Not Quite Threadworthy--Low Stress Strat Questions

At least two of the three villains seem like gamblers, and you've got an SPR <2.

So shove?

I'm shoving. I guess you could go really small like 150-200 if you think it will induce spew but 4 ways I'm a bit skeptical people will get too out of line.

edit...straddling to 20 or 25 not 205!

Wouldn't be shocked to see a robot mix a lot here, with checks; small bets; and bigger bets / shoves. Probably depending on the suits in hand vs. board.

Not sure what your read is about BB thinking you are nitty ... is that like you won't ever have A5s here, you won't bet flop with AK, or just that this board hits your range a lot?

Bet 150/160 and shove basically all turns might trigger the gambling players more than the other options?

Shove can't be that bad, I'd just expect that the others will know how to deal with it better. Although they might intentionally call light anyway to make up for that.

I mean...I won't ever have A5s here and the board does hit my range because my squeezing range is probably 1010+, KQss, AQ+, maaaybe KJss against this particular group. I'd mix in more pairs and suited broadways and definitely suited A broadways against a different group

I think he will think I'm not doing it light, but he's also the guy that will call with all pocket pairs and a wide range of suited connectors and hope to hit the board big

PF: I’d go 225 pre fwiw. Maybe even size up to 250.

For the flop:
In the moment I’d probably just shrug Jam.

But going 160 seems fine too.

250 is uuuge. 185 was 4x + 30 + 30 +5 tax.

I did think about 200 tbh. Only reason to go above 200 is to look extremely squeezy and hope to induce

obvs they all called which was a surprise so I could have gone bigger!

2/5 card room, 8 handed, I'm torn on my proper action.

I'm UTG and have been playing tight, card dead mostly, very low VPIP, my image is OMC. I have the big stack at $1600 mostly due to going AI pre with KK and getting called by QQ.

V1 is loose pre, $1000, UTG +1
V2 is loose pre, $1200, UTG+2
V3 is tight old man, $600, UTG+3

To mix up my game, I open to $15 with 67dd, fully expecting several calls. V1 and V2 call, V3 raises to $50. V3 most certainly has QQ+ AK.

I know I should fold here, but I got stupid. I called and so did V1 & 2.

Pot $200, flop = 3s4s5h, I've flopped the nuts with no redraw. I check.

V1&2 check, V3 bets $150. I tanked, not sure if I should just call or raise. In the end, I decided a raise would discourage flush draws, so I made it $400. Everyone folded and V3 showed QQ. V1 guessed I had KK, but I didn't confirm.

So was my check/raise on the flop right? Or should I have tried to milk another bet out if V3?

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I think you should donk flop in that spot. You really don’t want to check/raise and shut out the loose players. As played, would prefer to check/call rather than check/raise though, when the PFR is a tight old guy on a short stack.

I think with the nuts on that particular board, a flat is good given there’s no redraw to a better nuts. You give him a chance to hit an A or K if he’s got AK and he will keep betting with his big pockets

His fold (and show) is truly insane given you could easily be doing this with 88-JJ. If he’s folding that there then you really should be bluffing/semi bluffing him a ton in the future

I did shove in this hand. UTG tanked for a long time before folding and then button folded quickly and bb took a while to fold and I’m pretty certain had a midair and thought about bluff catching vs AA

UTG told me after that he had AQ and I believe him.

I do think perhaps shoving wins the most pots but probably not the most money and that a bet of 200 shove any turn can get calls from top pair hands and then AJ KJ and maybe some mid pairs. Maybe I’m scared money given how little I’ve played and with three villains, two with wide ranges I didn’t want to get drawn out on, but that isn’t winning the most $

I’d probably shove with AK here too?

Overbet jamming flop with an overpair of AA is bad. You are making it hard for yourself to get value against hands like AQ/KQ.

You should have just donkbet the flop to get maximum value out of everyone.

what bet would you suggest? 30%, 50%, 75%?

we straddle utg to 6! and look down at A3o

we've been very active last few orbits with some good holdings preflop, probably vpipping 60% and most of the table probably thinks i'm a reckless action player

folds around to a MABG who seems fairly tight with a stack of a little over $100 raises to $15 and it folds to me

we complete

AT4 rainbow flop - we x/c $15

A turn - we x/c $30

6 river no flush - we check and he shoves for his last $70

i know he's never bluffing here - only seen him play one other hand and we lose to all aces but A2 to which we chop - but i i still find a call thinking he could be playing KK or QQ this way given how little credibility he's going to give me for having a hand and i'm calling 70 to win 190

i feel like this is an easy fold on the turn if it's anything other than an ace or a three or on the river as played if i hadn't been playing basically every other hand last hour as the table captain

but i'm wondering if others here could have found a fold or would have done the same and talked themselves into thinking hero has no credibility - that he could be targeting Tx with his JJ+

When a tight, short stack raises PF (even only 2.5x), I think I'm dumping A3o.

Prelfop/flop I kind of understand, people will raise JTs or whatever and cbet flop with it. A3o is super marginal though, with rake probably even just a fold where when you call everyone is losing.

IMO people very rarely bet turn when another A hits, even though it makes it less likely you have an A. And when they do they often downsize to the previous bet. Like KK thinks it's way ahead and getting folds, or way behind and never getting folds. Also people call Ax way more than they should (not saying you should fold preflop, but it looks similar to spots you should but a lot of people don't).

Then the IP river shove is not KK anywhere near enough IMO. But would try to be kind to myself if I called vs. a short stack and maybe an image that's bad/crazy ... one of those annoying spots where if V had 300+ the hand is much easier to play/fold at multiple points.

I would fold A3o pre at that stack depth if I had a read that the villain was never going to do something silly. Because here we are with top trips thinking we need to fold river

but if we're calling river (and I would as played), it's not to get value from a badly played KK, it's because we think he's spazzing with KQ or some other air

I also fold pre, specifically because it avoids this kind of spot. Offsuit hands with terrible kickers are just not very playable. The read on V as tight just reinforces it.

As played, I want to say I can find a river fold because it's hard to imagine underpairs shoving here, but it's awfully tempting to call it off so cheaply. But getting strung along like this is precisely why I think it's a fold pre.

thanks guys, obviously thought it was dumb to call in hindsight so wanted a sanity check

fwiw he showed AJo which definitely felt like bottom of his preflop range

Regarding the A3 offsuit straddle hand, I don't agree with all the "fold pre" nonsense unless the rake is huge.

Better to say, "Stop straddling." That makes more sense.

I fold pre vs. that stack depth. Then I probably call down because I'm a payoff wizard.

limited sample but i've found straddling causes people to spazz quite a bit and helps reinforce a false image that i'm an action player

i've stopped folding weak aces when my straddle is bumped a little (and correspondingly raise vs a straddle with those in some situations where i'd have open folded)

so many times i've straddled, folded a hand like A8o to a small raise and see a fairly big pot played on an A high board where winning hand is mid pair

could be a sample size issue, but i'm happy with the call pre and on the flop, but by the turn or river i agree i should have found a fold realizing he's checking back a hand like KK there

I think there's a huge cliff on kicker quality here, and in general the solver approach (even just looking at BN vs BB defend ranges) feels to me like it is applicable to LLSNL play here too. A8o is a lot better than A3o versus a field that is likely to overvalue any Ace, although in general hand strength is falling precipitously with offsuit Aces (just look at how many other hands a solver puts in its RFI range by position before adding in AJo, ATo, A9o). The general problem that your hand quality is very suspect even when you make top pair is applicable both to equilibrium and low-stakes play.

The solver pulls a decent number of 3-bet bluffs from lousy Ace-rag hands in a wide configuration too, which also makes sense because what strength they have often comes from being able to get to showdown with Ace high versus KQ/KJ/etc. If you can't bring yourself to fold A3o from the last blind, playing it with the initiative of having AA/AK/AQ in range and with some nice preflop fold equity seems sound.