V has been pretty active postflop. I saw him give up a bluff earlier after opening 8x utg+1, barreling twice hu and checking river (KQ on T86J6). I saw him triple barrel and instamuck earlier, too (and fwiw it was a good spot). I seem fit or fold. I start hand with ~5k, V covers.

I open AQo to 40 utg+1, V flats mp1 all fold.

Flop (80) J96r

I bet 60, V raises to 140. I flat.

Turn (360) 4 completing rainbow.

I check, V leads 320, I flat pretty quick.

River (1000) K

I check, V bets 780 without much thought.

I scrap my plan and fold.

I don't really understand why you peel the flop, just because you've seen the guy bluffing before.

Peeling flop is fine but why call turn?

C/f flop, fold to flop raise, fold to turn bet.

What if we had AJ? (It's basically the same hand, is what I mean). Are we just c/f everything except overpairs? And are we never c/c turn to let V barrel off?

Sts/Alcatel, I don't really think of this as a peel.

Ace high is not the same as TPTK (even against a raise on this flop).
Not just because of handstrength, but also because you block topset, 2pairs etc, and obviously your equity against villains air is much greater.

You don't have to bet flop with AJ either. Mega spew to bet/call this texture with AQ imo, easy x/fold.

I'm fine with c-bet/folding or checkfolding here. Maybe even check/calling (but most likely not considering this board is gonna suck usually). But bluffcatching AQ high for a raise on the flop here oop just sucks on a lot of runouts + the fact that we are wrong sometimes. You thought that this was +EV, why? What range did you give him and what runouts are you planning on calling down?

Basically, you're at a large range disadvantage on this flop. MP coldcalling range should be quite tight and almost every part of it should have at least a gutter on this board. Sets and overpairs make up a much larger percentage of his range than yours. If you're trying to play something resembling optimal strategy, the large majority of your range should be checking here.

Check/folding AQo doesn't mean you are never c-betting here, it's just a low quality bluff. Your equity when called is terrible, and your only natural bluffing turn card is the K. Your overcard outs are much more valuable vs his check-back range.

As for better choices, KQ, KTs, QTs, T8s, and 87s should constitute most of your bluffing range. You could also add hands like AQs/ATs (with BFD) or possibly AK.

Thanks, this makes a lot of sense.

I guess I thought I was +EV as I expected V was raising flop and barreling off all his draws with no SD value, ie 78, QT, and KQ. So I was basically snapping off anything that didn't complete one of those hands.

Thanks, good point about the blocking aspect.

Agree with posts ITT, this is basically the worst hand to take this line with.

Not having balanced (in perception at least) check/calling ranges hu as pfr is an epidemic imo. And so people cbet everything to protect from getting bluffed.

Cbets in this day and age should be for value or almost always as part of a plan for more aggression imo. People just don't fold flops like they used to. And check calling 2 overs (on better textures than this) is no crime, especially if you check/call with pairs and stuff sometimes too.

In this hand I think you should c/f flop. As played, I don't hate calling the initial raise and never putting another chip in (because his flop raising range is so polarized and the part that isn't strong/made so often takes a free card and shuts down river).

OP, instead of thinking about his bluffing range and how you can call down on brick runouts (bricks will be hard to come by on this texture anyways), think about it like this.

You want to have a betting range (value and bluff), a checking/calling range, and even sometimes a check/raising range. What people forget about is that to have the latter two, you also need a 4th range, a check/folding range.

1) Your value betting range should be 9x+
2) Your bluffing range should be the range Renton listed
3) Your check/calling range can be top pair+ and sometimes some hands from #2
4) Your check/raising range can be bottom/middle set and hands from #2

Think about your utg1 range and just how much of that is utilized above. To protect all of those hands in all of those beautiful ranges, you need

5) your check/folding range. AKo/AQo make great hands for x/folding here

Once you view your hands like this, they get a lot easier to play. Instead of thinking "this guy is bluffing a ton I can call him down here" you can think "lolz, little does he know how strong my checking range is here. Here you go boy, have a bone. I'll fold one of 24ish hands that are in my folding range here...out of the billion that are continuing and have your range dominated"

Also remember that 9x with connector flops touch the majority of all calling ranges. Flops like 793, 9T4, 9Q2. These smash mp calling ranges.

Raise the river huge, what's he going to call with?

Awesome, thanks for the detailed breakdown.

If I tank c/r to 2200, what am I repping besides KK?

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QT of course but cr river vs this guy seems dumb.

3 bet flop or fold. If your image was ****tier like mine usually is river is fantastic for bluffing 2k on top and make sure everyone sees if you get called.

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say, glad I scrolled down a few posts. Doing something other than check folding flop is a possibility but not if you're gonna check call any turn.

yea peeling flop is ok i guess, would need to of seen villain bluff raise dry flop before. but on turn he just don't have air here as there aren't many bluffs he can have