SICK SPOT With Trips Versus a NIT - Do You Call? 

How do you play versus a Nit? Also, check out my latest video for poker beginners on the best strategy to make $20 a day: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YkM-OJHTAp4.html

Even without seeing a showdown, I feel very confident, Villain 13 flopped a set in this hand. What does he even cold call pre second to act, when the gap between his VPIP and PFR is only 1%? Typically such a small gap imply a very setmine heavy kind of cold calling range. If he also cold call with hands like KJ, the gap would be much larger. And then he come right out raising the flop with deep stacks and one more guy left to act after him. This is for sure not KJ, and at 2NL I also dont think, very many regs play a draw that aggressively. On the turn he bet a bit less than half pot, because now he filled up and dont want to scare draws away. If he wanted folds, his bet would have been larger. And then on the river he overbet jams, hoping that Hero has exactly, what he has. So I think, Hero made a good disciplined laydown on the river. However I will say, that in my opinion Hero did not even need to get involved at all. Sure AJ is a hand, I would always open at 6-max and usually even at full ring. But when the first two players have both entered the pot, and you are next to act, that changes things, and its actually ok to play rather tight and mostly just get out of their way. As played I can even be on board with folding the flop, sick as it sound. We only invested 2,5 BB to see the flop, and even though we got the kind of flop, we wanted, this is NOT the action, we wanted. Action matter and especially so in multiway pots, when you get squeezed between players raising each other. To cold call a raise, you need a really strong hand, and top pair top kicker is not all that strong. Which is part of the reason, why its fine to just get out pre, because what are we even trying to hit with AJ, that we are completely happy with? On a flop like this, there is always the risk, the original raiser could have an overpair, and both of them could have flopped a set.

Well, from my experience on NL2 - NL5 it's definitely an easy Fold on the Flop right away just because of the fact that we are vs a Nit (who usually does not raise the Flop with smth smaller than TopTwo and even more often a Set) and especially when the Nit raises in the middle between two Opps. To do that he must be so confident of his hand that i highly doubt he would have raised with just a Flush draw. On the contrary the Nit himself was afraid of somebody having FD, that' why he was raising immediately. The longer i play the more i come back to the general idea that in most cases it's better to make a simple plan on earlier street and stick to it no matter what! Otherwise in my opinion you'll be spewing money more often than not in such dubious spots! As was played however it was ok to Fold on River facing overbet, but still it costed the hero around 80 cents and made him come through potentially unsettling moment. Why chasing a higher boat if you know he has it and you can get away so cheaply? Sooner or later things will be reversed and you will have boat vs trips and not many Opps are able to lay it down. Great players know that and just wait for their chance. These "hero folds" ultimately make big difference separating just winners and big winners. Poker is largerly a game of waiting and superhuman discipline whether it's good or not.

Interesting hand. I think that while calling PF is acceptable, it's the worse of all options. I'm either 3-betting or folding; I like the 3B because I'm in position and the dynamic of the third player works to my advantage. V12 will be hesitant to call because there's action behind and we know V13 with a PFR of 17 flat-called, so the *top* of that range is a small pocket pair. So, other than having a top-top hand like AA or KK, this scenario is perfect for a third bet PF; all the elements are in place to show some strength and initiate control of the hand. There's basically no downside to the 3B; I'm going to take it down right away a high percentage of the time and if the hand sees a flop then the other players have told me everything I need to know.

I folded on the flop for the following reason: 1) People tend to play more straight forwardly in multiway pots. There is a bet and a raise in front of me. This usually means someone can beat top pair. 2) The guy making the re-raise is nitty. He can almost always beat top pair (I didnt put him on AJ or KJ bc nits wouldnt reraise that.) The only hands I could put him on that were beating his nut flush draws 3) calling doesn't guarantee me turn. Villain 12 can have a hand and re-raise again. 4) If I do call and get to the turn, and the turn is a brick, and there is action again, how happy am I? Not very

Well, preflop looks standard, and I agree with mixing in 3-bets with AJo in this spot. On the flop though I'd rather fold (yes, even TPTK). Nits are by definition people who have nutted hands when they start raising/betting, and as crazy as it sounds, NL2 nits will almost always have 22/66 here (there's only 1 combo of JJ, and this hand should 3-bet preflop), when they raise cbet with 1 person left to act. Calling isn't bad though, and after we pick up J on the turn, we have some equity. One thing to mention - we have 7 outs + 1 "death card" instead of 10 outs: vs 66 we have three deuces, jack (which we won't get paid on since it negates nit's full-house), three aces and we die on 6 since it gives our opponent quads. Calling the turn is reasonable (we have position vs the strong range, 7 outs and 121bb as a potential reward). After facing river jam I'd fold as well since we didn't improve

A reg nit does not raise this flop with anything less then a set. Its as simple as that. Like a nit that has a 18vp and only calls this guy preflop. He would have raised AA KK QQ AK or maybe even AQ. Hes a nit reg.... so he has probably got a small pair or maybe but less likely suited connectors. So when you have AJ on this flop.....and he knows you are a respectable player...nits tend to know that....then he is not raising here without a set when you have AJ blocked. Fold the flop. Better spots will come.

As played, I fold flop, like a nit. 😟

I think its a clear fold on the flop, because of our Jack. He would only play a set or a flush draw like this. Our Jack takes away a lot of hands from his flushdraw range like QJ J10 KJ AJ of clubs. So a set is way more likely there.

Hi Nathan, Great review again! Especially when I'm always struggling with my AJ :) You say at 5:22 (in the annotation) that 6 and 2 are outs but I don't understand. If another 6 or 2 hit the board, he'll have four of a kind and hero will have a full house so Hero would still be behind. Am I missing something? Cheers! and keep'em coming! :)

Fold on the flop seems quite the easy decision here, glad to see so many people seeing that.

FWIW just had twice in one session two players call like this slow playing AA and KK. I got stacked both times as they were both fish 30+ / 5 VPP-PFR. Each time I had JJ and QQ respectively. Never saw it coming from a fish. So makes me wonder, possible they were slow playing an overpair hoping to get squeezed?

These nits always play the same game. Calling behind preflop with baby pairs. Raising the Flop and so on. The Flop has been fairly dry. So it's definitely a Set. Most nits want to take draws for free or cheap. I probably would have folded on the Flop. The turn was the worst because it makes you more sticky when hitting trips. But great fold on the River. I think 3betting AJ in this situation Pre-Flop would have been better. Depending on the UTG of course. Tight players rarely call 3bets with baby pairs. Great Video by the way. I love your content it really improved my game. Thanks for your efforts.

I am a noob at poker but I'm desperately trying to learn by watching all your stuff BlackRain79. I joined a Unibet poker, good for recs as no huds allowed, and you can keep changing your username and the rake is 1% I believe at micros. This would be a hard fold for me really, unless I have clues from previous hands of course. I noticed player types can standout without a HUD after a few hands and that is all I have to go on. If I knew he was a NIT I would still struggle to fold a hand like the example given, even though I felt bad about the situation.

Nice fold. I dont think i would of folded there haha. Hero also has the J diamonds, making it more likely villain is raising for value.

I think AJs Kjs QJs JTs are also possible...

I mostly play full ring. I guess 18/17 is probably kinda nitty at 6 max, it would be pretty solid at full ring. No gap between VPiP and PFR also makes him look pretty solid, so I'm sure some of his hands will fold to a three bet, and others will come over the top and AJ becomes an easy fold to a 4 bet. It would be great to three bet him off hands like AJ. I'd like to also know his three bet and fold to three bet, and I'd probably just three bet pre flop.

I think folding preflop or squeezing as a bluff (if you think you have enough fold equity) is better, on the flop I will fold my tptk facing a cbet and a raise from a nit

I would definitely put him on a set on the flop. Even though he seems nitty he’s never going to fold his set and when he boats up on the turn he’s going to always go for max value.

How Villain plays this 90% exactly pocket 22, 66, TT. And he plays against Fish and tried to down the Hero. imho.

Great fold, all around pretty good plays maybe could of folded flop forsure, the turn was not the best card but, the fold on the river was great.

I would have called because I feel like villan 13 possibly picked the river to bluff. On that street, AJ would have been a strong enough hand for me to just call.

can u tell a poker hud which shows live pot odds 🙄

So who are the villains that hero should call a shove on the river? Maniacs I guess? Or other very aggressive types as well?

Yeah the nit re-raise on the flop is usually very bad news even for TPTK. A fold for me.

poker n00b here. love the videos. found this video after doing the same exact thing...except i get stacked. Here's how my still-forming dumb poker brain will try and view this moving forward ( tell me if it's dumb..writing things out helps me think about it better ) : * don't fall too in love with TPTK..it's a good hand but not GREAT...have to get it thru my thick skull not to fall in love with TPTK (or even 2 pair) too too much . my biggest losses are usually from overvaluing these kind of hands. * if we know he's a nit he's probably not messing around he's got SOMETHING here when he bets like THAT. Small chance this kind of guy is chasing a flush or something wacky. >> ...is that something i'd want to mess with? i'm probably going to have to spend a good portion of my stack to "find out". so probably no. no real advantage here. >>> so i'd want to fold the raise on the re-raise on the flop There's always more hands. try and get better EV from worse, looser players, why put your stack under stress here? * Turn: would a nit really big risk bluff it here? probably no. but it would be hard to fold after that card hits. it's so shiny to us, can't believe it. it'd be very hard to turn my dumb-dopamine gambling brain off here. >> but once again...now it's kind of confirmed via his bet here, he's either doing a crazy bluff (which would be out of character for him) , or he's value betting us and we'll have to spend most of our stack to find out. * River: dude probably has the nuts. my dumb gambler brain would have a much more difficult time folding if he bet less here - like $1.25 . pot odds would have been

I would have raised preflop, seeing no reason, why i would have to call the limpings. I would have fold the river, because of seeing a Fullhouse with 66 or 22. The preflop play would fit here.

Is there any chance that this guy has pocket AA's?

wer d u play multitables cash micro stakes.. pokerstars or 🙄

I think folding the flop is best here as sad as it feels with top pair top kicker. Nit is screaming they have us crushed when they raise the flop so get the heck out of the pot.

Nathan I just referred to my magic 8-Ball & as it turns out Capt Picard was absolutely wrong. That should have been a DOUBLE face-palm instead ;)

I think its pretty obvious, by how the 'nit' played, that he had 2s/6s or TJ. Its the only hands that he would have flat called preflop and then 3 bet that flop. He would have opened with JJ, and he's not really playing anything else that would hit this flop. I really think 3bet on the turn would have been a good move. At that point youre the favorite, so why not get the money in when its good?.. Anyway, on another note, do you think the villain made a mistake by shoving the river? I was thinking he may have been better off with a check/raise or even a smaller bet, make it look like a value bet (even though it is), hope our hero 3bets and then we shove? Just thinking the villain didnt get enough out of this hand.

I would just fold the flop here. In my experience, a NIT has the nuts here 99 % of the time or else he would just call. Maybe if he's like super aggresive (and he had a high AF) he would raise but in generall, I don't think so. But the most intresting part is when Villian ships on the river we get 1:83 on a call needing 35 % EQ. With AsJd against 66, 22, KJs, KJo we actually have 40 % EQ. And if we add QJ we get even more 57 %. I would not put him on a J10 hand beacuse I don't think that he would reraise the flop with such a marginal kicker. However, I would still fold this even if I had this math knowledge because of the player type. It's just not worth it getting involved. Go for the fish instead.

He had AA

I'm 3 betting that flop against a nit. If he has me beat he puts it in for an easy fold. Taking the line that was taken in the video I'm calling... I'm Just not good enough to fold when I'm that strong.

So weird watching the video and reading the comments here. I only play micro stakes, so Im not a pro, but I have a very healthy winrate at the micros and I would happily snap call this river every single time. Will I be beat 50 or even 60% of the time? Sure, but I won't fold the very north pole of my range ever, not even at 2nl. Even the dumbest and weakest recreational micro stakes NIT can pick up on that.

Or. just fold on flop and only lose $0.05 total...

I would probably call but not be happy about it.

yea i agree i think he had pocket of 66

naw - he folded to either QQ, KK, or same hand A/J. Should have called. I see the NIT raising on the flop with over pairs.

Fold pre

do you think that he will do the same thing with QJ TJ or KJ thats the question?

easy call

Nit had 54 diamonds that he triple barrels. 😬

We know he"s a nit preflop but could he be making this play with queens

I dont understand , why you call turn , and then fold to a river shove , what do you want from him, he checkraises the flop, bets turn and probably 100% is shoving river, if you gonna call the turn bet and fold to a river shove- it makes no sence just fold on the turn , if you think that he has a set you have 4 outs- you are hoping that he will check the river or bet small i dont get it sorry.