2-5 line check

Grunch:

PRE - why are you playing 2/5 with only $450? Go play 1/2 or 1/3, or top off to the table max, assuming it's $1k. You don't appear to be deep enough to play a normal strat, nor are you short enough to play a short-stack strat.

Why are you raising to $25? is that the normal raise size in this game? If so, all the more reason to top off or move down in stakes.

FLOP - How are you ranging opponents here? What are you targeting to continue when you c-bet the flop?

I'm not suggesting you check. But the odds of either opponent having a good QX combo are pretty low, and getting 3 streets from 9x or some other 2P combo that didn't 3B pre also seem pretty low.

I don't hate the down-bet, but I wonder if going even smaller might induce some shenanigans, or if going larger looks less milky, more bluffy, and actually gets us more light floats.

Betting $15 here looks like thick value praying to get called, and they'd have to be insane to attempt a raise as a bluff. I'd prefer to bet $5 to induce or $25 to look like we might be range-betting.

TURN - Once we c-bet the flop small and SB calls, I'd probably bet small again, targeting worse QX, 9X, JT, and some other PP's like 77 or 88 for value. When SB calls the flop, next to act, even when we bet small, he's announcing that he likes his hand well enough to continue, so there's value to be had. I'd probably bet 1/2 to 2/3 pot.

RIVER - SB clearly likes his hand when he calls pre, and calls flop next to act. Here, he's either betting worse QX or 9X for value, or he's bluffing with a missed draw. His missed draws are just going to fold no matter how much we raise, but his worse QX and even some of his strong 9X are going to have a hard time folding after we check back the turn on a brick. I'd be coming over the top and making it $350 - leaving a little behind so it looks like you may be bluffing and don't want to lose your stack if he calls.

Flop bet is too small unless you are trying to induce? Bet the turn. As played, although I hate min-clicks, I do it now, but I wouldn't be here. If he raises/shoves, the way you played the hand, I think you have to call. Of course, before you do anything, a few reads on SB would be nice.

First, thank you for replying.

Second thing, I said I was 450 effective. It was the SB with the short stack not me.

I am targeting any 2 cards to call the flop bet. I felt 15 dollars looks very weak on that board after betting 25 pre. Since you know my cards and the flop you might be biased into thinking that bet looks like thick value, maybe you are right though.

In this 2/5 game 25 dollars is a fairly standard raise size. It varies between 15 20. 25, 30 and sometimes 35. As you saw, I got 2 callers for this size.

For the turn, I could bet again but I wanted him to think that my weak bet on the flop and check on the turn was me giving up and that I really didn’t have anything good.

For the River, I would make comments based on your feedback but I don’t want to influence anyone else that might post here yet. I will say, it is interesting that you are thinking betting large while leaving some behind might be seen as weaker than going all in. I feel it has been said from many that all in sizing can be fairly polarizing and can sometimes get called more than a big non-all in bet that can look more like value.

Hi, thanks for replying. You were correct that was a typo, I was not calling pre-flop.

I will say, I was feeling similar to you on the river.

Ah. Sorry for my confusion. Thanks for the clarification. It makes more sense that you're not playing $450.

My advice was geared to get as much of the $450 into the pot as possible, but thinking we'll have fewer bluffs and more value when we're starting short. When it's V who's short, it may change perceptions some. We could be screwing around. He can't be.

The $25 open still seems a bit large at 2/5, but I understand sometimes the game can be splashy.

It's hard for the blinds to have much that can continue to a flop c-bet. So I'd think we'd want to either bet really small to get called by any two, if not induce a raise, or go large to target the top of their range. I don't like taking in-between sizing on the flop, and then losing a street of value by checking back turn.

The turn check may induce some worse hands to stab the river, but if we're trying to feign weakness, the worse hands that stab are likely to bet smaller, not bigger. It's not like worse Qx or 9x is going to bet huge for value and expect AK look 'em up. And JT will often try to find an efficient bluff size to fold out AK.

I'd rather barrel turn and hope that V wants to bluff catch.

The river rsise is going to fold out almost everything. Leaving a little behind is a low stakes exploit that may confuse V enough that he levels himself into making a bad call.

At $450 effective, don't just play for half of it, y'know?

If he's got better than nut trips, go ahead and double him up. If he doesn't, well, we know why he's sitting there with $450.

It seems that most people who have replied to this thread had either said all in or suggested a near all in.

I raised all in, villain took 10 seconds to call. He boated up on the turn with 33 in his hand. So I was really happy with the result.

Shake it off.

He's not supposed to call flop with many, if any PP's below a 9, because A) he's drawing to 2 outs to boat up, and B) he might just he drawing to a 2nd best hand, when you show up with QQ, Q9, or 99, or improve to a better boat on the river.

If he really took 10 seconds to call, that's just more evidence he's terrible. He made a bad call pre, a bad call on the flop, and just got lucky.

He definitely got lucky, and your $15 bet did get him to call w/ any two cards 😉

What are your reads on SB -- you still haven't given us any info.

Reads on him? He seems to be a relatively careful and aprehehensive player, he is asian and in his 20s or maybe 30s. He didn’t buy in for max or close to it. I guess he can also be a tricky player as when he got the full house he checked. He also was thinking given how I played the hand that I didn’t have a queen so he went for a bet sizing he hopes I would pay off on the river rather than betting based on his hand strength.

I have been thinking, I think in this situation I should just be betting strong on the flop, if he has a 5 percent chance to hit a 3 on the turn, I get paid 19x15 for 285 dollars the 1 in 20 chance he hits his 3 I’m doubling him up for 450. If I bet the turn and he hasn’t boated up he is folding. I know there is a chance I boat up with a better boat but I don’t like the variance I introduce getting 33 to call. If I bet strong on the flop I only really get a boat or a Q to continue. I want action from a worse queen and them flopping a boat is so unlikely.

I think a range-bet size of 1/3 pot on flop would be fine. And I think we should barrel the turn for around 1/2-2/3 pot, though I could see some value in sizing up to pot or evan over-bet.

If we took that line, I wouldn't hate checking back on the river, because by that point, we've folded out a ton of hands, such that we could be value-owning ourselves. It's hard to get three streets of value here.

Once we decide to get tricky by down betting flop and checking back turn, we're underrepping our hand, and want to get more value for it on the river. So a raise seems appropriate, when we can get called by worse QX, 9X, and maybe some middling pairs. Maybe occasionally ace-high looks us up.

The bottom line for me is that I don't like slow playing trips, but I will slow down and check back some rivers once we've dragged an opponent that far.