Very straightforward hand

Some hands, every decision is agonizing. Other hands it feels like people are donating you chips. This was of the latter sort. Curious, since Villian has a very good rank.

Edit: Could he have put me on a busted straight draw?
Edit2: Also curious what you think of Villian’s small bets. Looking for a cheap fold? Trying to induce bluffs?

https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/468804562

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I’m not sure this hand is straightforward at all.

With so many players seeing a flop, @player777 should have been very wary of better hands than top pair. In addition to overpairs, he’s beaten by made straights - 58 and 89 would’ve had an OESD on the flop, the former making the straight on the turn and the latter on the river. I think the only hands of yours he’d beat, given your aggression, are high flush draws. It helps that he doesn’t have any clubs in his hand, he may have decided to merely complete in the small blind with a hand like Kc8c and tried to turn his hand into a bluff, &c.

As far as what he was trying to accomplish with his super-small bets, I have to plead ignorance. Maybe he was trying to get you to call instead of raise?

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I agree that this hand is pretty straightforward (which is actually quite unusual for pots where almost everybody limps in). You say that he is high ranked but that is all relative. As I have moved up the ranks, my assumptions about rank have changed. At this point, the only players who I assume are pretty good are in the top 25, and even that is not a safe assumption. Based on how this hand was played, you can see (can’t think of a nicer way to say this) that this player either is not trying very hard or does not know what they are doing. In a limped pot, top pair is pretty marginal, and they make it look very obvious that they have either a flush draw or a medium strength hand by betting tiny (betting 1 big blind is never the correct play in any situation).

On the flop, I like that you raised (and it was fine to limp behind with 66 preflop), but I’d prefer a larger raise size (~14,000) to get value from 7x and flush draws. By raising to 8,500 into 13,750, players who already called 1bb just need 7,500 to potentially win 22,250 (or more if others also call). Your opponent gets a great price to call. They should still consider folding the flop because you look strong, but the possibility of flush draws make it ok to call based on your small size.

On the turn he bets 1bb again (which again makes no sense because it gives you a great price to call with lots of hands that have outs and you are likely to raise again with better hands). Your sizing was pretty good here, but I think you can still go larger (~32,000) to make sure you are able to comfortably shove the river.

He bets tiny again on the river, which kind of makes sense as a blocking bet (still not a good play) because he has overplayed his hand so much that many Replay players might just call here even with much stronger hands (like sets) because they are scared and confused. You did well to shove, and there is no way he should call. So, to summarize, it was pretty straightforward. You both had limp-able hands preflop, you bet all 3 streets and got max value from a hand that should certainly have folded on the turn if not on the flop.

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