ATo OOP squeeze

You definitely don't have to play this hand preflop versus a button straddle. We already know that BTN isn't folding, but HJ and CO are also likely to call to play pots with the whale, and having this hand in a bloated multiway pot OOP really sucks.

Are you raising flop... for value?? I would not bluff this man, obviously.

If villain is really chasing any draw to the river, then turn needs to be much bigger. He's not folding two pair or a flush draw to $225.

On the river, you have no way to win the hand. You can't credibly rep 7x, and he probably isn't folding even if you can, so betting is a negative freeroll where sometimes you get your money back and sometimes you lose a much bigger pot for no reason. Dismal spot. Probably a check-fold versus someone who does not readily bluff.

Rather than review the hand I want to review your mindset. You need to put all that bullshit aside. You might lose even if it's the softest game you've ever been in. Trying to force out a winning session can end in a disaster. Opponents making mistakes and being too loose doesn't instantly mean that you will win. Dont start playing more hands just because they are. Poker is a game of variance, just stick to your winning strategy and ride it out.

Preflop is fine and not a squeeze. Flop raise is bad, because it is a wet wheel card flop, and you didn't hit is hard.

River, I would like to bluff him off a chop, but really hard to represent a 7 as the preflop raiser and aggressor on earlier streets. If you check, he can bet big and put you in a difficult situation.

I turn into a maniac here
All-in

Who cares if a seven fits my range
He doesn’t have one and can’t call
Got to pick your spots

It doesn’t sound like you in other posts, but you’ve been playing like a rock. No matter how splashy he is, he can’t call. You probably don’t have worse than a chop if he does call.

However, if you check, this is guy will charge ahead and you will be the one deciding to call with a chop.

I don’t fold all the time
If he has a seven, I’ll just have to take a break for awhile.

Preflop: Open is sort of marginal given the setup where you're going to end up multiway and OOP a lot, but I get it. You're not going to fold this hand when you've been sitting there card dead.

Flop: I don't really like the bluff check raise here. This flop is better for the loose passive players when it comes to nutted hands (the type that would want to check raise). They have stuff like two pairs, straights and sets while you are much less likely to. Their ranges are also still undefined and uncapped on this board.

Would you be check raising overpairs in this spot? I wouldn't really think so.

I would have preferred you just bet the flop yourself with a moderate sizing if you're thinking about using your tight image to set up a multistreet bluff. This is what you likely would have done with an overpair. The cbet will get through sometimes, plus you have equity with overs, BDNFD, etc. You've got the wrong end of the gutshot but your hand has enough else going for it to justify a cbet.

All that being said I'm sure you realize that your opponent is the wrong opponent to bluff, but a small flop cbet still seems reasonable.

Turn: As played I think you should mostly be checking. He's got way more 6x in his range. If he doesn't have a straight this seems like the type of spot where he might think it's a good idea to start bluffing. I don't think you really want to bloat the pot OOP with the crap end of the straight and no definition as to where you're at. If he bets when checked to you can check call and let him keep bluffing. If he checks back turn you can go for a chunky value bet on most rivers.

I understand why you bet vs a whale, but I'm still not sure I like it.

River: Ugly river card. I probably just check and hope it checks through and that you collect your share of the chop. This is a whale's board, not a tightish preflop raiser's board.

Fold pre. It's not close. The whole hand is an unmitigated disaster after that.

Any further commentary or analysis would require some insight into your thought process, plan for the hand, and reasons for making the decisions that you made. That information seems to be missing from a lot of your posts. I think that's because you don't actually have a thought process. You aren't thinking about SPR. You aren't thinking about a plan for the hand. You aren't putting your opponents on ranges. You aren't thinking about the range you represent. You aren't thinking about future streets.

I don't even think you actually want advice here. What would you even do with it? Implementing recommendations would require you to have some kind of analytical approach to your play while actually at the table. However, in the hands you post, you play poker like a caveman. "Uhhh, I have hand, me bet hand, grr"

I suspect this thread is going to meander through some advice you're going to likely ignore and then end with a BBV reveal where you "shove it in his face" and win.

Nice hand. Post it in the BBV thread where it belongs.

If you want actual strategy advice, you're gonna have to explain what the F you were thinking when you raised this trash in the first place. What was the plan? What did you expect to happen?

Preflop is a little light. Raise would be standard from later position or with ATs/AJo. Not sure how preflop maybe being a mistake effect analysis of the rest of the hand.

OTF, every ace has a straight draw. You don't have much on the wet board. You probably have to call, but raising is not good. You won't take the pot on this board much and you are probably up against better hands.

GRUNCH:

PRE - If you're raising, raise bigger in this game. BTN is likely to over-defend. Make it painful for him. ATo is a little cuspy, but might be ok.

FLOP - Check-raise seems fine, if a bit optimistic. Sizing seems fine. Doubtful we're getting many folds right now. A check-call or c-bet would also be fine, perhaps preferable.

TURN - If we're going to bet, I'd size way up when we bink. At least full pot. Might go 1.5x pot. There are a lot of action-killing cards that can come out on the river. Our hand is strong but vulnerable.

It's one of those spots where we actually hope they fold. If we bet big and V calls, I'd be concerned he has a higher straight, and I'd likely shut it down.

RIVER - Probably the worst card in the deck. Check or bet 1/2 pot. Pray he doesn't raise.

An alternative line we could take here would be to c-bet the flop for $20, then check turn to let him stab at it, and go for a check-raise. Say we c-bet $20 and they both call. The pot will be $140 on the turn. If action checks to the BTN and he stabs at it for $80-$100, we can make it $300-$400.

If he has a 6, he'll probably 3B, and we'll have to fold. If he also has an ace, it'll be hard for him to fold turn. Then we can jam river and put max pressure on him to fold the chop.

How the heck do stacks get so deep in your game? I love these super loose splashy games when I'm sitting on my shortstack cuz it is so easy to play (patiently wait for a good starting hand and LRR to put stacks in ASAP). But at these stack depths I'm really out of my element. FWIW, if you're going thru some problems / downswinging / etc. right now, you may want to consider an easy peasy shorter stack strategy in these types of games.

I mean, I guess ATo is ahead of the ATC they're playing, but overall it's a fairly craptastic hand (it's one pip better than A9o which is a hand I don't play at any time other than in a posted blind). Not sure if building a bloated pot with it OOP is the best strat, but that might be my skillz level talking.

If my reads of the Banana reads are correct, this guy seems to be the absolute last player in the room we should be attempting to bluff. And yet here we are on the flop attempting to do so with very little equity and OOP to boot. You're trying way too hard to make things happen when really you have to let the game (especially this one) come to you a lot more, imo.

Nice turn bink, plan is working perfectly, lol. I also bet turn.

Ha ha, gross river spot. Seems he can probably bluff with impunity if we check and put us in a very stooopid spot? So does that mean it is better to block bet to prevent that? I'm guessing against normal people a check/shove could also be considered, but since this dood is never folding a chop all that accomplishes is punting off the stack when he has better. So I think I $150/cryfold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Attacking on the flop does not make much sense. Your range includes very little of the straights and sets. Whatever the V hit, seems like we are relying on sheer force to sell the bluff.
You have some equity from bdfd, the gutter, and probably the T's. As might be outs but often V will have wheel aces which dominate.
As played...urg...I don't see where V is capped. Could have any of the combo draws with a 7. And again you would be relying on sheer force rather than logic to sell your bluff.

Kind of amazing how you managed to assess the situation perfectly and somehow chose the worst possible option.

Just decide if you're going broke or not. If you are, then jam it in. If not, then check/fold. When you bet $150, any competent villain is going to realize you have zero 7's in your range and comfortably blast away expecting no results worse than a chop.

Caveats -

1. no one's reading my hand and understands if I have/don't have a 7
2. V has 7X sometimes
3. V isn't likely to turn a hand like 44 into a bluff if it checks to him OTR, he would check back ~90% of the time, he may turn some total garbage like J2o into a bluff once in awhile if it checks to him.
4. V has ATC to the flop, fish has about top 40% of range in CO.

Wrong

You probably have to call the small bet, but I would be ready to give up on the hand on the flop. On the wheel card flop, every ace has a straight draw, every pp is at least an overpair, and fish playing low cards can hit it really hard. The flop raise is awful.

The turn is a good card for you, but you have the wrong end of the straight and you are often chopping with another ace on the turn.

On the river, we have a problem being OOP. If we check, he can bluff us off of a chop. Betting may be worse, and maybe villain is so bad that he won't bluff. It is really unlikely you have a 7 and he can shove or bet biggish and get you to fold.

I think a small bet might actually induce a bluff raise, and it's not like there's any chance he'll fold a chop to that sizing. To me you're just giving away an extra small bet the times you get raised, and I wouldn't expect a block bet to materially reduce the chances of him bluffing.

I'm just checking river and mostly planning to check fold (maybe calling a small bet due to pot odds). We have a horrible bluffcatcher holding the Ad and blocking the missed flush draws that a whale might use to bluff river.

While $150 may be a small bet in terms of the pot, it's still a decent sized bet in terms of $$$$ at 1/3 NL. Very few people are capable of attacking it with a bluff raise (is that really a thing at LLSNL to begin with?) at this $$$$ amount (especially knowing the attack amount will be for gobs plus re-open the betting for potential gobs x 2), imo.

ETA: And I'm just comparing this blocking bet line to a check line. When we're actually chopping, I think the blocking bet line gets us that chop almost always, whereas a check often doesn't (as he can often bluff with impunity to a check). Yeah it costs us a little when we're behind, but so does check/calling the same size bet when we're behind.

GcluelessgobsandgobsnoobG

You could be right that it could work at 1/3. At least in the games I play in, which is mostly 2/5, small bets will definitely induce some bluff raises in this sort of spot where we can't very credibly represent a 7. Maybe an average 1/3 player is thinking more about the absolute size of the bet, and is more oblivious to the size in relation to the pot and the chances that we show up with a 7.

If that's the case though, then sizing up to try to get them to fold out a chop could be better? That is if they're pretty much just level 1 thinking and playing their own cards. I would think if you're going to bet you would be better off to make it like 300+ to at least give yourself a chance that he might fold a chop. I think you would agree he's never folding to $150? $300 achieves the same affect of blocking him from bluffing (better IMO because it looks more like we could actually have a 7). The additional $150 we lose when he has a 7 could be more than made up for by the times he folds a chop. Again I wouldn't do this against a thinking player as I don't think it's very credible, but it could work against a fish.

Result:

That's unfortunate, but I'm not surprised. That's why I was saying check fold. We just rarely ever have a 7 so it really makes no sense to bet against an opponent who is the least big aware.

FWIW, when someone shows only one card that is meaningless, the other card is the nut card like always. We really think he's taking this line to a hugenormous $300 bet with just a chop when 77 is a perfectly reasonable hand for us to have?

GcluelessNLnoobG

^ I'm 99% sure he had exactly 73 of spades, this guy defends his BTN straddle at close to 100%