A10 offsuit in BB 5-ways.

I don't like raising this hand from the BB, particularly so small.

Not sure as played. You could iso raise as the limpers shouldn't have much, but you can't be sure of that at these stakes.

Don’t raise pre. As played jam.

If you're going to raise, raise bigger. At least $35. If the BTN only has $70, I guess $35 is as big as you can go before his jam doesn't re-open the betting. If he had more behind, I'd make it $40 or $45.

Now that the BTN jams and the others all limp-called, I'd re-pop it to $200.

We can jam, but it's a disaster if that looks bluffy, we get called, and lose. It looks stronger if we just re-raise to an amount that looks like we want to get called. The guys with $300-$400 can't flat call the $200. They have to jam or fold. The guy with $950 is going to think twice before flatting, if he's even remotely aware, and paying attention to the stack sizes.

Re-pop it. $200 is good. Commit shorties, put pressure on deeper player.

Five handed, I get the raise pre, but I don't like it vs. this group from OOP. Also needs to be bigger from OOP.

I'm surprised that this many people said they didn't like the raise pre. I was expecting to hear the raise wasn't big enough. I played this hand a while bag when a lot of my preflop raises were on the smaller size.

What's wrong with raising here? I thought aggression and thinning the field were important in NLHE. What would be a better way to play?

docvail wrote

Honestly I don't think I knew BU was short stacked until after he shoved. Making it $35 with plans of going over the top if BU jams was not an option. Another area where I need to work on my game.

I considered taking it to ~$200. I was afraid that this would be pot committing, and may look weaker than a shove. CO was a player that you can win money from but he will play big when he detects weakness. As I type this I realize exactly how strong a 4-bet looks. What I was afraid of was missing the flop and then having to decide to c-bet or not.

What if Hero had AA, what would be the correct play be then? Shove to make a "bluffy" looking play? or raising to get a caller?

I think it is interesting that nobody said to flat the BUs shove.

"I think it is interesting that nobody said to flat the BUs shove."

Just read through this thread really fast.

In this kind of splashy live game I dont really want to flat AA and induce more players into the pot. Im happy to go HU vs opponents jam with deadmoney.

However, in some cases, flatting could look weak and strong. Its dependent on many cirumstances. We are playing in a live game vs humans.

Edit* In this kind of splashy live game I dont really want to flat AToff and induce more players into the pot. Im happy to go HU vs opponents jam with deadmoney.

Deepstack pre, with the straddle having you covered, ATo is a pure fold in theory. So if you are playing it, you are playing wider than theory. Something I don't have a problem with, but should be acknowledged. Given your read on the straddle: "He is a loose player but doesn't make any big mistakes. very experienced." Should you be playing wider than theory?

With that read I would be hesitant to step out of line. He's loose, experienced and doesn't make big mistakes. Which means he can put a lot of pressure on me if I step too far out of line. 350bb deep, OOP, the offsuit stuff just has to go. Maybe you want to play AQo, KQo, but I wouldn't want to go down much more than that. Instead, to loosen up I would go down the diagonal of the SCs and adding the suited broadways. I would be more prone to extend my range if the fish at the table were also deep. If three guys limped with $1k in front of them, I might play wider and just hope that straddle doesn't find a good hand.

Without that guy, the rest of the table has illustrated their poor play, and branching down into the offsuit broadways is absolutely fine against someone who is going to shove pre with K6o.

AP, the risk with flatting is that straddle is going to be in with a wide part of his range and you are at the weak fringes of your range. You don't want to play a big pot against an aggressive competent player OOP with ATo. So coming over the top is right. All-in is a little bit risky but probably good, because if called by the straddle you are probably crushed but he can't call often. That straddle flatted your raise takes away his strongest hands, a good loose player isn't doing that with AA, KK, or QQ. He also likely 3! with AK most of the time. So when you overshove, straddle has a really hard time calling. Maybe AQ or JJ calls, but I don't think those call 100% because from his seat, you look to have AA, KK, QQ, AK a huge portion of the time and the raise is huge.

Raising to like $200 is an idea, but that lets straddle call with a lot of suited broadway type hands and smaller pps with ok room to navigate postflop. You have to understand that your ATo is a bluff against the straddle. If you're going to bluff, bluff. Don't give him a good price with his good but not great hands. AP, I prefer shove to raise, but it's a dicey spot created by a raise that is outside the lines preflop.

OOP against a good player in the straddle who has you covered, that might not be the best spot to color outside the lines. I think that's the main misstep in this hand, but you got away with it and the variance gods were on your side.

Don't beat yourself up. Not being fully aware of all my opponents' stack sizes is a mistake I've made repeatedly, and it's bitten me in the a$$ more than a few times, in different ways.

When you say, "making it $35 with plans of going over the top if BU jams was not an option," does that mean you didn't think of it, or you'd never do it in this spot for some reason? Because it should definitely be something you consider before taking your action.

Docvail.
The reason I said going over the top of BUs jam wasn’t an option is because I was unaware BU was short. And I didn’t know his exact stack size. I couldn’t do the math to Pick the correct size that would allow BU to jam and still open the action.

I was making what I thought was the best action when it was on me. I was not planning ahead for others actions. When it was on me I raised cause no one else did. Back then I went 3x plus one x for every limper. That’s how I got to $30. I thought $30 pre in a 1-2 game was big. I don’t understand why a player calls $5 and then later calls $30. Why not just make it $30 yourself.

I have recently increased the size of my preflop raises. If I could replay this spot not knowing BU stack size. I’d take it to $40. But a lot of people here are saying they don’t like the preflop raise.

When the action was back on me after BUs shove. I was willing and I did reraise. I just didn’t plan for it ahead of time.

Yamihere wrote

I'm a little confused by your post. It seems like you agreed with my actions at some points, but you thought I played wrong on others.

I made two raises in this hand, the $30 when it first go to me, and the shove after BU made his shove. Which one was correct and which one was wrong? How would you have played the hand?