Hand Review Request - Flopped a Straight and Got Stacked :/

You didn't ask, but your turn bet needs to be bigger. When 2 people are both calling on this flop, you need to bet big in case someone is slowplaying 2 pair or something like that. Not to protect your hand, but strictly to extract the most value you can.

As played, yes, you have to call. That is a massive jump from 50 to 280, but at the same time, he could be overplaying a hand like QT or JT. I would not have even checked the river to begin with though. It would have been very bad if he checked back with a hand like KQ while the guy who checked to you first rivered trips and would have paid you off!

To answer your question, no you don't always have to call the river. A lot has to do with reads on the button. If he's a very straight up ABC type who's tight/nitty, I could find a fold. But as played (and since we don't have reads on him), and since you both checked, this could be him attempting to take down the pot after two players showed a little weakness so the call there was fine.

To get better responses on future hands it's always better to leave out the results up until he jams the river. Then say "Hero?" so you'll get more unbiased responses since it puts the posters in the hand at that particular decision point (rts) a good rule of thumb is to wait at least a day before posting results.

Don't include results.

Bet very big on the turn. It wouldn't have changed the result of this hand, but you made a sizing mistake in this hand on the turn.

As played it's close, but probably can't fold.

I agree with the others: pump the turn bigger. With the straddle on you are only about 75BB effective stacks. You can probably get the rest in on the river without too much fuss, but you'd rather there to only be a half pot bet left in case a scare card comes on the.river like a Queen or Jack. Also, once you get called twice on the flop there's a very good chance at least one if not both of your opponents has a King.

Stack sizes are awkward on the river. I'm not sure if the best play now is to jam (hard to get called by a bare King), bet small (which would mean it'll be very hard to fold if you get raised given stacks) or check. This feels like the most interesting point of the hand.

On that wet flop board you'd expect to have heard from a set or two pair before now. It's only a pot sized bet and this can easily be a Ten. I call this pretty cheerfully.

Welcome to the forum, this is the exact right place to put a hand question, but please dont post results until some people have posted.

Preflop is too small. I go $20-30 after a straddle.

Flop, perfect.

Turn, nobody does this but the new strategy ott after youve bet the flop is basically to bet 75% of pot if its a board changing card, and 133% pot if its a blank. Now this sizing might be smaller if you can get all in on the river with a smaller sizing, but here those sizes look correct. so here with a total blank and a pot of $123, im going about $150-$175

River in theory this is an easy call, but against 1/2 players its more of a crying call. Certain villains you could exploitatively fold against, if hes an old man nit.

I would have bet $100 on the turn and shoved the river myself but I can sometimes be too aggressive. Villains can call with worse hands, and those two decisions (betting small on the turn and checking the river) are clear errors.

I'm a little confused. We supposedly have a stack of 570, and stacks are similar, yet on the river button is allin after putting 370 in the pot? Was your 570 stack size a typo?

The reason I ask is that I love to fast play my str8s, especially the broadway ones. I would have overbet the flop to 60, and shoved the turn if we are playing 370.

If we are playing 570, then I think Tomark is right, flop is fine, overbet the turn, but we are not looking to play for stacks at 570 in that case. After the turn overbet and call, I think we can fold this river, I have mostly given up heroing when a broadway card pairs and someone goes allin, doesn't matter which card, they always have the boat.

This is correct. In fact, please don't post results until at least 24 hours after the OP. They bias the advice people give. I'd edit them out, but too many people have commented already.

Preflop is fine. Flop is a bit small, imo, but if you are betting the same amount with air c-bets, it's fine.

Your bet on the turn is way too small. Two players called a decent sized c-bet on the flop. Someone will give you value OTT. Bet at least 2/3 pot, and more if effective stacks warrant.

River is kinda gross, as V C/C flop and turn and donk-shoved river. Yes, I've seen results, but this looks so much like what it is, T9 or KT, that I'd consider a fold here. If V is loose enough that he could be doing this with trip T, then we have to call anyway.

In low stakes, if you ever face a huge bet and especially a raise on the river, it's almost always nutty. There are so few times it will be some sort of bluff that you'll come out ahead if you always fold there.

The question isn’t whether this is a bluff; it’s whether he’s overplaying trips. This is obviously never a bluff.

My bad. I misread

Even so, this.

Why is it never a bluff?

I agree bluffs are very few and far between. J9 would make sense. Otherwise it's got to be a King.

How did you raise the turn when no one bet?

Haven't read any other comments yet, so some of this may be repetitive, but here goes...

PRE - Not sure about your open size. I haven't played 1/2 in a while. But at a loose-passive table, I tend to open bigger, especially in a three-blind / straddle set-up. So, maybe $15 is okay, or maybe $20 would be better. When there's a $6 straddle on at 1/3, my standard open is $20, but I'll sometimes make it $25 if the table has been splashy, especially if my opens have been getting multiple callers.

When the BTN and UTG call, you're facing the two players who should have the widest ranges, so we should navigate post-flop more carefully.

FLOP - when we're monkey-in-the-middle as the PFR, with opponents in front and behind us, I generally start out by checking. Here, when we flop the nuts on a K-high board, I think it's okay to c-bet. Usually, we'd want to c-bet smaller, like 1/3 pot or less, not over 1/2 pot, as you did. When we bet that size into two opponents, we're forcing our opponents to call with a stronger range.

So, if we bet 1/3 pot or less, maybe we can get called by 1P hands, and some draws to the low end of the straight, and some backdoor flush draws. When we bet 1/2 pot, our opponents' ranges shift towards 2P+ and draws to nutted hands.

TURN - I think this is where you made the biggest mistake, by betting too small. When both opponents call our flop bet, especially when we bet over 1/2 pot, they both have some sort of hand. They're probably not floating us light, planning to bluff if we give up. We should be sizing up on the turn when it's a brick. I'd have over-bet the pot here. At the very least, I'd have bet 2/3 pot, but even that seems too small in this scenario, and I'd say 3/4 pot would be the smallest amount I'd bet.

RIVER - the board-pairing card is really the only thing we didn't want to see. Our opponents' ranges will have way more 2P and sets than just 1P. The T in particular is the worst card to pair, because it boats up both KT and T9. I'd rather see the K or 9 pair than the T.

In this spot, we can block-bet small on the river, targeting V's hands like AK, KQ, and KJ for value. If we get raised, it's a pretty trivial fold, with no flush on board. V will very rarely raise us with a worse hand. So, we might bet around $75, or even $50 again. Alternatively, if we want to check, we should check-evaluate, based on V's bet size, assuming he does bet.

Check-calling on the river is going to be a bad play more often than not at low stakes. Most opponents won't value-bet too thin or bluff often enough, and are happy to just take a showdown by checking back with their weak value. We should mostly bet-fold, or check-fold, and occasionally check-raise.

The problem with check-calling most rivers, especially after betting small on earlier streets, is exactly what we see here - we generally get to the river with a somewhat polarized range of made hands and missed draws.

Our made hands want to mostly bet or check-call, whereas our missed draws want to bet or check-fold. Our made hands are either going to be very strong (strong enough to bet), or fairly weak (not strong enough to bet), so putting all our strong hands into a betting range and all our weaker hands into a checking range leaves us with a weak, unprotected checking range on the river.

We should have some weaker hands we bet, and some stronger hands we check. That's not to say that it's wrong to put our straight into a checking range here. I don't think it's very bad, after betting large on flop and small on turn.

But I would check-evaluate, and only call a small bet, not a huge pot-sized jam. Part of my reasoning is that it's going to be hard for a big value bet to get called by a worse hand, so it's better to check-evaluate, or take block bet sizing and bet small.

I think a better line would be to bet smaller on flop, bigger on turn, and then block-bet the river, with a plan to fold if we get raised.

Alternatively, if we want to bet big on the flop, then I'd size way up and over-bet huge on the turn, with our strongest hands, and with our best combo-draws. We could bet 2x pot, and put 2P+ in a terrible spot. We'll only have about 1/3 pot left behind if either V calls, laying them terrible odds. We could also just jam for around 4x pot.

So, yes, the way you played this, I think it was wrong to check-call V's jam on the river, after betting big on flop (forcing him to continue with a stronger range, like 2P+) and small on turn (letting him continue with his entire range, including 2/3 of the 2P combos on the flop that boat up on the river).