This hand combines two of my biggest trouble spots: playing deep and playing versus bluffy/unpredictable LAG regulars. I have lost a lot of money in these spots and hope you guys can help.

Reads
Hero - BTN ($450) - Just sat down at the table a couple orbits ago. I don't play at this casino too often lately, but there are a few regs at the table who probably know me as decent, tight player.

Villain - CO ($900) - Very aggressive regular who is very loose preflop, especially when deep. Plays draws aggressively, and have seen him pull off insane 3-street bluffs and melt-down when called. This happens to him often. We are friendly and he talks to me a lot "reg to reg" about strategy. He gives me credit as a tight player and has never bullied me or gotten too out of line with me previously.

On the hand immediately before this, he played against another tilting LAG regular and 3-bet all-in with A4dd on a KT3 flop with two diamonds. Diamond hit on the turn. They were 200bb deep. The other LAG raised the pot pre-flop, and this Villain donk/3bet him on the flop.

In a previous session, I've seen Villain limp in with Q3 and the board was AQ734. He raised flop, barreled 120 on turn, and 500 on river (huge overbet) and got called by A7. One caveat is that he was angry at his opponent in that hand, because she won a medium-sized pot off him right before that.

In another session, Villain called a raise with 42s and barreled the turn and river on an QQ3AK board after the flop checked through.

The Hand

3 limpers to me, including Villain in CO. I call with 9To. SB folds, BB checks.

Flop: Kh Qh Jd (~$10)

Checks to MP who bets $6, Villain calls, I raise to $30. Everyone folds, Villain calls which is expected. He can get very sticky post-flop and generally likes to hang around in big pots with any piece of equity.

I already have trouble reading him because I think he would play a flush draw more aggressively (as he did in the hand history above). I think he would raise with KQ, KJ, QJ or AT preflop. I put him on a lot of Kx and Tx. I am confident that a combo draw is raising 100% of the time.

Turn: 6h (~$70)

Villain checks, I make it $60 and get insta-raised to $145. I tank for quite a while, knowing that calling means I am playing for stacks. Hero?

I think if villain hand reads well at all, he knows you don't have any 2pr combos either, and your flop raise and turn near pot bet show a ton of strength and narrow your range to pretty much your exact hand, weak JXhh, and maybe nut flush draw if you aren't raising Axhh hands with this many limpers. Small turn raise looks like a made hand wanting to keep you around. Given the friendliness/non out of line behavior, as well as stack depth, I would probably just throw this away.

I would probably also bet smaller on turn (45ish). When the flush draw gets there, there's not really any draws left to charge, you are just vbetting a far from nut hand given board texture.

I guess we have to throw it away now. Im not often an advocate for pot control but I think this villain is capable of doing this with Ahx and maybe even some random 2 pair hands especially when he is steaming. I know on the face of it looks bad as we can get called by worse and we are giving a free card but given stack sizes and his propinquity for wild bluffing perhaps we can check the turn with the intention of calling the any non heart river purely because we dont want to be put in a spot like this. Saying that I think you played it fine

Thanks guys. If anyone else has thoughts it would be appreciated. I have a lot of issues playing versus maniac/bluffy types, so any advice is helpful (including "avoid tables with maniacs.")

In the heat of action I just think about hand histories like the ones I described above, and think there are so many bluffs/semibluffs in his range. Am I wrong?

I definitely think he has bluffs in his range. The question is do you want to stack off for 450 when you are losing to any 2 hearts or AT?

I think against this type of player on a super-wet board, you should have checked the turn for pot control. As played, I think you fold and wait for a better spot, particularly since you noted that V respects you as a tight player.

I know he's loose and all, but what bluff can he have in this spot? Is he raising any two broadways in the CO?

Think it's a pretty easy fold given how much strength you've shown.

I think you should call the turn and evaluate on the river. I doubt he would be raising here with an absolute bluff but could be using the scare card to give him more equity with his own hand. Would he jam the river without the flush on this board knowing that you are relatively strong yourself?? There are possibly a lot of hands that he thinks are good but you beat that he wouldn't want to get his stacks in with on the river. Bear in mind if he hasn't got the flush he may think you have.

If he is jamming the river with all of his range which might include one pair and gutshots, through to bigger straights and made flushes then surely you can call off with certain rivercards.

I'm checking behind on the turn. Think about the types of hands villain could have made it to the turn with, after limping pre, calling a bet and then calling a sizeable raise out of position. Pretty much any one- or two-pair hands are unlikely because he probably raises them preflop. AT is also unlikely for the same reason. So at this point he is either going crazy with a double float and a turn check raise, or he has the flush -- either Axhh or two small hearts. Given the way you described how he views you, I doubt he's going crazy here. Check behind turn, as played fold.

Raising flop is fine. We want to set up to stack off ASAP with this board being so draw heavy. Definitely need to change gears when the flush draw gets there on the turn.

As described, V's range is a mix of bluffs and flush draws that got there. When we're deep and hit on the flop, but our hand can only get worse, I am ok with slowing down a little and not stacking off. I think the turn needs to be a check instead of leading out. I know it sucks turning our hand into a bluff catcher and missing out on a potentially large pot, but we don't want to stack off with the 20th nut hand.

As played I can find a fold and look for better spots.

Folding here is a disaster.

Sizing is beyond woeful on the turn and too small on the flop.

It sounds like you bought in deep? If you aren't comfortable playing deep you could buy in shorter.

I rolled it up from 100bb, which is my usual buy-in. Maybe I should just leave next time I get deep, but I do want to practice and get better at it...

Results: I tanked for a while and called his turn check-raise, and then he went "all in in the dark" which was expected and part of my plan to call, once I called turn. He had 97hh.

For the record, he also instantly went all in with an A-high flush draw on the flop when he got raised, on the previous hand.

I think the issue is twofold: I'm a calling station, and if someone has bluffs in their range, I always assume they are bluffing. Still, I am at a loss as to what to do versus similar opponents in the future.

Well that is a great way to learn how to play deeper. Then ur basically risking a 100 bb buy in to learn how to play a little deeper. When V check raises you on the turn we have to assume he is aware of your image? He may potentially put you to a tough decision because he knows your tight. I have made plenty if money off regs trying to push me around.
Bottom line you have position so I am always at least calling the turn check raise. As you said usually plays draws faster so we are ahead of his range. Let's see what he does on the turn. We have to fold on 4 flush boards but we keep all air in his range. Did we get to the river?

Limping this pre isn't great. Not because T9o is a bad hand but because you have position and aren't using it. A few hands I would overlimp, low suited Ax for the RIO maybe, a few broadway hands that raising forces folds from the weaker broadway hands. So I'd fold or raise.

Flop is fine.

OTT, what hands are you expecting to c/c? 2pair is probably raising the $6 otf, so is a combo draw. So what just called the flop? A naked fd and Kx. And Kx probably c/f's now, the fd got there. So I'm probably checking the turn, use the position.

OTR there's nothing to do but call. The check ott also gave V a window to bluff here and rep the flush so we can pick that off. And if he did have it the whole time, we found out for cheap, having position made V make less than he would have liked to.

Tough spot because of your image and his.

He probably puts you on weakish made hands OTF, knowing you probably rarely raise yours draws and will just call when getting a good price with a draw in position.

This card definitely hits his range not ours what-so-ever. So he probably knows he can steal this pot from you.

That said, a huge% of his range here is FDs since he is very aggressive and didn't raise pre we're not putting broadways in his range.

Since this card hits only his range and almost never hits our perceived range I don't think checking the turn is terrible against this type of opponent, planning to call pretty much all rivers.

Add in the fact that this guy likes to turn it up when he senses weakness, and probably on scary boards too, checking the turn actually might extract the most value allowing us to catch a river bruff. I don't think we get much more value from hands we beat with our image.

Yes we have a hand with absolute strength, but by the river with heavy betting on later streets, it's merely a bluff catcher

I dump it here OTT, his range is almost exclusively FDs OTF and since he doesn't try to bully us often and somewhat respects our game I give him credit for what he's repping.

muck it.

next time check the turn

raise preflop.

turn is a kinda easy fold since his range is pretty skewed towards made flushes.

don't do this.

So many ridiculous answers.

@OP, I think given the info you played it well. Perhaps could find a fold on the river given the *dark* shove, otherwise calling the river is fine.

Also I think you misjudged villian. From the way you describe things, villian actually seems pretty standard aggressive straight forward player, perhaps thinks like an online player.

Bluff raising/3b shove with the nut flush is pretty standard online aggressive play. Villian did that once.

Overbetting after bluffing the flop and turing what is additional equity is also standard play on a Ace high board. Nobody folds an Ace if they have it and nobody calls that flop light. For hand #2.

And also looks like villian is playing the player (not that he is playing very well, but he understands that you are tight and your flop raise range is very nutty)

If you agree with this, then these hand histories actually should help you fold the turn
or at least bet less than full pot (because its making him fold his worse hands etc.) in the future

Care to give a range of hands that otf 1) flat the $6 and 2) flat the $30 and then ott would 3) c/c $40-$60?