Basic situation

[The Truth]

3 handed.

Button open limps, sb folds, you have T4o in the big blind.

Flop Q Q 5 rainbow

Do you donk or check? What determines your line.

Change board a little A 8 2

Donk or check? why?

blake

In hand 1 I would c/r a weak player and lead. In hand 2 I generally check-fold. Against most open limpers it's not worth it. If I put any money in I'd donk the flop and then give up if called.

[sthief09]

assuming no read on button and an upper middle limit game online

Q55 i bet. QQ5 i check. 3 handed it depends what youve done/shown down lately a lot i think. if 3 hands ago you bet here and had trips and showed them down, then bet. if youve been showing some bluffs lately, give up. but in general, id bet most A-Q high flops (unless theyre paired) because its easy to give up if i miss. if the board is QQ5 he could call with 87, 76, or A2 and you arent able to fire again with only one overcard.

A82 id bet. no draws, no chance for overs, and he didnt raise preflop on the button, so an A is unlikely.

my ideal flop would be K72, so the closer to that the better, and A82 is pretty close

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
In hand 1 I would c/r a weak player and lead. In hand 2 I generally check-fold. Against most open limpers it's not worth it. If I put any money in I'd donk the flop and then give up if called.

[/ QUOTE ]

youre ready to invest 2 BB into a 1.25 BB pot with one overcard? and if hes weak why are you checkraising that flop? isnt it more likely he has nothing? and why are you more apt to bluff on a 5-high board than an A-high one?

[baronzeus]

like josh said. checkfold hand 1. no way hes folding any 2 cards above 5, especially if he open limped on the button 3 handed.

bet fold hand 2. if he calls the flop you need to make the decision to fire again or not...i usually just c/f the turn but ive been finding that they fold the turn a lot to a bet.

This is obviously something I don't do too well. Something I noticed that can't be good is that I almost never donk the flop on these sorts of boards unless I'm bluffing. That has to register on some level with the regulars.

[The Truth]

As an aside, what the buttons limping range here is very important. The more hands you play with someone, the better you can get a feel for when to donk vs when not to donk.

Some guys that open limp on the button are seeing the turn regardless. bluff donking is futile.

I really dont like c/ring here hardly ever. You are investing alot, and once a fishy player has put a bet in on the flop, they are gonna peel pretty often. You are pot commiting him /images/graemlins/smile.gif

blake

[sthief09]

[ QUOTE ]
This is obviously something I don't do too well. Something I noticed that can't be good is that I almost never donk the flop on these sorts of boards unless I'm bluffing. That has to register on some level with the regulars.

[/ QUOTE ]


for one, i dont think many people will notice that. two, start playing your hands faster. i have given up slowplaying almost entirely. fastplaying makes so much more money

[sthief09]

one line that i take from time to time against the smarter lags is to check-call the flop, check the turn, folding to a bet, or betting the river if he checks behind the turn.

[The Truth]

[ QUOTE ]
This is obviously something I don't do too well. Something I noticed that can't be good is that I almost never donk the flop on these sorts of boards unless I'm bluffing. That has to register on some level with the regulars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, save the flop c/r for when he raised preflop. Just donk your made hands here as well as your bluffs.

blake

[Victor]

if im new at a table or have been getting respect i will bet both.

if i have been consistently fos and my opponents are playing back routinely i will not bet the first.

the cool thing about always betting here is that when you do actually flop something you get action, usually with a turn checkraise.

I hardly ever play 3 handed, but if I do, it's because I know my opponents well and I know they're bad. Without reads, I'm clueless here.

As a general assumption, button open-limpers are usually Loose Passive. That means the best way to play this hand in situation 1 is to just check and anticipate a free card fairly often. If the limper happens to be TAG, then he's either A) limping with a monster, in which case you wouldn't want to get involved or B) limping with the intentions of seeing a turn, in which case you wouldn't want to get involved.

In situation 2, both types of players (LPPs and TAGs alike) will fold to a bet a good percentage of the time. The TAG will fold about 90% and the LPP about 60%. If the TAG calls, just give up instantly. If the LPP calls, you can fire a 2nd barrel and expect some good results. Unfortunately, if you don't know your opposition, you don't know which one you're dealing with, which is exactly why 3 handed is sooo difficult without reads.