Just Top Pair v. LAG Fish Reg in Live 2-5

Snap call?
I think it's easier to fold flop than river.
Flop raise either nutted/spew/st8d like 78/34
His range hasn't really changed.

Why fold river when you could've folded the flop?

You say he's lag fish reg. You obviously played with him before right? What does his flop raise mean? 2p+? random Ax? st8d? spew?

The lag fish I play with raises are nutted or huge draws. Even slowplays sometimes when hit. Even though he opens light, his range isn't super light postflop when money gets in the middle.

I bet small on the flop. His min-raise on the flop and small bet on the turn could be random Ax. But not on the river.

1/3, 1/3 Turn & River look awfully milky, agreed. Is V betting because they don't know what else to do? 80 bigs, but we only have top pair here. Why 90, btw?

Honestly expecting to see 65s here. I have better hands to call down with. If you called and won, go you. The board pairing would make my Aces feel better, given pre.

I would check the flop with this combo. Your opponents cbet and turn dbl sizing will be like truth serum, they will make significantly more mistakes vs a check rather than a cbet. I would consider checking entire range on flop, that would be my default strategy here and I would only deviate if my opponent was extremely passive. As played we are in a pickle. I don’t see players bluff raising the flop too often for a minraise on a rainbow static board. I probably fold the turn when he continues betting after the board pairs.

Other hands that beat you are AJ, AT, A6.

My standard pre-flop raise size from the blinds after a bunch of limpers is 2x pot for a few reasons:

1. I don’t like playing OOP
2. I don’t like paying rake
3. I really don’t like paying promo dollars for bad beat jackpots and high hands

Versus someone who habitually bets when checked to, I like checking flop—make him think he’s trying to run me off a big pair. But I don’t know if he does that.

My standard line as the pre-flop raiser is to small bet (one-third pot or less) most A-high boards OOP with my entire range. Do people not do this anymore?

His line is too strong for AJ or AT. A6s isn’t possible. So he would need to have called my big pre-flop raise with A6o.

I do like small c-betting the flop with AK, AQ, big pairs, and other hands that miss the flop.

But with my BIG pre-flop raise, I do like check-calling with AJ and weaker Ax now that I think about it.

People certainly still do this, but I teach my students a different strat. In live poker I don’t think range betting ace high boards OOP as the pfr is optimal. I think live players make a ton more mistakes with their probe sizings when checked to vs the mistakes they would make calling or raising vs cbets. They telegraph their hand stength with sizing, bet too often with marginal hands, and most importantly they hardly ever protect their check back range. The last one gives us carte blanche to bluff every time they check back a wet/dynamic texture.

Is he really a LAG fish if he isn't betting an A-high board after you check to him?

I will generally check my entire range OOP these days. Then I can evaluate based on if they check, or how much they bet.

I do bet my entire range small in position when checked to still.

If y’all like checking your whole range OOP, what do you do with KK? Check, then guess if he bets? Maybe call flop, then check and guess if he bets again on the turn?

I used to do that 15 years ago, and I remember getting yelled at in the HSNL forums (by Vanessa Selbst…😉. So I started c-betting small with my whole range unless I’m sure he’ll habitually bet-bet-bet when checked to.

KK has been downgraded with an Ace on the flop. So I'm not 'guessing', I'm playing it as the 2nd pair it is.

If we're talking about a non-A high flop, it depends. But probably XR for value against a small bet, XC a big bet. And then going from there.

Poker has evolved with gto and new theories, it's very different than 15 years ago, 15 years ago, cbetting 2/3 or more was standard, nowadays, that's called big.

For live poker, Marc Goone has preached checking oop as pfr unless villain is pro or super passive. He also preaches checking A high flops in or out of position. Alot of ppl here watch his videos. Most of it are very good learning materials, except ppl don't realize the pool is a bit different. His pool might be more aggro, while most 1/3 pool might be more passive/fishy. Pool tendencies matter so learning the meaning behind them is more important than no brainer copying them.

For online poker, cbetting small range is standard/normal.