Been playing shorthanded for like 8 hours with villain. He's an Asian man who doesn't give a crap about money and likes to play extremely aggressive, never folds on any streets, and his favorite thing to do is make insane bluffs just so he can show the table.

3 handed $5/$10
Button ($1,000)
Hero small blind ($1,750)
Big Blind ($2,000)

Button folds
Hero limps KK
(just sticking to my plan of limping my whole range here)
BB raises to $30
Hero 3bets to $120
Bb calls

Flop ($240) 853
Hero bets $150
Villain calls

Turn ($540) 9
Hero bets $315
Villain calls

River ($1,160) 4
Hero checks
Villain snap moves allin
Hero ??? $1,150 to call

Can you give us an idea of what the bottom of this opponent's value range is on the river?

Good question. It's really tough for me to say though. I don't expect him to have many thin value bets here, it's possible he would even check behind a straight. He isn't the type to value bet thinly. We played a pot earlier where he checked behind turn with AK on Td8dQxJd after I lead flop and then checked it to him on turn, then he just flat my 1/2 pot bet on the river.

I think he raises 76 on the turn almost always, so it's probably a flush or nothing here 90% of the time, and maybe 10% he shows up with a slowplayed set or 2 pair.

It's really hard for him to have a missed draw which sucks, but the problem with him is that he doesn't play that way. Like, he could be floating twice with KQo. There's also a good chance he turns an 8 into a bluff here,

I guess there would be three other things I'd think a lot about here.
1. Any physical tells picked up from previous bluffs.
2. (and this is probably the most telling) How often he would be semi bluffing his two over+fd/Pair+fd/straight+flush draw hands(because a ton/almost all the of flush draw combos are going to fit this mold on this particular board)
3. His recently bluffing history and how he thinks that will affect his image here.

Given your description of the opponent and that, in regard to #2, I do feel like he will be raising his combo draws earlier a ton here. I think I'm leaning toward calling.

I think it is really close but probably a fold what would he float with? He prob called with spades and got there. Who would float two streets like this with air? Also could he play 10-QQ like this. You said he checked back a straight on a flush board so prob not. Just fold. It's tough though

There is a chance that he is running another crazy bluff but nearly everything gets there so I think it's best to just fold and wait for a better spot which it sounds like he will provide.

hero snap calls

- no 4 straight on the board
- villain's description

i feel if we check this river against this type of villain, we are checking to induce a bluff so id have to call it off here. id rather bet/fold than x/f in this spot because we have more nut flushes in our range than villain so a raise over a river bet is now almost never a bluff and always value heavy

think you answered your question in the villain description

Agree - he may show you a flush or A-2 but based on the description of V he does not have to have the goods to shove instantly.

This. I can't imagine folding given your description of villain.

you set yourself up to play for stacks

Do you think villain call twice with hands like TJ? Does he turn 56 into a bluff OTR? If so, seems like an easy call. If villain is a bit less floaty and less likely to turn pairs into a bluff, I'd probably give it to him. Pretty hard for him to have complete air balls.

seems like a pretty easy call

yes this.

Why not overbet pot or at least bet full pot on flop turn on this board vs this type of villain.

open pre
bet bigger flop&turn

also stacks are strangely pretty shallow for being shorthanded for EIGHT hours..

nice read to have.

Surprised no one else is finding this to be a colossal mistake.

Since he's not folding, why not open raise and get value from your big hand? This also opens it up for him to make an insane bluff.

Luckily, he raised for you, but that's lucky for you.

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like the general consensus is that it wasn't as close as I thought, but idk still seems tough even vs maniac given there aren't really any missed draws. I did end up calling and won.

I somewhat agree, although I don't want to telegraph my hand strength and it might cause him to make less mistakes if I start bombing it. He's not an idiot.

We had just changed the game from 5/5 to 5/10.


He'd been raising 80-90% in position when it was limped to him. I don't want to be raising hands like 98s etc knowing I'm likely to be 3bet, so I prefer to limp/call those medium strength hands and balance it with the occasional strong limp. Not saying it's right just explaining the reasoning. I can't really see it being a "colossal mistake" though unless I was doing it every time or something. I shouldn't have said "my whole range" because that's not true.

if you think about it there aren't many flushes in his range.

with some frequency he likely 4b pre or raises flop with Axss

he raises flop with 67ss

he raises turn with 79ss and JTss and maybe QTss

Preflop nice 4x raise

Flop cbet could have squeezed 175 185 as I doubt there is a hand he can have that will call 150 and fold for 185.

Turn- Once I know the fish is on the line I yank it hard. Bet 395 at least and maybe 425 since THIS type villain will see it as trying to push him out rather than value I would guess.

Since we have about pot left, and V is more prone to bluff off this 1100 than call with it, i say checking was best and calling would be standard vs him.
The only reason I would ponder a bit on river would be that the V cannot have many hands that have no SDV thus why bet unless it is value. An 8 checks back as well as any one pair hand. Straight and flush both get there SO have we seen him turn pairs into bluffs like this?

This is a fairly cruel situation since....

A. We have a V who LOVES to bluff

B. He should not show up with many bluff combos though as he would have some SDV always OR have made a real hand.

Is he turning a 5 or 8 into a bluff 33% the time? Well personally I think you have found a very neutral situation here. I think you could flip a coin and do fine. Fold or call will show about the same results overall IMO.

I will say that if i bet the 425 on turn though, then its more likely he really has one of the legit draws and thus it could swing it to a fold on river.