3,5$ - 9max - AJs OOP

I think this is the inevitable line with the information available, not much room for a move.

I will go off on a tangent about what I would do with more information though and maybe segue into some similar situations for early position raisers in early blind levels, if my thinking is wrong here I would appreciate it if one of the coaches/official hand evaluators would chime in.

I often make it about 330 from the blinds and make a 40%ish bet on 90% of flops, it's actually about breakeven for me but benefits my image/metagame in the later phases, for most images it would likely lose money. With more information I often make this move when you have a player who is 18/15ish in the early phases and has a high EPVPIP. Their Fold to 3BET is often also an indicator of an early-position leak, lots of guys have EXACTLY 22 EPVPIP and >65% fold to 3 bet. You'll find lots of players like this in the $3.50 raising UTG down to 4s or 5s in first phase and folding to 3-bet or alternatively, flatting a small 3-bet and folding 4s-8s on 100% on missed sets when SB/BB bets out. Again this is all purely stylistic and has to harmonise with your other habits.

Some of them with similar stats/ranges even have these small/mid pairs as the only hands in their EP open-limp range and fail to ever adjust to your 3betting habits so that is something to look out for when you see these guys who are 20/15/6,7 in the first few blind levels, at a fishier table it usually indicates a player with a reasonable range flatting the bottom of their range in late positions when there have been multiple limpers, at tighter tables it usually indicates a 'half-reg' who is limp-folding hands he should throw away in the early positions and stealing too wide in late positions, those are often the only things separating those players from ABC regs or slightly-nitty regs.

Any thoughts on my thoughts? Am I thinking too statstically/rigidly for this limit?

all fine except turn, c/call turn (edit), donk shove river if we hit flush

if river is an Ace: c/c vs small bet, c/f vs big bet

c/f any other river

Originally posted by RobertAdams
all fine except turn, c/call turn (edit), donk shove river if we hit flush

if river is an Ace: c/c vs small bet, c/f vs big bet

c/f any other river

Where is the value coming from here?

That line is transparent enough that in the rare instances that we make a flush we're giving villain every excuse to fold JJ/TT//AK/AJ by donk shoving after a quintessential flushchaser line. Bigstacks at this limit don't typically apply that amount of postflop pressure light so that raises alarm bells for villain too.

If we make our ace on the river we're still beaten by a decent percentage of villain's possible UTG range, AA/AK/AQ/KQ/88, he's never got an underflush here either, what underflushes are there? The best one available is KTs which is his hand here <1% of the time, if ever.

If we're calling that turn and checking any non-flush on the river then we at least have to call off any bet sizing when the ace hits, despite this we're not ahead enough when we check-call to show a profit, nor are we ahead enough with a high card when villain gives up and checks it back when the ace doesn't hit, likely scenario when he checks back the river is that he has a wider UTG range and raised a medium pocket pair. Even if we bluff x% of potential straight making rivers and Kings we're likely to be haemorrhaging chips. We lose money every way you can play it once you flat that turn.

Am I missing something?

Hello all,

Preflop:

Good call. Nothing else to do here with our hand.

Flop:

No need to turn our hand in to a bluff and check/raise. Check/call is fine.

Turn:

Out of position I like the check/fold. If we hit our hand we won't be able to get enough value so I like check/folding here best.

Guys if you have any questions, do not hesitate to write in this thread by clicking the button or

Best regards,
Antoan