I was playing in a pretty soft 1/2 game and a new guy sat down. He bought in for max and liked to play some hands. He seemed to play 30%+. I think he is an action player and likes to splash around.

It has been about an orbit or so and I get AJo in the small blind.

150BB effective

Table limps around - and I think about raising but I don't like being OOP this deep with AJ and no one is gonna fold unless I make it like $25

Pot is $10
J83ss

I donk out $7 and get called in 3 spots.

Pot is $38
Turn is a gin card - Ah

Now i'm pretty sure this hit someones range and I can go for ethir a check / raise line or a check / call line. Check call line would be kinda risky since I need them to bet but I don't mind. I think by checking here one of these players is going to bet a lot, and I can check raise but I decided to check call as I thought the $30 bet should be enough to drive out some draws. Also these players were kinda short and the only big stack was betting.

checks around to villain who bets $30
I call - rest of players fold

Pot is $98
River is a 7s which is prolly the worst card ever for me. Every draw hit
I check and call a bet of $85

I don't think he is leading turn with a flush draw or straight draw that big. That line wouldn't make sense. He would take a free card most of the time, and it influenced my call. The only hand I could put him on that beat me was a set, and that didn't seem very likely. Also my hand is severely under repped and this player should be bluffing a large portion of his range.

The fifth and sixth words in your post describe the table as "pretty soft", so why are you playing so softly yourself in response?

Don't even thihnk about raising preflop
Never bet a single digit number post-flop, ever
Get more money in on the turn, and go broke on the river.
As played, you need to lead the river yourself for $85

9sTs?

Pre flop: I think completing is fine although I don't hate raising either, I expect your V would call with any suited A + all pocket pairs and if the rest of the table is soft you don't have much to worry about.

Flop: I prefer a more aggressive play such as a check raise or an overbet ($20+), don't know many soft 1/2 players that don't chase their draws.

Turn: Again I'd go with a check raise especially since you've a good read on your V and think there's a good chance he'll bet.

River: The river does suck, I think a bet/fold would be ideal here. Small blocking bet/fold to a shove.

Turn check/call is not good, imo. Most players at 1/2 are loose/passive, so even if they hit their ace, they often won't bet. Counting on 1/2 players to value bet for you is enough of a stretch, but hoping that they will bluff is really reaching. Check through on a wet board multi-way with Vs who's ranges are dominated by draws would be bad. Calling V's bet then allows folks with a draw excellent odds. Yes, the $30 bet would be big enough for draws not to be profitable if you hadn't called. With your call, the other Vs are now getting 4:1 on their expressed odds, and while they need 5:1, they'll easily have the implied odds to make up the slight gap.

AP, river call is iffy at best. His line is very consistent with a semi-bluff OTT, or with AsXs. Although you think he wouldn't take that line with a draw, your line should look just like a draw to him, yet he bet anyway. His bet is therefore polarizing. He'd likely check his weak SDV behind. Although I'd have played this hand much more aggressively, if I were to get here, I'd prefer a raise/fold to a call if stacks were 50BBs deeper. I don't love turning top-two into a bluff, but that would look just like a flush, and he likely folds all sets and most straights, maybe even some baby flushes to a raise.

AP, call=shove>fold, imo. I def don't like the turn play though.

" i'm pretty sure this hit someones range and I can go for ethir a check / raise line or a check / call line" In this situation betting is better then checking. What do you expect to happen OTR if you check/raise V OTT here?

He would take a free card most of the time Another reason for not checking OTT.

If you want to "appear" weak bet small(er) to induce, but still bet.
Checking does not convey weakness, and especially not c/r, and/or c/c/lead.

I mean sure there are a lot of live players who give automatic respect when you represent the flush and that's a read you can make and exploit, but I don't think it's at all advisable to try to bluff a guy off sets+ when he's new to the table and appears to be a "splashy action player". When you start talking about getting this guy to fold flushes, that's insanity imo. I reluctantly call here and I think calling is still better deeper

Would it be worth overbetting the turn here to polarize? We either appear weak, or strong w that line.

As Garrick said, it's going to be tough to get someone to bluff here; but if they have something worth calling they probably are not going to be in the business of making tog lay downs.

We're also oop so we want to charge as much as possible for draws, since the board is so draw heavy and whether we like it or not we're going to have to do some guess work on lots of rivers. Any spade or card besides a 6 or board pair completes a 5 card drawing hand by the river. And we simply cannot let ourselves be bluffed by 80% of the deck.

If we overbet I do like checking a fair to induce bluffs unless we fill or do get a board pair, in which case we should certainly value bet. Going back to my oft quoted Vanessa Selbst theorem people are much more likely to Bluff when they were drawing at some point in the hand, and missed. With how many draws there are, it will be tough to get value often, especially in a limped pot, as the big aces would've raised pre a lot of the time. So let's maximize by bloating the pot on the turn and picking off as much Bluff money as possible on the river.

On the turn, he may have assumed that anyone with an ace would bet. It actually makes a bunch of sense to bluff while you can still draw out, rather than bluff at the end.

It may be best to min raise the turn. Your hand is best like 90% of the time, and you're not opposed to GII.

You left out the most crucial piece of information in this hand history and that's whether you hold the A or not.

If you don't have it, then he has A 4 and it's bye-bye $85. His entire line is 100% consistent with AX where X = 2-T.

oh very true - I did not have the A and that's not true at all. His range is way bigger than Ax spades

well it's been almost 24 hours

I guess i'll post results


Hero clearly calls

Villain insta mucks his hand

Villain said I didn't think you were strong and tried to bluff you. I guess he didn't even have a pair. Maybe he had QT or who knows what he had. Maybe he was floating. Not really sure why he insta mucked.

Maybe this is just running good, but I still think I played the hand in a way most people wouldn't have. I clearly got max value but was this the correct play? I think a lot of us don't make plays like this because they are higher variance but I still think they could be correct in the long run vs some villains.

Always better to keep betting strong hands and build a pot. IF they fold that's ok.

You can try to appear weak to make people bluff you, when you have top pair or bottom two. Doing that with AJ is just wasting value against the times he has draws or a worse made hand.

Grunch

I bet more on the flop for value. At least $10.

I don't think our hand is strong enough to slowplay on the turn. I guess you are targeting one pair hands that our drawing dead? Personally I would put in a nice fat raise for value expecting to get called by straight draws and flush draws, combo draws, maybe TP. Our hand is actually quite vulnerable. Any J,8,Q,7, any spade, are bad. Any 9, T, or three might sink us.

Also we lose value because bet, C/C, donk river looks stronger than bet/bet/bet.

I think by calling we set up a RIO situation on the river.

That river card is horrible and he bet the pot. Soul read time? We under repped our hand though...Tough spot.

Maybe I am missing something here???

I think people who bluff too often do it chronically -- it's part of their personality. But I also believe they keep track of who can be bluffed and who can't. So if you pick them off a few times, they remember you, "That guy always has it."

So it's definitely good to spot them before they spot you. But also remember that those are the people you should be bluffing, too.

+1

Also, while this may have gotten max value vs his air this time (debatable), the line leaks value well beyond any "appearing weak" factors. (Ck turn may not appear as weak as intended) maybe more importantly, your line elicits a very awkward river: AP, Do you really want to x/c PSBs otr with this texture in a 6 way limped pot with top 2?
What about spazzy Vs who polarize further and shove remaining $200ish on this kind of river? Folding how often? AP, even 24ss is still in there otr leaving only 6d,6c,6h as true bricks in a limped pot.

As played, his Jx, J8, A3, A8 will likely ck back most rivers while his draws that realized eq (for cheap) now bet. Sets are in there, but a pretty small piece of described V flop call range.

For the very reason that most would lead here is why I actually like a turn check when you know there's a player who, if they had peeled the flop, will almost always try to steal OTT if checked to when a perceived scare card comes out. Standard would be x/r but if V just has a ton of air in his range I'll check/call to cap my range and check/call any river.

I've gotten a ton of money over the months by capping my perceived range when I theoretically should be leading (against proper ranges), but I know these V's have a ton of floats/gutshots in their range and will always try to steal if weakness is shown, so I let them try. Looking like a younger kid (20) also helps this play, IMO people are more prone to try and bluff you.

Are these same awful Vs always betting when you ck? Don't they ck back some too vs always calling when you barrell? Are they folding to you x/r? At 150Bb you can get a lot more in ott with bet or x/r lines against described Vs steals/semibluffs.

Also, we're still oop in a limped pot with a strong but vulnerable hand. Not sure how your range is ever perceived capped by checking either.

I've noticed this too. If you make strange lines that make no sense people will try and bluff you more. I know I do it to people and recently when I make strange call downs i've been getting attacked