Banana underreps at the big game

“ He can lay down AK pre like its nothing.”

No wonder he’s a winner at low stakes high rake games.

i think river lead should be smaller

i cant imagine v is supposed to fold pre

ignore them obviously

Since this villain has millions, he is probably a rec and losing player at the stakes he plays, but not terrible. I would be particularly concerned that the speech from an amateur indicates he is nutted. I don't think he would be skilled enough to do a reverse tell.

I actually don't think the limp/call with AQ is that terrible. It is a hand you don't want to face a 3! with and you will get 3! frequently at 5/10. Limp/shove is probably better though.

The river card doesn't change that much for your hand. It puts you ahead of AK. I guess the donk was because you improved.

Nope. V2 played the hand perfectly fine and got paid for it. He defended his BTN straddle by calling $55 w/ 85s. I would have done the same. I might have bet the flop, though, to start building a pot knowing someone has an A.

Sorry, banana, but leading river was bad and calling the raise was worse.

Hero folded to the river raise and villain showed.

V2 slow playing on an ace high flop is pretty bad, as someone probably has an ace. Making a speech with a big hand was also bad.

V2 is probably a bad player, as he described as playing higher stakes and has millions. Pretty common type of amateur at mid stakes, and you should recognize a wealthy amateur when playing mid stakes.

I am so glad he folded! Phew. Makes me feel better.

I agree w/ betting the flop, which is why I said I would have bet the flop.

You have zero idea if V2 is good or bad, and what a weird thing to base that assumption on. LOL.

If villain has millions of dollars, he is likely a wealthy amateur, and probably not a good player. The combination of the speech with close to the nuts and his being wealthy are indications he is probably a fish. You can't be sure, but that is a better indication than age, ethnicity, how he stacks his chips, and how he is dressed.

His pre-flop call was pretty loose. When the BTN straddle is on and someone limps in from the blinds, it will often be to limp-3B, so calling the raise with 85s is kinda dicey, even getting a price in position, when he'll have to fold to another raise.

It was lucky to flop trips. He got lucky again when hero rivered top two.

What worse 5x combos is hero going to have? Maybe hero has 65dd or 54dd? If hero has some other 5x combo, it might be A5o that flopped a boat and slow-played. But none of those hands seem very likely when hero limp-calls from the SB.

Hero's line is pretty face up. When he calls turn next to act, it looks like hero has AX, unless he's sandbagging 65 / 54. Even if hero thinks there's a chance V is doing this with AX to push him off a chop, how can hero call the jam with worse than AQ, when he loses to AK, AQ, and any 5?

So when V jams, he's probably only getting called by A5o / 54dd that boated up, or 65dd / AQ that just can't find a fold. He's targeting an extremely narrow range that can donk lead and call a jam.

If V bet flop, and / or went larger on the turn, it would have been harder for hero to get away from his hand on the river. But when he checks back the flop, and bets small on the turn, the large SPR on the river makes it hard to get stacks in against AX or worse 5x.

Every indication is that V2 is not a good player. Having millions, the speech, and the loose call preflop. You don't slow play a 5 on A55,r. Someone probably has an ace, and it is hard for anyone to catch anything to improve significantly that doesn't beat you.

Implying that you think H should lead this river ... why, because blockers? Because people will react badly to a lead?

Do you think solver would lead river as H?

The fact H didn't 3bet makes it a _lot_ better, I guess.

Looking at 100bb: if V was BB and HJ opened 2.25x then BB is supposed to call 85s ... but having someone behind is huge.

If it was an UTG straddle and V was BB then 86s is a pure fold.

Having the BTN has to be worth something, but would bet that it's still a fold. TBF I think it looks a lot worse at first glance because of the sizes and calling $75 in Stupidbanana's normal games would be terrible.

Also I would assume only having 50bb effective makes it worse than 100bb sims suggest.

As a final point it doesn't look great when you only win 7x your preflop call when you flop trips vs. two people who have an A on A55.

I guess we all "get lucky, " then. I was lucky I got AA pre. I was lucky someone called. I was lucky I flopped a set vs. their set. Poker is all luck, not skill.

It's one hand. LOL. I hope nobody judges you on one bad hand!

His play isn't that terrible, but you make a read based on various factors that he is a fish. It is not judging. It is evaluating what kind of player he is.

Yes, sometimes people make the wrong read, and sometimes it has happened to me. However, I am generally happy if they view me as a wealthy amateur or a nit or whatever, because it may cause them to make mistakes.

Flip the hand around and put hero on the BTN with 85s. We'd all hate the call pre, the flop check back, the small turn bet, and the river jam over the donk. None of those are skill plays in this set up.

OP's line looks like AX that's trying to push V off a chop and will fold to the jam, or a slow played boat. OP happened to have better than random AX, and still found a correct fold. If he's folding AQ, what does he call with? Just boats, and maybe the one combo of 65s V can beat.

I don't think it makes any sense for V to raise the river, because it's really hard for him to get called by worse. V played the hand poorly on every street.

So, yes, he's bad, but he got lucky.

I am 100% defending my BTN straddle w/ 85s.

V should have bet flop, but raising the river was no-brainer. Zero chance a 5 is not good here. And if I remember correctly, you suggested Hero call! LOL. (And I don't think you were the only one.)

85s pf is not a call i would make but ive seen worse

his flop check is pretty far from expert on a static board.

“I sure hope they DO!” - Erik Seidel

So hero’s an idiot for not 3Bing?

Idiot is harsh. But Banana did say they had lots of history with him, and this hand looks a lot more passive than Banana's usual HHs. Ergo, my guess is they knew he was shot-taking, and a bit more cautious/concerned about the $$$ than his usual play. So he's probably not limping to limp/3! here, and therefore calling 85s on a straddled button isn't the torch it would be normally. I'd just have opened here, though AQo is the bottom of my SB with a BU straddle range, and that's still probably too loose.

Agreeing with deuce on the read of V. But for those kinds of players, not that I play 5/10, ego-fluffing seems like more of a driver than making the most EV decisions.

Not to be whatever but I'll point out, if I played it faster postflop I would have likely been stacked, I'm not sure of the donk line either but I think when runout is this blank a small river lead targetting AT-AK cant be bad

I don't consider a half pot bet small.

Also, if you limp/3bet pre, I'll bet 85s folds. If you raised first in, you should be able to navigate post w/o losing your stack (I hope).

from looking at plo rock sims on nandez's site it will defend quite wide here. am unsure how to model the player behind and what effect that has

the only winning 7x preflop call is really bad way to look at preflop

unsure if solver will lead river but i doubt v in the middle will hero Ax vs this nearly as much as 1/4-1/5 when sandwiched otr, and he extremely unlikely to have AK given action. b10 also a possibility. i think we are almost overrepping our hand doing this. i do get the logic for leading river, its not totally clear to me with we have enough equity to do this though. solver likely wont find leads on a river that doesn't change the nuts but even if thats the case, that doesn't mean you shouldn't. can see some set of assumptions of like button never bluffs here into 2, guy in the middle mostly has ax, neither v will actively put in the money with a worse hand than ours but will hero Ax ~2/3 of the time and always call a4 that make it ok