Quote:
Originally Posted by Donovan
For example;
If you open raise from late position and your opponent calls from the bb and you get to a flop of Kc9d8s maybe you would like to check the flop back with hands like A9s, TT, JJ, and maybe even QQ. If you are deep enough, your opponent could exploit your capped range by making a big bet on the turn with a wide and polarized range and then making a big bet (these are often going to be over bets) maybe even he goes 2 time pot on the turn and rips it all in for 2x pot on the river. He can create a range that has all his value hands (anything Kx or better) and balance that with a ton of bluffs and he can effectively capture the entire pot in EV.
What can you do to stop him??
Add some traps to your check back range.
I think you're right about the concept, but that board doesn't work as a great example. If we're going with something like 1/2 pot for c-betting in this spot, I don't think there's any need to check back any hand better than KQ. Sets are very clear bets for value, as are K9/K8/98s, AA, AK and probably KQ. Bear in mind that villain should 3-bet pre with his best Kx, plus 99/88 at some frequency too, so we have a huge "nut advantage". By checking back some KJ, KT, and all K7s-K2s, we've already got plenty of bluff-catchers that protect our check backs with QQ-TT, 9x, 8x etc. Also note that those check-back hands will sometimes improve to trips or two pairs on the turn, or pick up a backdoor draw with our pair, allowing us to realize equity easily. It will be very hard for villain to bomb turn and river as a bluff when we have so many combos that don't fold, and - on most turn cards - he'll only be repping a tiny handful of monsters.
Even on a bad turn card like say the Tc, if villain bets 2x pot (repping QJ/J7s/76s, and balancing with random air or backdoors), we have some of those straights (J7s and 76s could certainly check back flop), we make a set with TT, two pairs with KT, pick up some backdoor NFDs w/ hands like A9cc/A8cc, have a pr+SD with KJ etc etc.
In short, we don't need to check back sets when we have so many other hands with which to call villain's bluffs. In this spot, our sets want to build big pots, starting on the flop.
On another board where we don't have "nut advantage", we
might be more inclined to slowplay/pot-control. In the vast majority of cases when you're in position as the PFR, however, you should be c-betting the top of your range, since that's how you maximise your winrate with your best hands, and also allows you to bluff in the same spot.