintain initiative. What's the EV of that?

Why? Where'd this nebulous read come from? Villains have a range. Some % of those hands will check/raise. You should expect a check/raise that same % of the time.

Well now. Finally, some sound advice.....

.....and ya blew it. Why is bluff-catching such a massive part of your game man?

You're just trying to induce a bluff so you can catch it.

Wait a minute.

So if villain's line is check/call flop, check through turn, and lead river.......you're bluffcatching
If his line is check through flop, check/call turn, lead river......you're overfolding??

Huh??

Please don't listen to a word he says.

That's exactly what's supposed to happen when your hand misses the flop and your opponent's doesn't. It's not the end of the world. Shrug it off and move on.

Please don't listen to a word he says. After 20 years of live poker he's back to playing 2nl, if anyone is automatically disqualified it's this guy.

I'm cool with preflop.

I would never consider a cbet "standard" in a 3way pot with two of the most popular overs in the deck on board. Even though there are some draws we could get called by, with a WA/WB QQ I would insta check this back. There is more reason to bet (very small) with TT cuz it could be good and we're simply protecting against some random overs that could kill us. But overall I'd probably lean to a check and see what happens on the turn, perhaps betting small if it checks to us again.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Can bet 1/3 pot or check. Having the T♦ might influence the relative frequency of each but honestly not sure if that makes it more of a bet (with backup equity) or a check (with more incentive to see the turn for free)

We care about having a diamond in our hand mainly for what it does to villain's range, and less for what it does for our equity/draws. If we hold the Td, then villain can't have AT, QT, JT, T9, or T8 of diamonds. That's 5 pretty important hands to add or subtract from villain's range.

However, it's actually moot in this case. There was a correction by the OP later in the thread about the board being rainbow, not double suited. Therefore our suits don't matter.

Have you tried it? I think you’ll be surprised
They don’t see a big flop bet often and even loose players understand getting out early when perceived to be way behind.

Most of the forum against this play have never potted the flop in their lives. They have no experience with it. 1/3 players are not in a hurry to call $100, no matter what you think.

I’m not here to argue. If you don’t like this advice, do what you want. Now if they think you’re a whale, they will call, but my image gets folds and I play in very wild games.

Based on my observation these two didn’t seem to be the types to fold top pair to a large bet. That being said, this was over a small sample size so maybe.