€10 NLHE 6-max: I Hate Short-Stacked Players

I have only 3 hands from this opponent, so, basically unknown.

I made my basic CBet on the Flop. Another ace on the Turn and I thought he doesn't have an Ace, so I double-barrel (smaller bet than usual because he has short stack). He didn't show any strength so I thought he is just basic fish and I tried to take his whole stack, but damn.

Is there anything I can do differently?


iPoker - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 28.3 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
SB: 114.6 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
BB: 50 BB (VPIP: 15.49, PFR: 8.45, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 72)
UTG: 124.2 BB (VPIP: 38.37, PFR: 1.16, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 91)
Hero (MP): 113.6 BB
CO: 111.7 BB (VPIP: 26.85, PFR: 22.04, 3Bet Preflop: 7.06, Hands: 2,299)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q♣ K♠

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) K♥ 8♦ A♣
Hero bets 5.2 BB, BTN calls 5.2 BB

Turn: (17.9 BB, 2 players) A♦
Hero bets 8 BB, BTN calls 8 BB

River: (33.9 BB, 2 players) T♠
Hero bets 27 BB, BTN calls 12.1 BB

Hero mucks Q♣ K♠ (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 25%, Flop 9%, Turn 0%)
BTN shows Q♠ A♠ (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 75%, Flop 91%, Turn 100%)
BTN wins 53.3 BB

xc flop xf or xj turn

Villain called your flop and turn bets on the board favourable to preflop aggressor range with not many draws. Just check fold river

Out of position I probably dont even bet the flop to be honest. Its a way ahead way behind situation. If you have the best hand, he can only outdraw you with 2 pair+, and its not a particularly draw heavy board.

So its totally fine, if flop goes check-check, and if you check-call you at least win money from bluffs, that would probably have folded to your C-bet. So in my opinion a more passive line is better here.

Which is actually often the case, when someone call you in position. This is a very different situation from getting called by someone in the blinds. The player calling in position is supposed to have a stronger range than a player defending his big blind, AND he has position.

quant1986 said:

Villain called your flop and turn bets on the board favourable to preflop aggressor range with not many draws. Just check fold river

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you almost never want to fold river as played with such low spr. you need 20% And we have way over that.

I think once he calls the flop, even though he's a passive fish, you're probably behind there.

I too dislike shortstackers, and often end up playing way looser vs them than I should. And often end up doubling up their puny stacks. It only sucks when they insta-leave though. You can always get it back if they stay.

On flop I don't mind cbet as you will often take it down here but don't think the 3 barrel was wise and would be looking to check the turn and river what are you beating here that bets for value. By the looks of it he is probably letting you bet for him and he succeeded with his line. If he would of raised the turn would you have called? He's only beat to Ak A8 KK so I'm surprised he didn't stick it in on the turn

What's the theory behind sizing down turn since he's short stacked? I don't follow your reasoning there. I would have done the opposite. V appears to be the tightest at the table but he does have a 3! range that's non trivial (actually surprised he didn't 3! AQss on a short stack) so when he flats OOP I think this is a great flop to cbet since we have all the strong Ax, Kx, and all the sets. V could be calling with Kx, and under pairs that may fold to a flop bet. When the turn pairs the Ace V is less likely to have an Ace so I would just ship the turn. He has 20.1 BB and the pot is 17.9 BB so it's only a slight overbet. Otherwise just x/f turn if you think he's only continuing flop with Ax. I think for our sizing pre and post V still has enough Kx to jam more often than giving up. Given our relative hand strength I don't like betting anything less than all in on the turn since remaining SPR is trivial. Maybe if we had a set and wanted calls we could size down but otherwise jam or x.

I agree with Cornbread, if you are willing to get you him all in, then you do it on the turn. I don't like the play, but i guess sizing down on the turn could be some pot control but likely the villian is going to stick it in when you check on the river since he called 40% of his stack on the turn.

Getting it in with only a second pair here is a bit ambitious, even though the opponent is short-stacked.

The thing is that he will never fold Ax here, and doubtfully will call something worse than Kx (anything can happen, but generally even the fish folds pocket pairs on AKxxx).

And if you think he's spewy enough to justify this line, just jam the turn.

First of all, you're pretty likely to get value from his flush draws.
Also one big bet looks more "bluffy" than two small ones, so he can make a random hero call.

poker_bro said:

Another ace on the Turn and I thought he doesn't have an Ace, so I double-barrel

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Conceptually this is probably the key mistake in the hand. Sure another ace on the turn makes it less likely, he has an ace, but it does not make it IMPOSSIBLE. There are still 2 unseen aces rather than 3, so its not like, this card completely changed the composition of his range and magically gave you the nuts.

Vlad Savchenko said:

And if you think he's spewy enough to justify this line, just jam the turn.

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Given how dry this board was (way ahead way behind spot), I think, the better line is to either check the flop or go for a small bet in line with the modern downbetting trend. By betting 2/3 pot we create an awkward pot geometry for the turn, and we dont give hands like his gutshot draws a tough decision.

fundiver199 said:

Given how dry this board was (way ahead way behind spot), I think, the better line is to either check the flop or go for a small bet in line with the modern downbetting trend. By betting 2/3 pot we create an awkward pot geometry for the turn, and we dont give hands like his gutshot draws a tough decision.

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Personally I'm a fan of polarized strategy OOP on these AKx boards, so yeah, I agree with checking
As for 1/3 pot - it just seems to be an imbalanced bet, working almost everywhere against everyone, so it can't be bad either
Instead hero sort of went for a polarized size with a merged range, and then sized down, breaking the logic of the hand completely. My main point was that Kx is generally too weak for that flop bet, and if hero decides to go for value like that, he should stick to it and at least get max from draws

Fold preflop.

As played, betting flop is ok. if you really think he has no ace, then you must check-call turn. check-folding is fine too. Barreling makes no sense.

I would check the flop.

Given your line I don’t like the turn barrel.
You could easily rep an ace by checking.
Hence I would XF turn and XF river if turn goes XX