Villain (covers) - Pro player, we have a ton of history. Preflop he has a tight/solid vpip but he will play the hands he does play very aggressively. He will make some borderline spewy 3bets/4bets/5bets. Post flop he is excellent at hand reading and exploiting opponents.... doesnt spew nearly as much. Still capable of all moves but his lines are usually well executed and thought out.

Hero ($1600) - Villain perceives hero to be tighter than we actually are. He will overfold to us a bit. But in general he views us as a solid thinking player.

8 handed.

Hero is UTG +1 w/ TT and raises to $35
Villain in CO calls.
Blinds fold.

Flop ($85): KQJ

What is our general plan for this board? Should we bet, c/c or c/r?

In my opinion
I approach this type of situation with check. I block his nuts AsTs but he has a all the QJ KQ AQ AJ KJ QT JT in his range and betting will just no accomplish anything then making the pot big with an under pair and a flushdraw who doesn't have very good implied but a lot of reverse implied odds.
Check/call should be profitable for at least 2 streets here (unless you face big overbets) because you have a pretty strong draw.
So my plan here is to check call the flop any bet size and based on the turn card and bet size decide what to do next.



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this is a board when you want to start developing a pretty large checking range so would start with a check
then id probably just shove vs a bet
if he checked back, id bet pot or over bet turn for like 150-200% and shove any river that doesnt change the nuts or improve my hand

Bet bet bef

more info on your opening range/his perception is important since whether you have hands like A9s-A2s matters range vs range and also gives a clue as to what he'd be flatting pre

in practice, just betting is probably the simplest/reasonable answer if you don't expect him to put a lot of thought into what hands you can actually be b/b/b ing on this board (esp considering blocker effects on his cont range - having/not having As is big)

tend to agree that r v r this would start with a check tho. weird spot, hope more people chime in.

Our table was pretty tough at the time so from early position I wouldn't be opening any suited aces lower then A9s. But it's difficult to say whether or not he knows this. If I decided to rep an ace high flush w/ AQ or AJ, at the very least he would be in a difficult spot and have a tough time figuring out what to do.

He will always put a lot of thought into what range I have w/ the line I take.

He definitely knows I will open lower suited connectors with some frequency so I can have some low flushes. I expect him to be doing the same thing with his flatting range, so he will sometimes have low flushes as well.

Bet big

For everyone saying bet I assume it's b/c if raised, so then are you c/c all non paired turns?

betting flop is pretty dumb imo

I appreciate those who posted their thought process instead of just saying, "bet." Let's move on to the interesting part of the hand.

Hero: TT

Flop ($85): KQJ

Hero checks.
Villain bets $50.
Hero calls.

Turn ($185): 5

Hero checks.
Villain checks.

River ($185): T

Hero checks.
Villain bets $100.
Hero ??

During the hand I had similar reasons as others have mentioned here to take a check/call line. But now that the hand has played out this way, we're kind of in no man's land on this run-out. And I'm wondering if barreling 3 streets on blank turns/rivers would have been a better line?

What should we do now as played?

as played id prolly c/f river

I also play the same and c/f river

Nh, now fold.

why?

fwiw, despite the villain description, i would not expect him to defend very wide or aggressively (including floats) vs a bet here when hero is a tight ep opener. as such, we will realize more equity than we otherwise would be able to when betting (both by him folding flop and us seeing more turns/rivers/showdowns); i am not suggesting that betting TsTx is gto.

+1 ... c/c entire range on this board seems correct

This hand does particularly well in a specific setup, namely 9 falls and villain holds the A. You will stack villain in this event. The rest of the possible runouts are largely no action if you make your hand. E.g. if you make a flush and its winning you wont get paid off. Similarly if you make the straight. If you get action you're likely behind as well, and losing skalnsky bucks. Therefore keep the pot small (e.g. c/c) and jam if you see the 9. I would play as you played.

-I´m not a pro-

I always bet these mono flops because in my experience villain will just fold a huge % of his range. He called in CO, so why not make him fold all his PPs and non-spade SCs ?

And i call river unless i know for sure that he will never make funny value bets. I couldn´t resist and bet AQ if i was him.

I don't even think that's necessarily true if there's not been much action prior to the 9s hitting turn or river. If you hold As on Ks Qs Js 9s board and get a ton of action you're hoping someone has the 8s for value?

+1

Yeah, with this SPR you will not stack a pro. Also that's exactly one outer for that setup.

Like with a huge bet what does it look like? It's not like the villain doesn't have the Ts in his range also.

Because only better will call and the exact hands that you want villain to fold have a really bad equity (like 94 %-6 % for you favor) against this particular hand. In general though I agree that mono flops are great place to bet as a pre-raiser.

If we're bluffing all day at these types of flops and then we check-call with precisely these types of hands, then we become very easy to play against. OOP on the flop is not the type of spot where you want to turn your hand face-up as a bluff-catcher. And on this particular board there is little downside to just betting the flop, even aside from just disguising your hand, because your opponent is unlikely to raise with many hands that don't have you drawing to just one out and because you do have a chance of folding out some better hands (AJ and J9 in particular). The dynamics with the villain (excellent handreader and postflop player, but will fold too much to hero) enhance all of those points.

I'd really only ever check this flop against players who are quite bad, specifically the types who will always fire once when checked to and then play very predictably on future streets. Or the type of player who makes a lot of spewy flop raises which are terrible against our range but happen to be perfect against this particular hand that we have.

?

I do have b/f, c/c, c/f and even c/r range against special ones on this board. I'm not c-betting this particular flop 100 % of the time. Mono-color flops are typically better for pre aggressor's range.

This hand is just part of my c/c range here which contains more than just bluff-catchers.

Pretty much this. Most of the other advice in this thread is bad imo.

Also those who assume we can play passively on the flop and then stack a good pro who holds the A if the 9 falls are likely wrong. It's not obvious to me that a good pro would get stacked in that spot unless he thought that OP had decided to rep the A himself. A lot of players in OP's spot will bet the flop if they hold a hand like AQx.

I think either betting the flop or checking is fine. I think it all depends on current dynamics. Leading toward betting since we opened. On the turn, I don't mind the check. with the intent to call one more. That's a bad river. going to have to c/f most likely...

this is a one street game.

I don't think 3 barrel is wise from this flop as once we got called by a non bluffy vilain, TJo should be bottom of his range.

bet flop and once called I am done with the hand because 3 barrelling only folds the bottom of his range unless u go for heavy 3 barrels...

You only beat As9o ..... or pure float if vilain called legitimately