2-5 AA in SB

OOP with ~$20 in the pot already I think $50 is fine, could even go bigger if we assume people aren't folding correctly.

Flop OOP seems like a pretty std. check.

PRE - I dunno. The $35 raise size seems okay to me, over 3 limps. I guess it depends on how loose-splashy the game is when it comes to peeps limp-calling raises from the SB. Maybe go $40-$45, if the table dynamics warrant it.

FLOP - OOP as the PFR I'm checking range on the flop, especially multi-way, and even more especially on super wet and connected boards like this. Someone's gonna stab at this often enough that I'm not worried about the flop checking through.

If someone stabs small, I'd be check-raising a lot. If someone stabs big, I'd just go into check-call / check-evaluate mode.

With the As in our hand, even if the turn comes a straight-completing card, we might pick up the BDFD, and if not, we'll have enough bluff outs to continue against reasonable-size turn bets if we check.

If you're going to bet, I think I'd bet small, like $35 again, which looks weak, and is likely to induce light raises from TP, and maybe some draws. Might not be the worst thing to bet $35, and get raised to $150-$180, especially if we get a brick turn, or another spade.

Out of position I like going 5x + 1x for each limp behind, so that would be 40, but your size isn't bad.

On flop I would check and evaluate, mainly looking to check raise vs small sizing and/or if there is a bet and a call. If next to acts bets and the other two fold, I might consider calling flop if I think I might be able to check jam turn.

Vs huge bets or bet/raise you want to play the player. Hard to ever fold this flop unless it's a bet and a huge raise vs a very tight player.

I prefer check raising to just betting. If we bet we have a bigger chance of getting multiple callers and we have to dodge so many more things on future streets. It also sets us up to get stacks in earlier, and we can always value bet turn if it checks through. Lastly, people play so terrible vs check. They telegraph their hand strength and bet all sorts of hands they shouldn't and we get to punish them big time for that.

As played, I think betting is best, anywhere from 1-2 pot to full pot (and set up for overbet all-in on many turns). I don't think villains will have a lot of sets or 2p, so we should just bet for value and protection. Hero also wants to protect other Asx in range, which will mostly be AsXs (not that I care too much about being balanced vs. these players).

Check-raise seems super greedy when Hero blocks nut flush draw, and will also face many difficult turn cards OOP MW if it checks through. The difficult challenge of this hand mostly seems to be whether Hero wants to choose an efficient size to bet/fold vs passives (exploitatively) or not, but I expect this is one of the spots where Hero is just going to go broke against better flopped made hands this SPR often, so its better to maximize value, especially against the archetype of loose/passive players.

This

Thx for feedback so far. I mostly post hands I think I played poorly. To reinforce my post hoc opinion and learn not to repeat mistakes; or to make myself feel better that I may have actually played it fine 😉

I messed up this hand.

H bet 50 (in hindsight I prefer checking and if betting I don’t love my sizing).

V (UTG) raises to 130. Folds to H.

?

Call

As stated, I agree.

You now misclicked 50 and got raised to 130.

H?

Hmmm...not that big a raise on this board. I think we have to call.

The way I'd look at this, if we knew we could bet big on the flop and get called by all our opponents' strong top pair and good draw combos, we would bet big. We bet small, knowing we could get raised, and a raise could be larger than this.

It's certainly possible we're looking at 2P+, but also possible V is raising to protect top pair on a wet board, or he's on a draw, and will check back a lot of turns.

Like I said, with the As in our hand, we should be able to continue across a lot of turns. This may not be a comfortable spot, but it's not terrible. Let's call and see what happens.

I think this is an easy fold, given reads.

Again, your read on V is that he's been only TAG so far, but limp/called UTG and now x/r on:

J♠9♦2♠

...what is his range pre?
Well a bunch of hands people love to limp/call are nut potential hands that don't want to raise and cbet when they missed, so small PP, lower suited Ax hands, maybe T9s/J9s and worse ... but probably not KK/QQ/AJ/KJ/QJs/QTs.

Now you block NFD, so you are left with J9/T8/9♠x♠/22 maybe 99 depending on if he open limps it pre. and _maybe_ A♦2♦
There's the ever present 5% rando. spazz bluff, but apart from the 3 combos. of T8s you aren't in front of anything and you are OOP with two more streets and no visibility.
Also calling hoping V slows down on the turn is a very dangerous game IMO.
If you are calling the flop raise you almost certainly need to be capable of bluffing spade turns for stacks, and it needs to work often enough.

So not really liking any option (fold, call, raise) is a telltale sign of making a mistake.

I thought V could have 22/99/J9s as possible better value hands and some OESD and FD semibluffs. I had some wishful thinking he could have some Jx he is overplaying and may slow down OTT. I realized having the As means that I am probably stacking off if a spade hits turn but it’s actually worse for me that I block his most likely semibluffs.

I opted for call which I instantly hated OOP knowing I would be facing a turn barrel.

Turn (405) Js9d2s8h

H checks. V bets 350.

I made what I think is a pretty easy fold at this point and realized that I should not have bet flop and will bend over and lube up for 2+2.

130 is an awkward sizing - Hero is never folding, its call or shove.
This could easily be the classic villain raising because he does not where is at.

But turn is far from an easy fold. Villain could have kk,qq and jx hands right, even ignoring semibluffs. Aside from QT and 98ss, its actually a relatively blank turn.

fold is fine

Aside from the most obvious draw combos? I would heavily discount this V playing KK/QQ this way preflop. I would expect some pot control OTT IP from V with Jx.

If turn is an easy fold based on your reads you don't need to make this thread at all (or mostly you just want a quick flop check-up and it's not a great PAHWM candidate, you can just spoiler the rest of the history). Exploit overfolding vs population isn't terrible (also known as max disrespect for opponents), but if you are doing that its better to define villain ranges pre-flop and flop more strictly (its sort of intellectually dubious to say its super-nutted after choosing to fold the turn). Villains semi-bluff hands like kq, kj, qj, jt,picked up equity, and villain may think his Jx hands are good.

The other issue with exploit overfolding, is that often exploit overbetting and oversizing will be more profitable vs population since Hero is making more $$ from villains bad calls than anything else. That's why plenty of pros might take a line like bet flop pot-sized here against players they know are fish without more specific reads, and plan on stacking off >80% of the time. In this case pre-flop sizing does make Hero decision a bit harder, $35 is fine, but $40-50 may make post-flop easier regardless of how many opponents call.

Without strong reads on opponent you have to stack off on flop or turn sometimes; AA is just way too high in your range with SPR of ~3-4 and board is not super-wet.

Is your read sufficiently strong that you would also x/f a low spade on turn, for example. Once Hero has put in 28% of his stack he is just getting a great mathematical price to stack off for the rest.

flop fold or shove makes no sense to me when you bet 1/3 pot on the flop. call and see what happens OTT.

Good points. It wasn’t a great PAHWM. I basically didn’t want the fact we got raised to influence the initial flop decision in hindsight.

Villain didn't check-raise, hero acted first.

Yeh, brain fart that wasn't helped by splitting the hand history and not showing what happened in the update.
However, if anything the raise is stronger than a x/r here where V is next to act with another two people behind him that haven't acted yet and hero.

Seems like a good fold. On turns villains will be very face up with their size. It looks like 22, J9, QsTs. I also don't think it was played horrible. You invested about as much as you wanted to with this hand and revealed he probably has you crushed.

Preflop fine; I make it 40.

I'm checking pretty much every hand here, probably range. There aren't many boards where I'm chatting OOP against 3 opponents and J9x certainly isn't one of them. Looking to check-call or check-raise depending on action.

As played I'm calling the modest raise but not feeling desperately happy, and wouldn't hate a flop fold.

Turn fold is fine.

As an aside, where possible I try to formulate my thoughts before reading replies, and whenever my thoughts are validated by Mlark's advice I feel very happy about my game!

So I think you played the hand perfectly?

Pre is 1.5p, which seems good for a semi-linear strat that I think would be advisable out of the SB. I think you'd rather go max-polar with like a 2x+ raise from the BB.

I think range checking J9xtt after raising big against players who limp/called is highly suboptimal, especially assuming our opponents are passive. I think people's strats are over-calibrated for using sizes that are too big to employ here, in which case range checking might be less bad than the alternative, but if you can find the 1/3p lead here, then I think this is perfect sizing and hand selection to build out a leading range from.

Calling the raise is good. We might 3b overpairs a non-zero amount in theory, but it's not necessary against villain's likely player type and this is the last combo to include anyway.

Turn seems like a good explo fold, especially given their sizing and the card.

I like your play style more and more each post. I very much like this play especially out of position someone had to get a piece of that and will likely stab and then you can get in a nice healthy slap back over bet! What would you size here if everyone called the UTG bet of say 50$?