AK on monotone brd
2/5, 8 hands, $1200 BI
V - MABG who has played conservatively, never seen him do something stupid, has accumulated a stack to about $2K
H - a couple of loud mouths at the table have been teasing me that I never put in a chip unless I have the nuts. My $4.5K stack is all dumb luck. I smile at this. If V was paying attention, he saw earlier that I bluffed $500 on a FD.
UTG limps, next folds, then...
H - $4500, AsKs, makes it $45 because anything less than $35 will go 4 or 5 ways at this table.
V c, another rando calls.
Flop $135, K84ccc
H 75, V c, rando f
Turn 7x
What should H do?
10 Replies
Hero should tell us what position V is in, and the rando caller.
PRE - fine.
FLOP - don't c-bet big in multi-way pots or on monotone boards. Only bet strong hands and good draws when it's multi-way. Your hand is basically a bluff-catcher here.
If you want to bet here, make it $25 or $30. Fold to a raise.
Mostly, I'd just check.
TURN - No idea what to do now. I wouldn't get here this way. I probably check, with plans to call if he bets small. I'd actually hope he does bet small, so we can call and check again on the river.
RIVER - whatever it is, I'd check again.
Three streets OOP is ambitious 3-ways here. But once you bet flop for this size (and get it HU) I think turn is an overbet. 350 or so.
Check flop. Check turn.
Not looking to beat you up. If your recalls isn't very good, you may want to try to make some post-hand notes with your opponents' specific positions and stack sizes. The more opponents left to act behind V, the more important this info becomes.
Like, if he's on the BTN, his range might be pretty wide. If he's in the HJ, he's probably got a stronger range of KQ+. Your read on V would suggest he's not making very many speculative calls pre-flop.
That said, he's probably also not calling your flop c-bet without having some piece of the board. At a minimum, he probably has a K or some PP with a club, or the naked ace of clubs.
If we checked to him, he probably wouldn't bet almost anything in his range. And if he did bet, he's likely to have a very strong hand that can call a check-raise.
In this configuration, where we're monkey-in-the-middle, we should just check and look to gather more info from our opponents' actions. Our hand is basically a low-equity bluff-catcher with almost no chance to improve to a very strong hand.
We'd have to go runner-runner to boat up in order to feel confident putting a lot of money into the pot. And our hand has too much SDV to want to turn it into a bluff.
I usually make notes but was drawn into another hand and didn't get the details of this one into my phone.
The reveal, he called my pre bet with K8, flopping top 2. I was shocked to see him calling $45 pre with that. He was not the player I had thought. He took about $400 total from me on the turn and river. I got overly confident on the river because the board ran runner runner 7s, giving me 2P. It was a very close second and as Ricky Bobby taught us, second is the first loser.
I let something here or on Doug Polk convince me to call him down. Normally I would have folded to the turn bet.
Fortunately, that V would give me all that back later and then some, but it still grates on me. Someone else smashed him a little later because he got looser and looser as his stack twindled.
I do a lot of checking on monotone flops multiway. I pretty much bet made flushes and NFDs exclusively. TL;DR I check flop.
To add another look at a monotone board situation, I wasn't in this hand but watched with interest.
Board is AKQccc
V1 who raised pre leads flop, turn, and river with small bets and calls from both V2 and V3.
At showdown V1 - set of As.
V2 - JcTx
V3 - 67cc for the win.
I was confused by the choices of every last V. V1 & 2 both thought they had won. V2 was praying for the Tc because there was a hi hand promo to spin the wheel for $1K - 10K. V3 thought he had lost and would have folded to a big bet.
To add another look at a monotone board situation, I wasn't in this hand but watched with interest. Board is AKQcccV1 who raised pre leads flop, turn, and river with small bets and calls from both V2 and V3. At showdown V1 - set of As. V2 - JcTxV3 - 67cc for the win. I was confused by the choices of every last V. V1 & 2 both thought they had won. V2 was praying for the Tc
I think this is an example of how not all monotone flops are equal. Especially not when the pot goes multi-way.
Ignoring positions and other reads, the PFR is going to have all the sets and 2P in range here, but not as many straights or nut flushes compared to the PFC's. He can use small bet sizes with his sets and 2P as he's hoping to boat up, but he's going to have to fold to river aggression if he doesn't improve.
Also, because it is multi-way, the players with lower flushes can't really fast play, when their other opponent can have a higher flush. And anyone who has the nuts wouldn't want to raise, for fear of forcing his opponents to fold.
As a result of the various players conflicting incentives, what usually ends up happening in spots like this is that one player ends up driving the betting and dictating the pot size. But that won't necessarily be the player with the best hand. It will depend on whether or not the PFR c-bets the flop. If he checks, one of the other players is likely to start betting, either for value or as a bluff.
If the PFR had bet larger, he might have folded out one or the other opponent, but as soon as one folds, the other might deduce that the PFR is FOS. Like, 76cc might be worried about the other PFC having a higher flush, but if that other guy folds, 76cc should be skeptical the PFR has a flush. Likewise, if 76cc folds, JcTx should rightly be suspicious if the PFR keeps betting.
JcTx might have raised as a bluff and won. He might have been able to put together that the PFR couldn't have the nuts, but the other player very likely had a lower flush that may have folded had he raised.
