Would you make this call? 5NL 6max Pokerstars

As per the title, this was at 5NL 6max on pokerstars

We have AdQs in the CO, we're a little more than 100bb deep with two shorter stacks behind us, but mostly the table is 100bb.

Action folds to us, so we raise to 3bb, and we face a min-raise to 5bb from the SB, who is 47/27 over 15 hands.

I decide to flat call here (pot is 11bb), I don't generally like to 4bet AQo, and I don't want to fold this to a 3 bet from this player in position.

Flop is Jd 4c Ks, SB checks to us and I decide to check behind, my hand has pretty much missed here.

Turn comes the Tc, which makes our straight. This time the SB makes a pot sized bet of 11bb, I decide to flat call with the nuts and try to get another bet from him on the river.

River comes the Td, which pairs the board and makes me hate my life. Now the SB bets
37bb into 33bb, a little more than the pot, and I have a tough decision.

Do you think our straight is good here often enough to call? I think this is tough to fold, especially when we haven't shown any strength.

Knowing PokerStars, you both have AQo

But to be fair it is both tough to call OR fold. 15 hands isn't really enough to have an idea how villain plays, so can't even rely on that.


My thought process would be:


He might have flopped a set of 4's and then caught the house with runner-runner...
There again it could be a stone cold bluff.
But with a flopped set after a PFR, with a K & J in the flop, he might have bet more to prevent you drawing a better hand.


Personally I would call. Either he has you beat, you're chopping the pot, or is bluffing. You only lose in one of the three scenarios.

Nice scenario, my truly honest answer would be if this was a live tournament and Not on the site that you had mentioned,

then absolutely Yes, I would have called the 37 blind raise on the river.

If he had J,10 (one of my favorite pre-flop hands), well then he had the nuts and got my chips.

But I would be EXTREMELY, I REPEAT, EXTREMELY restrained calling on-line…. In my personal opinion.

I think as played this is a snap call. There are some hands that were weak-ish draws on the flop that improved to combo draws on the turn, and would see the board pairing as a great card to bomb when they miss. To me it makes the most sense that he potted the turn when his equity improved and then bombed the river to try and blow you off a one-pair type holding. What happened?

Without a doubt I would call but this is depending on your bankroll from the get go. If you have the funds behind in your account, you can never fold that hand. I would put him on pocket K's or maybe he had K10 off.

The individual checking should have given you a sign that they hit top pair or they want you to bet into them. This is where it gets tricky because if you bet into them (in my opinion) you put out a little bait and define their hand. So you could pickup the pot or you could at minimum know the individual is (within a ball park range).


But I would have called and would have bet on the turn, you have to bet your hand in the end.

OP did you call it?

Thanks for the thoughts everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting so long.

I did call. Villain had Js Jc for a flopped set of jacks, that went runner runner to the full house!

i would have called because of his stats and how the hand was played, but as long as you called the 3bet and he checked the flop, there's no reason not to consider he's having a very strong hand on the flop. personally, i would have raised the turn to get more information. after that, he either checks the river or you just fold.

IamVALHALLA said:

But to be fair it is both tough to call OR fold. 15 hands isn't really enough to have an idea how villain plays, so can't even rely on that.

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With this I mostly just figured at least he's not a nit waiting for the top 8% clearly.

NBB said:

But I would be EXTREMELY, I REPEAT, EXTREMELY restrained calling on-line…. In my personal opinion.

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Why's that?

bkniefel said:

Without a doubt I would call but this is depending on your bankroll from the get go. If you have the funds behind in your account, you can never fold that hand. I would put him on pocket K's or maybe he had K10 off.

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I definitely play within my bankroll, that's why I'm at 5NL tables haha, they're not the most exciting for that little, but I don't want to spend any money on poker. I'll grind it out right. I beat 2NL pretty quickly, my plan is to take a 4 buy-in shot at the next level once I have around 40 buy-ins at my current level, if that makes sense.

Sorin Iliescu said:

personally, i would have raised the turn to get more information. after that, he either checks the river or you just fold.

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I definitely regret not raising the turn, in retrospect. I need to remind myself to be more aggressive, that's definitely something I'm working on.