Middle 2p vs aggro rec player 5/10/20 live
Hey guys. Game is 5/10 with a mandatory straddle at aria. We are playing 4 handed.

Hero: Standard mid 20s kid in a hoodie. I play 5/10 for a living but this game is admittedly out of my bankroll and experience. I'm not used to playing 10/20 so the $ might have influenced my thought process in a negative way during the game.

Villain: Rec player, likes to gamble. Very friendly. A few hands prior he had minraised my flop cb on a K93 flop after calling 100 from straddle and seeing flop 3way. Bets 1/3 pot IP on turn 8o, then bombs 1250 into a pot of 1500 on river 6. I folded but he said he had 66 and thought I would be a nit and fold any pair to that line but 'accidentally' got there on the river. However he never showed his hand.

Hero raises BTN to $70 with 9cTc. Eff stacks $2500
Villain calls from SB, fold, fold.
Flop 9hThJc (pot $170)
Hero bets $120, Villain c/r to $430. Hero calls.
Turn Ao (pot $1030)
Villain bets $800 after tanking for some time.

First question is can we peel another card here? Obviously I did call but this might be where I should have folded since many rivers are going to be impossible to play. I'm starting to think that if we were deeper and had more implied odds on boating up that this is an easy call, but only having around 60bbs behind going to the river doesn't seem good in retrospect.

River 2o (pot $2630)
Villain ships for $1200
Hero? Seems like I have to call off this price on blank river. So turn is where the hand is decided I guess.

Any advise here playing against villains like this? I had a hard time ranging him (and maybe leveled myself from the prior hand). We block both of the likely sets and villain would certainly raise JJ preflop, and probably some nonzero combos of KQ. I know FDs are in villains range on the turn at least, but since he would likely check A high hearts we can discount a lot of those bluff combos unfortunately. Thoughts?

i can't think of any value hands he plays like this that we can beat except maybe AQh. that being said i fold the turn. as played, i think we have to call in case he ever has a random bluff, QT, QJ, busted hearts that he is getting cute with.

Ez fold turn

Bottom 2 on this flop against a c/r is purely a bluff catcher. Since he's 3! pre with 99+ AQs+ I would say the worst hand he shows up with here is Qxhh/Jxhh which is actually a favorite against your hand. I doubt he's ever doing this with Axhh except AJhh/A8hh. His sizing looks like he's ready to GII as fast as possible. I'm folding this flop TBH, almost no turn cards improve your hand and you have to fade the entire deck twice from someone who is likely to fire 2 more big bullets. Maybe it's nitty BTN vs Blinds to fold bottom 2 here but if you call flop you need to commit to calling 3 streets I think.

Information regarding the 666 hand (and what he said to you) makes me want to fold a lot more than had you not said that. I doubt he's telling you he thinks you're a nit and that he was gonna run a big bluff on you and then 5 mins later deciding to run a big bluff on you.

Either way I think turn is a fold, as we mostly only beat QJ, AQ.

So he min-raises, blocker bets and splashes a River in the 66? hand. So he wants you to believe that he actually laid out a 3 street plan for that hand .. interesting for a 'gambler'.

Now he changes things up and 3.5x c/r you on a very wet board ... I think I would love to play with this guy.

I think the Flop is fold or shove actually, mostly fold in order to pick a better spot. The value of bottom 2 pair seems to drastically drop when you move up the stakes ladder. I would have to hope that he has a decent fold button and he's never folding to a Turn shove, especially when he is probably going to lead out .. which he did.

He may be giving off a sizing tell based on the 2 hands. I 'want' to fold the Flop here but certainly understand the urge to call. What was his PF raising frequency and range? What cards are we actually going to like on the Turn?

With this game playing slightly bigger than your normal and ... could you have raised for less PF? Certainly want to play your holding on B 4-handed if you can .. no problem there.

I don't really like his tank either. A gambler who takes time to think is dangerous IMO. He is probably setting up for stacks with the Turn bet. I think, or at least he wants you to think, that he knows you hit your PF range and wants max value here. GL

I dunno if I'm just a nit this morning but I think you can fold flop. I'd certainly have folded if you didn't have backdoor clubs, as turning a 13 outer on ten turns is a pretty big deal. I just think you're in really bad shape vs his legitimate range, which includes between 36 and 48 unblocked straight combinations, and he actually needs to add a ton of air and weak hands to that range for this to be a call, when considering that your hand evaporates on any Jx xJ or xx runout. I would definitely fold turn and river as played.

Also there's a decent argument to bet smaller or check back flop, especially against the described player. I only like betting the flop if you believe there's a slam-dunk call of his raise, which I just don't think is possible. If you can call his raise, it's icky enough that you would rather have not induced it to begin with.

check flop, as played fold turn and river.

T9cc probably bets more often than the other T9 but id still check it here

I want to make this very clear. This is the biggest contribution I can make to this thread. He never had 66. Ever. When people tell you this absurd bs and don't show, 1) they never, ever, ever have what they claim. And 2), they had you beat. So yea I mean he prolly had 33 or w/e but you just can't let this stuff get to you.

Bc it will itch in your head. "Did this idiot seriously just go ballistic with 66? Did he then get there? Sigh". Even if you're super solid these weird little comments can itch at you. They're just so dumb.

Next time someone tells you they had "xx" and it's something stupid and they don't show, tell them you'll buy drinks for the whole table if he shows "xx"

Then apologize to the table on his behalf when he sheepishly mucks.

Id fold flop. I probably would have cbet but it's probably bad.