Line check

A9o is a crap hand and we're in far too early a position to even attempt to isolate after 2 limpers with still 4 left behind us to react. I fold preflop.

Next time put pot size on each street so it is eaier to figure out what is going on.

SPR is 13 and we have top and bottom pair. I don't think I want to commit stacks with this hand against all but the most clueless. So I'd probably just bet/bet/bet for reasonable amounts and then evaluate if raised. So on this relatively drawless board I think I'd lean to a smaller bet (as bigger bets start putting stacks in play).

Facing the raise really sucks. He can now force stacks to be played for by the river. Any reads on Button? In general, very few raise just one pair, although it isn't out of the question with AK. I guess I call and plan on calling a reasonable turn bet and then evaluate what happens on the river. But I don't think folding here is terrible either, especially against more ABC players.

Weird turn donk by us. Think I'd much rather check and try to get a handle on his hand strength by his sizing. Are we just attempting to set our price? I'd have much rather check/called the turn to donk block bet a safe looking river.

Think I'm ok with our block bet of 1/4 PSB on the river. And now a trivial fold facing the raise, imo. Very few busted draws (QT?), bluff raises are extremely rare in general, and no one raises worse on the river facing our overall aggression.

Gwholehandisabitofadisaster,imoG

why are we flatting the minclick on the flop and then donking turn?

Why did you bet the turn? Just c/c if he bets. You're goal is to get to SD without going broke after he raises. AJ is in his range as are sets.

Reads on the button are important here, the river could go either way but leaning towards a fold as played.

What Playbig2000 wrote. Also, fold pre.

why are you donking the turn?

Every low stakes thread I read, I want to say raise more pre. These games are raked so hard. Scooping a pot pre is always OK to awesome unless you have AA or KK. With A9, you absolutely want to take it down now. Playing bigger pots when they call is fine.

I like your chunky flop bet. People don't fold hands like top pair for 1 bet and are inelastic here.

As others said, having called a raise on the flop, we should usually be checking turn.

As played, river spot is brutal. As PFR, you have all the nutted hands and even a pretty poor player as v should realize you could have AA, JJ, AJ, 99 pretty easily. Maybe you wouldn't play sets this way. But it would still be a pretty kamikaze bluffing line by him. You are getting a good price. But I think you can just fold, baring a good read. People do stuff like flat JJ and flatting AJ pre makes sense, as does 99, though that's 1 combo.

ok so i HATE folding preflop and i HATE posting it in threads. however at the game, i fold a LOT preflop. for me, this is a spot i'd also fold.

that said knowing nothing about villain, depending on villain's tendencies you should be:
A) piling it the **** in on the flop if they like to dance

B) if they're not musically inclined, and tend to be tight and stiff - but you're still convinced that Yes, A9o OOP has good equity vs the guy who plays 1-2 hands per hour - then check calling isnt too bad. And i'd deviate within this line only when they check back the turn i'd lead river some frequency but not 100% - but on a river like this lean towards a donk but again only if they check back turn.

C) average music enjoyer types: ok so you found yourself raising a real mid ass hand preflop and luckily only 1 opponent shows up to concert venue. GIven they didnt raise Pre, the board favors your range. i dont mind flop bet here but why flat the minclick? and as already mentioned: why flat the minclick then donk the turn? wtf? my strat advice at this point is unlearn what you think you know to be right, cuz its very wrong. Top and bottom two pair here generally goes into a more passive line for me to protect my check/call OOP range whereas top two Im more willing to create a bigger pot. turn and river are irrelevant really they dont alter board texture much. Villain flat preflop so i discount AA and maybe JJ, your cards remove a lot of set combos as well as 2 pair combos and there is no flopped straight.

Im having trouble deciding given your line whether calling the river is still good here but i cant really come up with a lot of value that villain might play this way. Does 55 call flop here? doubt it.

meh call river i guess. but the line is bad, you may wanna spend some time studying more fundamentals.

Biggest mistake here is raising pre, I think. I would just fold.

I guess I am in the minority, but I actually like the turn donk. The min-raise IP at low-stakes is so often a "stop raise", right? Where IP is trying to buy himself a XB on turn and a cheap river? Donking seems like a decent way of combatting that, assuming that was your thought process.

On the river, your bets are so small that $200 is only around half pot, so I think we have to call and hope that V is overvaluing a worse 2p. Curious to see the result...

Raise bigger pre. I'd make it at least $20, if not $25.

I'd check range from OOP as the PFR and HU on the flop. If we want to c-bet, it should be smaller, 1/2 pot or less.

V's min-click here is weird. What's he repping? AJ? Think I might 3B here, to like $125. I'd wonder if he has the same hand, and be happy if he folds.

Our turn donk lead for ~1/2 pot on a brick, after flatting the flop raise is weird. What is the point of this bet? What are we trying to accomplish? Do we want him to call? Fold? Raise?

I don't know what to do on the river, because I'd never get to the river this way. As played, it looks to me like he's got AJ or 99, or he's good enough to realize we're capped and he's bluffing with air.

I don't see any low-stakes recs making this play as a bluff. I think we should fold, but I might be curious enough to call, with 2P. I'd definitely fold all my 1P hands. There's a slight chance he's over-playing AK/AQ.

The reveal is I cry call and he has jj.

He flat called a $15 raise over two limps with JJ? That's pretty unusual. I'd expect most low stakes players to 3B pre in his spot.

His min-click on the flop is even weirder now, since he's either way ahead or way behind.

Make a mental note of his play, that he slow plays JJ pre (and probably TT/99, and maybe QQ), and will min-click with thick value, and remember it if you see him again. Also take note that he left $75 behind when he raised the river, rather than jamming.

Re-reading the hand, I wonder if he wasn't sure he was ahead on turn and river, after you flat his flop raise, then donk turn and barrel river for a small size. Or maybe he just didn't know how to range you.

I could see him possibly wondering if you were milking him with AA, when all the draws miss, he double blocks top 2P and bottom 2P, and you shouldn't get to the river this way with AK/AQ or A9.

If he knew he was best, I'd have expected him to raise turn, or just jam on the river. I think your line might have confused him, which is his own fault for taking such a strange line himself.

Sorry, OP, but you butchered this one. Raise bigger or just fold pre. Check or bet smaller on the flop. Check-call a reasonable sized turn bet, and check-evaluate the river.

Pre flop this hand is marginal. if you raise go bigger. mostly fold unless on btn or CO.

I read min clicks at these stakes as nearly always an indicator of real strength(2 p or better). Rarely is this a draw.

Thus, leading turn is terrible.

V is telling you he had a monster. Proceed with caution.

River lead is also a mistake.

Be more wary when V shows strength.

Very standard at low stakes for someone to flat JJ. Some people only 3! KK+.

Villain's small raises may be a mistake, but were designed to get calls.

Preflop is a fold. I would definitely cbet the flop and call the small raise. Would check the turn and definitely not plan on doing any more betting.

After an HJ open, (admittedly to 5x) and we're on the Button? Don't we want this heads up IP with Jacks? Vs potentially having the blinds decide to tag along too?

I don't want to go MW with JJ, and I'm curious about situations where we wouldn't 3! here.

Yeah, I don't see very many low-stakes players flatting JJ / TT too often in spots where other players are likely to come along. I see more low-stakes players raising huge with those hands, just hoping to take the pot down pre-flop, apparently scared of seeing over-cards hit the board.

When I do see someone flat with JJ or TT, and then fast-play post-flop, I make a mental note of it.

Regardless, the fact that V had JJ specifically isn't the most salient point here. Hero's line of flatting the flop min-click, then donking the turn and block-bet-calling the river should be the focus. It's a very strange line to take with a non-nutted hand.

We could have gotten away from our hand if we 3B the flop (and folded to V's expected 4B-jam). We might have lost less if we just check-called turn and check-evaluated on the river. V basically told us on the flop that he had a better 2P or a set, or he was over-playing a draw.

Without judging the play, I would say it is far more common to see players flatting JJ @ LLSNL than 3betting it, at least in my experience.

Geveryoverpairshouldalwaysfactorintoourrangingofflattedhands,imoG

we have position, we hate most flops vs any 3! callers

even if it's a low board, are we still loving life when they call our cbet or do we begin to worry they have QQ+ or hit a low set?

very few boards with JJ where you feel really good about it in 3bet pots, lots of boards where you can confidently play JJ with in single raised pots

we have position, if not 3betting means one of the blinds will stick around with K4o then so be it

for me to 3! here i'd need a very specific read that the original raiser is a complete drooler - otherwise i'm mostly flatting to a 5x open

there are other instances where I 3! here (such as the bb will see all flops but the original raiser may fold), but the vanilla response in position here is to flat

A 5x raise in a raked 1/3 game isn't large. It's pretty standard in most 1/3 games I've played, at least when the opener understands rake and table dynamics. It's actually a small raise over two limps.

I think the difficulty in playing TT / JJ post-flop is what leads so many low stakes recs to fast-playing those hands by 3B'ing them pre-flop. When I see someone open to an absurd size, or 3B huge, I'm usually putting them on JJ.

I don't see how navigating SRP's with JJ is easier than playing 3B pots with the same hand. If anything, I'd think it would be harder, because our opponents' ranges are likely to be wider.

I'd think that would be especially true when there are two limps, and then the HJ only raises to $15, and we look down at JJ on the BTN, with the blinds still left to act. If we flat the BTN with JJ, it seems pretty likely that some, if not all the blinds and limpers will come along.

Yeah, we'll be playing a big PP in position post-flop, but we'll be playing it multi-way, against ranges that are going to interact with any and every board. I'd rather 3B, fold out the blinds and limpers, get it HU and IP with the original raiser, and go to the flop with an uncapped range.