Line check common spot #2

Call pre is fine with a hand that flops well imo.

I raise flop.

River is tough. I think 2p+ bets turn.

It feels like a block bet with AA or AK, so I shove, and hope to get value from those hands. Its close for sure since not clear he will call with those, but it is low stakes and we know people hate to get away from TPTK and over pairs.

I think calling down is reasonable. By the time he calls a jam I think we’re beat more than ahead.

raise flop
raise turn
ship river

[emoji106]
I think I would have mixed 3bet & calls from the button, so call is fine. But moving forward, I like this plan.

raise the turn.

flop depends on how you interpret the PFR's bet size, and how big the PFR's stack is. if the PFR has a $300 stack id raise flop always. if he has a $600 stack its probably best to just call and see what the turn brings.

It sounds like a tight-passive table given only the one 3bet in an hour. For this reason, I don't mind 3betting JcTc IP. MP is likely only 4betting KK+ so you can play HU IP effectively. Just calling preflop is fine, too, especially as the likelihood of a squeeze from the blinds is close to zero. If MP hadn't raised until now I'm less likely to 3bet, for instance.

As played on turn: I don't mind a raise, given the 1/3 pot sizing from LP. You'll get some value from KQ and maybe some QJ and QT along with flush draws from both MP and LP that do sometimes take these lines (b-x or c-b) but not often.

As played on river: I don't mind a small raise, since MP's bet looks like a blocker.

Semi-grunch (I couldn't help seeing the first line in hitchens' response):

PRE - I wouldn't hate a 3B, but I do a lot of over-calling / over-limping on the BTN, and I'd kinda hate 3B-folding here, with JTs in position, so I think a flat call is often better, especially when we're not starting out all that deep, and there's already been a caller, which would force us to raise more than 3x.

FLOP - Ehhhh...I think we need to pick a lane here.

What I mean is, if we're going to over-call with a semi-speculative hand pre, then we need to sack up and raise flop when we make a strong but non-nutted and still vulnerable hand, and we're facing a weak-looking c-bet and even weaker-looking call. We don't want to take a passive line pre AND continue with that passive line post when we could be getting more value with a raise.

To expand on the c-bet size - it's correct in theory for the PFR to c-bet small when it's multi-way, but it's a two-tone and pretty connected board. It's pretty unusual for a low-stakes opponent to bet small with a really strong hand here. Like, I don't think he shows up with a hand that's better than ours anywhere near often enough to worry about it when he bets 1/3 pot into four opponents on this super-wet board. He's probably not doing this with KK or AQ on a two-tone board.

I think we need to raise here. I don't think the raise needs to be huge. We're not folding out better hands, and probably not folding out really great draws. Our plan should be to raise, thin the field a bit, then evaluate, but mostly bomb brick turns.

I'd probably make it $100 or $125. If the table is REALLY passive, and no one would ever 3B a worse hand, I might go a tad smaller, like $90, or maybe even $75, but the risk there is we could be inducing someone to come over the top because our 3x sizing looks FOS.

TURN - I'm calling BS on the field-caller's 1/3 pot turn bet. He's completely FOS.

I really think we need to raise here, especially when we should be bombing it if action checks to us (even more especially when we should have raised flop to set up this turn bomb).

Neither opponent is likely to have a better hand, and this whack 1/3 pot sizing is letting them out-draw us for way too cheap a price. I think I'd make it $300 here, minimum, and depending on who has what stack size, I might just rip it all in.

RIVER - What in tarnation?

As played to the river, this is almost never a strong hand. This smells like AK or KQ exactly, and at 1/3, it'll often be something worse that straight up doesn't know what to do, like AThh or 99, or AA with the Ah.

There's not much point in raising, because I can't see what worse hands call, but...I dunno, I might raise anyway, just in case V has some SDV and thinks we're FOS in this line.

Before anyone yells at me for suggesting we could raise - consider how often we'll get to the river with a nutted hand given the action to this point. At 1/3, most players are likely to 3B pre with AQ, or raise the two-tone flop in a multi-way pot, rather than let someone draw to a flush.

A raise here is going to look completely FOS to a lot of low-stakes recs. If V has AK, or KQ, or AThh, or AhAx, he's going to be hard-pressed to find a fold if we make it $100, and he might even spaz-jam.

if villain is using a block betting strat then minraise his block bets with value, bluff his block bets with large sizings, and overfold to his large sizings. you can assume he will not deviate or mix up his strategy except on obvious boards like AAx in which case he might be vbetting AK type hands small to get called.

You're leaving money on the table and hurting your win rate by not effectively range-reading your opponents and not getting max value when we're coolering them.

Bet sizing tells are real, especially at low stakes. This line from these two V's isn't likely to be a bluff, but also isn't likely to be a better hand. We could have gotten a lot more value for our hand here.

I'm guessing there's arguments for all 3 plays preflop. Honestly, I typically lean to a nitty fold but if I feel I must get involved with some of these guys then ok.

One of the problems with flatting is that it can invite the blinds along which will setup awkward smallish SPRs against the smaller stacks. Still, I'm more concerned about the bigger SPRs against the bigger stacks, and there is no way I'm looking to work towards committing with just bottom two on this board with the preflop raiser continuing into the world. So I also flat the flop and evaluate what happens.

I'm fine with just calling the turn for the same reasons as just calling the flop.

Interesting river spot. Certainly looks like a blocking bet by AK/KQ, but it is also still a river bet into two opponents. The key here for me is whether this guy will pay off a river raise against us. If he will, then a raise (and perhaps even a shove) is probably fine. But if he won't, then it might not be worth the risk.

ETA: I mean, I can certainly see why we beat ourselves up here a bit on the river. But it really is dependent on where this guy falls on the payoff spectrum (and also where we fall on the nitty image spectrum). Although all the draws busted and it does look like a raise is attacking his weak looking bet, so I'm kinda changing my mind a bit and we probably did leave some money on the table (although always easier to read hand when we know results).

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