Trips against a tricky opponent

At these stack sizes, and since you're presumably never folding, I'd just shove here.

Easy jam. You want to protect your equity here, and you also want to protect your range by shoving with worse hands than tx; qt is very high in range.

Thanks for the replies. I did end up jamming, but I wanted to check my line.

Given V just completed BB, I didn't put him on A10, as he is a very aggro player and will definitely 3b pf a good portion of the time. I think Vs range contained small to medium pairs, some mid to high suited connectors or non suited connectors.

Hero's perceived image to the V is quite straightforward, so on a 10 10 7 board, I dont think V put Hero on trips that often. I think V probably put Hero on some big pairs, Broadway cards. Don't think a raise on the flop achieves a lot. Once the turn came though, the board became super wet and a lot of draws emerged. Really wanted to deny some equity if V is drawing. Will post out the review shortly after but wondering if shoving is the right play? Folding against a LAG when I essentially flop the top for my range seem way too tight?

I famously don’t know what I’m doing with raising strats in low SPR spots, but this action is so whack all my vibes are telling me you should just react to his bet however you would if you had QQ (whether that’s turbo call or squirm-call) and then snap him off on all but the very very worst rivers. He will sometimes have whatever draw completed but will very often have one of the ones that didn’t.

$80 seems really big pre? Except for that, I'm fine with the hand as played, including the jam.

Interesting hand. Thanks for posting.

Pre flop raise seems too large, unless this is a heavily raked game. Why not $50?

Flop is interesting. If we know V will attack boards like this, I have to ask what sort of hands he does that with? Is it just pure air, that will always fold to a raise, or does he have some hands that might get sticky, like J9, J8, A7, 98, 88, 87, 96, etc? Seems like a lot of those types of hands are just flatting pre out of the BB.

Reason I ask about his range is that I lean towards fast playing here, and raising, unless we know he's super polar and will just fold worse and snap with better. The board isn't really all that dry on the flop, and there are a lot of run-outs we'll hate. Our hand is strong, but unlikely to improve, while fairly likely to get downgraded on future streets.

Slow playing here is what Bart Hanson calls a "negative equity slow play" - allowing an opponent to catch up and make a sneaky / better hand with when he would likely fold to a bet or raise. The preference to call or raise will be heavily dependent on his range and whether or not he'll continue to barrel with worse.

Turn is one of those cards we don't love, if V has 88, J9 and 96 in his flop donking range. Assuming V has a ton of worse hands for value or a lot of high equity bluffs that will make a crying call, I would definitely consider jamming now.

All that said, jamming could be terrible if we know V will continue to barrel off with worse on the river when he takes this line and we just flat call turn. If we call, I guess we'll have to call off on most, if not all rivers, unless the river brings in both a flush and straight draw, but doesn't pair the board. Even then, if we know V is capable, we may still have to call on a bad run-out.

The thing about calling is that V doesn't know we flopped trips. We could be on a draw, and V might slow down and check worse value on the river, giving us a chance to "bluff" at it. It's not impossible for him to have worse Tx or 98 that intends to bluff catch.

I dunno. My tendency is to not test the poker gods' patience by slow playing made but vulnerable hands, instead preferring to fast play, but I may be losing value by not letting V's like this continue to blast off. If I was very confident in my read, that would guide my decision towards raise or call.

I appreciate the HH and follow up post, but that’s a lot of analysis for someone who’s clearly just clicking buttons until they stumbled dick first into a two outer to a stone-cold cooler.

I think shove is fine unblocking FDs and given you had only $1, 300 behind although V's line is weird donking on paired board which is typically better for initial raiser. Wonder what he had lol

Blinds: $10/10
Hero: CO (Q♦️ 10♦️)
Villains: UTG, UTG1, SB, BB

Preflop ($20):
limp, limp, raise $80, call, call

Flop ($260): 10♠️ 10♣️ 7♠️
check, bet $220, call

Turn ($700): 10♠️ 10♣️ 7♠️ 8♣️
bet $400, all-in $1300

Total pot: $2400

Generated by pokerhandhistory.com

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but if V is frequently donking out on flops with a balanced range of showdown value and good draws, I think we should be raising more with our thick but vulnerable value, rather than just calling, and calling more with our nutted hands, thin value that can improve, draws, and some air. My reasoning is that if we just flat call with vulnerable value, then we will be playing a guessing game on later streets, and likely either over folding or over calling, plus occasionally getting check raised.

If we raise with thick value, we punish him for donking with a balanced range, forcing him to decide what to do with his non nutted hands and draws. If he 3B's with his nutted hands, he'll be playing face up.

The times when we do just call, he won't know if we have thin value, a draw that comes in on a later street, or air that will make an attempt to steal the pot if he slows down.

By raising sometimes, rather than always calling, we put the pressure back on him to figure out an optimal response, which is hard to do when he's OOP. Like, what would he do with 77 here? Donk-3B, or donk-call, and then just check turn, or donk again? What does he do with 88 if we raise flop? Fold? If he calls, what does he do on a turn brick?

I think we need to push back on this guy, and let him know there will be consequences for his shenanigans.

You are overthinking it. Turned sets are the classic hand players are supposed to go broke against. Hero's line is printing against villain range, and flop call would have been the correct line if you saw his actual hand in real time.

Villain donk is spewy, Hero can comfortably call all overpairs to the board and fold ax/kx, there are still 2 other opponents.