In our medium-content thread, I suggested this for sizing up a game.
Thank you for your approval. Actually I had to test my own test Sun night at the V. Table was pretty tight, lot's of 20-something players who were TAP or TAG. I'd say 80% of the pots were unraised and stayed small, the other had a 10$ raise and one or two calls.

Villain was actually the one tricky player, having slowplayed AA to win a good pot off of a Swiss player. I raised KQo utg=1 to $10 and villain called on the cut off.

Flop ($20) J 8 6 I checked thinking You shouldn't Cbet all the time. He checked.

Turn 10 Having an oesd I bet 20, he called.

River ($60) 4 I bet in hopes that he was on some type of 9, choosing 25$ to make it look like a value-bet after some pot control. He called with Q 10

Did I get the betting wrong?

Am I happy that I raised KQ and got called?

well you were way ahead when he called, so i guess yes? assuming he doesnt dominate you in post-flop play

i dont know anything, but i think your value bet bluff of $25 into a $60 is a little too thin. otherwise i would have played it similarly

i would tend to check the river, since the only bluffable 9 that beats you is A9 (it might be the only bluffable hand for that matter) and so far you have not represented much of a hand.
Flop is fine, and some kind of bet on the turn is ok part of the time, though the board at that point improves his range so you should expect to be called often.
I see what your KQ test does though - out of position you will get outplayed if your opponent is sharp enough.

i could see villain holding A6s or 96s here and folding the river to a more sizeable bet

villain is likely to bet the flop with a pair, maybe? especially if he has a weak pair, wants to end the hand quickly, is not worried about getting bluffed out. my point is, what does the bluff target? if it is taking a shot at A9, sure, the $25 will do the trick. But to take villain off any pair, hero needs to bet more. I'm just feeling that either: villain has no pair* (and hero beats him with K high sometimes) OR he has a strong enough pair that he can withstand a near PSB. e.g. he checked back top pair to induce bluffs.
*but there are not too many hands I see for this scenario: sure, A9, K9s, maybe A7, KQ??? kinda hard to come up with them

I'd give up on the river. You can't really represent many hands that beat a 10 since you checked flop.

If villain has many Axdd hands in his range to play like this. He folds all of those to a river bet then betting river is fine. If we think he doesn't have many of these then we should c/f river.

Btw if someone is flatting your EP open with QT you should be happy. If there are multiple guys at the table doing this then we will make lots of money. If there are only 1 or 2 then we should probably just leave the table as there are much softer tables elsewhere.

I have never called with KQhi in nlhe and could not here unless he bets like 5$. I figured all of the busted draws bluff me out. All of his pair+str8draw combos win by either bluffing or checking.


value-bet-blocker-bluff?

I would just figure there's no way he has a straight and shove. And remember to stand up and bellow ARRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNN as I do it.

On a serious note, I suppose a 'KQ' test is an okay way to evaluate the game, but it doesn't hit on a lot of variables that could conflict with it.

Yes.

If you posted this hand as a HH I would leave the following in your thread:

The reason I post this is the one factor that should be negatively influencing your mood: you're going to have to play a (likely) mediocre hand OOP.

So the fact that you have to play OOP is draggin' down your happiness, but the reason you are happy overall that he called is this: he is passive. He never raised, he never bet, he never folded. Call, check, call, call.

You are super-duper happy this guy called because you can play KQ 100% straight forward, betting every street with TP or better and folding to a raise, and get 2 (or more) streets of value from worse hands.

You are happy he called.

The kind of game you are not happy about being called are these:

Or these:

This hand is a perfect example of my day yesterday.

Barely acceptable starting hands or rags only, missed most all the flops, and got my head handed to me for my trouble.

flop texture reasonable not to cbet/

Turn bet is good, now bet river $75 or $80. This villain wont understand polarization and simply will fold. He basically cannot call unless he slowplayed a straight.

Also, thin value sized bluffs ......while look good on paper logically etc, just dont work.

ya i was gonna ask about that. i've only ever done that successfully once, and i had a pretty reliable read that time and a table image that helped make it work. i dont do it much anymore

The only time small value size bluffs are valuable is when villain was most likely drawing but has to have higher cards. then bet small, cause villain will fold his missed draws, but call any size bet with his solid pairs etc.