this hand bothers me

[ACynicalOptimist]

I have no idea whether I played this correctly or really badly. Criticism on all 3 streets please.

Cutoff is the reason this hand is difficult for me - he's a really bad/weak player. Villain is unknown and hasn't been out of line so far, but so I felt like he was isolating this bad player, in which case my hand has an equity edge vs. his 3-betting range.

6-handed.
Hero is BB with A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

CO raises, Button 3-bets, SB folds, Hero calls, CO calls.

Flop: 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Hero checks, CO checks, Button bets, Hero raises, CO folds, Button 3-bets.

Turn 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

River: 10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.


My muddled thoughts - should I have capped pre-flop? folded pre-flop? I tend to think that calling is fine with this hand.

Flop: don't see any other play it. this is exactly the kind of flop I'd want considering the other players' hands (unless CO has an 8, which I'd know immediately based on how he responds to my c-raise here, else I isolate button who I think I may have dominated)

Turn: this is aggravating. Ok, so my read on button thus far is like I said, post-flop he seems solid/straightforward so far, but he has played weirdly in blindwars (limping with a lot of hands, both weak and good ones) so I'm not convinced he isn't *capable* of getting out of line. That said, his bet here seems to indicate I'm behind, probably to some kind of pair...but I pick up a diamond draw so I obviously can't fold. Which brings us to the river...

River: the reason the turn was aggravating is because given the action thus far I don't think villain would be betting the turn and/or river with a hand that I have beat. But now the pot's pretty big and I want to make a crying call with the hope that he has AJ or KQ or something. I could see how some might argue that this is a "close fold" because of the 10, since now even if he was semibluffing with a hand I had beat like AT, paint-10, etc., I don't even beat any of those now.

eh, anyway. what do other people think

[villains_hero]

Assumed that both villains are not supernitty you should cap preflop. As you said you probably have an equity edge, so push it and take the initiative.

What kind of bad player is the CO? Stationlike, weak, maniac? This should have an effect on the way you handle this affair postflop. In most cases I would like a call on the flop, maybe a even a donk. Why did you raise?

From the button's perspective I like this spot a lot: Having the decent opponent sandwiched with the bad player behind him. Betting into them is fun.