What would you do?

[Colossos159]

Before you go over the hand, I have to mention that i dont use PT or HM so I dont have stats on anyone but I can say that this table was very aggressive. Whenever there was a raise preflop (almost everytime), someone would 3-bet and action on flop was heavy. What would you do on every street and especially the river?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($14.70)
CO ($9.05)
Hero (Button) ($10.65)
SB ($11.20)
BB ($11.60)
UTG ($21.45)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, 10
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.85) 7, 10, 9 (2 players)
BB bets $0.90, Hero raises to $2.50, BB calls $1.60

Turn: ($5.85) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $1.10, Hero calls $1.10

River: ($8.05) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $7.60 (All-In), Hero calls $6.65 (All-In)

Total pot: $21.35 | Rake: $1.05


After he called my raise on the flop , I believe I'm behind or he is on the flushdraw/straightdraw. He bets small on the turn and (scary as I am) I only call because that turn card couldnt have helped him or me. On the river I used my timebank because he is really showing strength and with my flop raise , he must know I have something.... I called because the flushdraw missed but did I make a mistake?

[Padawan]

I think on this flop when he calls your 3 bet you are behind... I just cant see him calling the 3 bet with a flush draw and then shoving the river... I think you can easily find a fold here on the river. I think on the turn you can 3 bet him again just to make sure but he's gonna shove most of the time and than you can safely fold your hand...

He didnt have to bet big on that turn because he already knows you like your hand when you 3-bet..

[Gambubble]

If he is aggro, I'd usually just call him down here. I think our fold equity is low against a donk bet on such a wet flop.
As played I fold this river most of the time.

[Colossos159]

Yes, i should have folded on the river but i just couldnt because it didnt "feel" right, especially because I was a little bit tilting. The result:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($14.70)
CO ($9.05)
Hero (Button) ($10.65)
SB ($11.20)
BB ($11.60)
UTG ($21.45)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, 10
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.85) 7, 10, 9 (2 players)
BB bets $0.90, Hero raises to $2.50, BB calls $1.60

Turn: ($5.85) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $1.10, Hero calls $1.10

River: ($8.05) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $7.60 (All-In), Hero calls $6.65 (All-In)

Total pot: $21.35 | Rake: $1.05

Results in white below:
Hero had Q, 10 (two pair, tens and threes).
BB had K, 9 (two pair, nines and threes).
Outcome: Hero won $20.30


So i was good this time but i believe i got lucky and i dont think i'll be right 50 percent of the time to make that call.

ps: gambubble, ofcourse my fold equity is very low on that board but I want to make them pay for drawing and dont give them the right odds to do so. Does this mean you wouldnt have raised? If you dont raise here than you are giving free cards on a very very dangerous board?

ps: that guy should have known that donkeys never lay down a hand even if they should

[sandervb]

would've laid it down on the river, but i also know that steam issues might make me call

[nawhead]

I haven't look at results.

You say the table was "aggressive" but that doesn't really say anything about villain. Was he showing down weak hands he bet all 3 streets out of position (especially in raised pots vs the preflop raiser)? Was he making big river plays with busted draws or 1 pair?

Just saying, "this table's aggressive" doesn't mean you should adjust by raising and calling down light yourself. If anything, you should tighten up and punish their light bets (if you actually know they were betting light that is. Don't just assume.).

Raising QT on a T97 flop is not tight unfortunately. You've just bloated the pot when your hand might be good verus just 1 pair hands but is crushed by anything semi-proper. You're forcing yourself to stack off light by the river when getting called on the flop still doesn't give you much information. And you open yourself up to get reraised. Why do you want to open the betting again with a weak hand like this? The flop is where most people go aggro with draws, so let a card come off. On the flipside, it may even look like you're semibluff raising here so now he's suspicious and may keep firing anyway and you still don't know where you are. Or if you've been playing tight and a heart, J or 6 comes on the turn, villain can be pretty sure you're not raising on the draw and can use it as a scare card. This is less likely to happen when you just flat him.

Remember, you have position, so you decide how big this pot will get unless he goes crazy.

As played, I would have raised on the turn to $3. It looks like he's either super weak or super strong and trying to get stacks in the middle, so raising will get a lot of information out of him. If he stays in the pot, your hand is NO GOOD. I'm instamucking if he reraises or keeps firing on river. I checkdown if called also.

But if I was in the hand, I just call on the flop. We have Top pair with a decent kicker, but T97 is 2pair, straight, even overpair (JJ) land. If he fires again on a clean turn, I call 60% and fold 40% of the time versus unknowns. Against light or tight bettors, adjust accordingly.

The river changes nothing, and you beat 97 now. You hand just got better. Call a reasonable bet (I think pot is ok because I controlled the pot size and I'm not stacking off, just saving 30bb's or so... but still an improvement). If he overbets, I have to fold. If he's willing to be this aggressive with JT or less here, he'll trap himself sooner or later and you can find better spots than Top pair with a Queen kicker on a iffy flop. If checked to, I probably just check down (I might miss a thin value bet, but just seeing his hand cheaply and knowing for sure what he's doing this with may mean more money in the future versus having him just fold).

But all in all, you overreacted to an aggressive table. Like Trikkur says in his microstakes videos, the key to winning these limits is keeping calm and value betting. Raising weak top pairs on the flop and making passive 100bb calldowns is break-even play imo. Hmm... I guess making passive 70bb calldowns isn't much better, but I really don't think I would play a bigger than 60bb pot with this hand in this spot without any more reads.