River spot with AQo

Huh? Were you afraid he was going to soul-read you for AQo again?

Either fold or raise pre. Both are about even (since he's considered on the "tighter side").

I hate to see it go check check so bet around 215 (not too low to induce a possible bluff, unless you don't think he's ever bluffing).

You should have raised pre, but here we are. Bet the river about half pot, fold to a raise (sadly).

Your call pre is fine. I would bet 1/3 on river.

I think preflop is fine 200BB deep with AQo.

I probably check-call river to any non-ridiculous size. You haven't shown much interest in the hand; LJ can value bet plenty of worse hands and may well bluff a lot of he thinks he can get you off a medium pair. That said you could also get this hand very happily and expect to get called by many worse hands. If you think this guy is on the tighter side then perhaps he's less likely to bluff or value bet thinly which could make betting superior.

By the turn, you have a lot of sets and straights. He should certainly be betting his sets and straights.

He might check kk or aa, but might not. I think he has a lot of other stuff which mostly has SD value.

I don't like check call cuz, he might now feel obligated to bet KK, AA and perhaps Aq or kq. But he will check Tt Jj and maybe weaker Qs.

1/3 is good to get called by those but I think just under 1/2 gets called as much or close. Looks a little more like a bluff, and doesn't invite the odd bluff raise as much. Assuming we fold t raise.

I think pre-flop is good. 3bet is fine too. Folding seems way too tight in a home game setting.

I also prefer bet to check here. I don't think Villain is very likely to bluff if we check. I also think it is pretty unlikely that Villain has a better hand. Does no one else like betting bigger here? Hero has a loose/aggressive image and can be defending wide from the straddle. Is Villain really checking back turn to fold a hand like QJ to $350? Betting 1/3 pot does a better job of targeting JJ/TT (and loses less if V has AA or KK) but I think those hands can level themselves into a hero call against $350 too.

I think this is close to a pefect response.

Not really: it’s an EP raise and I’m closing the action, so raise/call both seem fine. Id play the hand differently in other positions: like I’d raise/fold AQo in the SB with two players left to act behind me.

200$

Bet $300 river. Top/top is pretty heavy value here. We should get called by worse and if he is really tight I doubt he will raise a lot of the hands that beat us, but he is likely to bet at least 300 himself. JJ might still call 300. KQ, QJ I would definitely expect to.

Pre is close. A lot closer to raise or fold facing the 4x open if the game has a high rake. But it's not terrible either way.

BTW CIE - are you back after an abscence? Or did I just miss you posting?

If it's the former I hope you stay, because I find your comments some of the best and you're both not an a-hole and call out the a-holes.

Why not just play 10/20 then? Why put in such big straddles/ You're lowering the effective blinds giving lesser players an advantage...unless that means you I guess.

I'd bet. If he raises then make a read. There's a lot of really good hands he can have here but if he's a straight forward player and had 2p, straight, set on the turn, he'd likely bet.

You're buying in with 4k. It's worth it to pay a professional to run through this.

Pretty much this. Not that much difference between SB and UTG post flop.

Welcome back, Chaos. You told me AQo oop is a stong hand but only if you’re uncapped on the flop. Playing it uncapped oop, it’s a trouble hand imo. I hope you don’t give up on LAG.

Do we know if V gets trappy with big hands, and will sometimes check back turn with over-pairs or 2P+ to induce river bluffs?

Would V c-bet the flop and check back turn with JTs? What about T7s? Is T7s in his opening range pre? I"m guessing not, if he's TAG, and the double straddle is on. Does he even open JTs pre?

Will V bet thin with worse Qx if we check?

What would V do with JJ and TT on the flop and turn? Would he bet those on the river if we check again?

Do we know if V will check back QXdd on the turn, or keep barrelling?

Would V raise pre, and then c-bet the flop for 3/4 pot with AX or KX that otherwise don't make a pair, or would he check-back?

What does his 3/4 pot flop c-bet mean? Does he usually do that when he's strong, or when he's bluffing? Does he even have bluffs on the flop?

Also, do we have the Ad or Qd, cutting down on V's missed draws that may have stabbed flop as a bluff and decided to take a free card on the flop? I'm thinking about combos like QJdd, QTdd, ATdd, AJdd, KJdd and KTdd.

I could go either way here, depending on the above. The way this was played, when JT and T7 come in, and the diamonds miss, we could bet to get value from V's worse Qx, or check to let V bluff with his missed draws and AX/KX.

If we decide to bet, I'd probably bet around 2/3 pot, like $300 to $350. I usually don't like that sort of sizing, but we're a bit in the dark about how to range V. It's a large enough size to dissuade V from raising without a nutted hand.

But, I think I prefer to check-call here, after V c-bets huge on the flop and checks back turn. If we check the river, he's going to have to bluff with all his ace and king high hands, and may decide to bet thin with worse Qx. Doubtful he'll bet huge without a nutted hand.

We've basically played our hand like a bluff catcher. Doesn't seem to be much reason to bet, when V will just fold all his bluffs, and may not call with anything worse. Our hand is under-repped, and our range pretty capped, so V might think Qx is good enough to bet for value if we check again, or that he can bluff us.

My hunch is he's got JJ, TT, weaker QX, or was bluffing on the flop, gave up on the turn, and may try to bluff again on the river.

Hey Venice! I don’t do much fiat calling in the SB or the BB when the straddle is on, but I do a lot of calling in the UTG straddle facing a single open. My calling range versus an MP open contains a lot of medium strength hands: 88/99/AQo/AJs. I always 3bet AQs and probably mix it up with AQo. Felt like calling this time since I’d been doing a lot of raising prior to this hand.

No rake in the home game, we pay time.

Thank you buddy; I appreciate it. I recently started playing regularly after a long break which I spent to pursue other hobbies. Now that I’ve returned to poker I’ll try to post hands here and there, and chime in on a few posts when I can.

I’m buying in for 2k which is the cap. It’s not 10/20 because the host sets the stakes and I’m not the host of the game. Everyone wants to straddle and I’m not going to be the only one to not straddle in a home game. Regardless many of the mid-stakes hold em games these days are 3-blind games. I’m not sure what you mean about paying a professional — why would I do that?

I ended up betting $350 or about 3/4 pot, thinking that villain’s range really looks like a weak Q or TT/JJ type hand, and the large bet looks like a bluff targeting V’s capped range.

Results: Villain snap called with KK.

Surprised he checked back on the turn. He said he thought my range was weak and couldn’t call a turn bet (not sure about this, I could easily have many pair plus gutter hands that def would call a bet).

Seems that V is playing a bit tight when he checks back turn in this spot.

Interesting. I like betting kinda big to get called in a bluffy spot, but suggested a bit of a smaller size here cuz I think your range is pretty strong. The fact that he thought the opposite suggests he would have called a large bet with like TT and your bet size was good and he happened to have KK.

00928 or whatever his name is makes these comments on my posts too and its not solver related.
According to him asking for free advice on 2p2 is dumb when you play 10/20+, you must spend thousands of dollars instead to get coached by a « pro » otherwise your terribad and not good enough to play 10/20+.