Top pair medium kicker on the turn, Poker Stars Sunday Million

A lot of people will opt for a pot-control check here, and that’s probably not wrong. However, the range that you need to worry about here is pretty thin: 99, A9, AJ, possibly AQ and rarely AK. The range that you can extract value from that will likely check behind if you check is wider, although not by a ton - weaker suited aces and some pocket pairs.

I think it’s probably close, but the dry nature of this board lets you be a little more aggressive than you might be otherwise, since your opponent is less likely to raise you with a weaker hand. You might also be able to throw off your opponent, who would probably expect you to try and get a single pair to showdown as cheaply as possibly and might call you down a little lighter than usual when you don’t follow that line. I like a bet of a little under half pot and another river bet around the same area if you get called.

What actually happened: bgame153 checked and STL bet 90k. bgame153 called and the river brought another 3. bgame153, STL bet 120k, bgame153 called and STL showed A5 for a chopped pot.

By not leading the flop, the hero lost control of the hand and thus had difficult decisions the whole hand. Leading the hand, if you get called or raised gives more information and maybe lets you control pot size better. If he comes over the top I call and reevaluate after the turn.

I think this guy range is pretty wide and you dont have to fear any big pair,he would have raised preflop to negate the blinds good odds.
I think his most likely holding is a low to medium pair or to faces.

I´d go for a check raise.On this drawless board I think you made a good job on the flop leaving him to take the iniciative(Personally I would have led out for about 3/4 of the pot).Once I got part of his chips in,I think is time to charge him with a LIGHT reraise of just 2-2.5x trying to buy him into the pot,building a nice pot at this stage.If called follow with a 1/2 pot bet in the river.

I really don’t like the call on the flop. That was the best opportunity to check raise and see where you were at. By giving up that chance, it’s a little tougher to pull it off on the turn, because it will get you dangerously close to being pot committed if he comes back over the top of your check raise. Despite that, his smallish flop bet indicates some weakness; likely a suited connector 9 or maybe a weak ace, but not too much else to be worried about probably. I voted bet 2/3 of pot and see what he does.

The guy’s first bet is so small it usually indicates what is known as a “probe” or probing bet. He’s basically asking, do you have anything? A9 is somewhat of a concern perhaps, but I’m not sure if he’d bet out that size on the flop after you check to him. In fact, I’m not sure why you checked to him on the flop. Throw out a 1/2 pot sized bet and make him decide if his decision to play A5 on the button just because he has position is smart

I agree with brad, by check/calling the flop you denied yourself a lot of information. Considering that we did check the flop I would either lead half pot or check/call to try and control the pot, if he makes a big bet/raise you’re in a tough spot