We had 2 players who were sitting out on our table. In both hands one of them was on the big blind.
Also, the same guy was the OR in both of these hands. He wasn't tight for sure, something like ~~30/20.
I think hand #1 is fine, we are in position and no one besides me was unusually active on this table. I'm pretty confident about this 3bet, not so sure about the flop but I think I should stab it anyway.

In the second hand though, now I'm thinking I should just call preflop instead of making the pot bigger with a mediocre hand when I'm OOP, but as played, I think I gotta stab again (maybe should make it less than 30k tho; not sure if check/calling makes sense to me) - got some good cards to come on the turn, his opening range from MP is wide etc.
I guess I couldn't play turn & river differently on those cards.
Your thoughts?

Hand 1 is bad hand selection. Just fold pre and use more natural hands to 3bet bluff below hands that usually flat. As played, cbet is probably OK, but I'd be more inclined to delay and barrel.

Hand 2, I think should be a flat pre. Again, I don't know what your 3bet bluff range looks like here. The one line that absolutely sucks as the 3bettor is the one you took. That line is garbage and the in position player probably wins like 98% of the time. I'd say barrel off and put pressure on Qx weak Ax, or bet turn and check river if you clearly have better bluffs to fire off.

One thing you should work on is clearly knowing your range at any point in a hand, it makes decision making logical and takes out a lot of guesswork.

How bad am I for folding both hands preflop? From 1(bad) to 10(bad. But there is still hope).
As played 1),is ok. 2) I would not cbet cuz you block combos he would fold. Might double barrel if I cbet this since his peeling range should be Ax heavy so its a decent scarecard/gains us equity/blocker.

Folding the 2nd suggests to me that you have some post ante based leaks from the SB.

I appreciate your opinion, but I think I don't understand. Why shouldn't I 3bet this hand if 1) we don't want to flat it 2) it's a hand from the top of our folding range 3) it has a blocker 4) bb is sitting out and the whole table is pretty passive?

I tend to 3bet hands which are bad to play OOP from SB. I would 100% call if this hand was suited, but perhaps I should call anyway when I'm sure I'll see the flop.

V was loose and knew that I was very aggressive so I don't think if he'd fold weak ace to 2nd barrel and I don't really want to fire 3 barrels in a 3b pot, had a decent stack so losing majority of it costs more than gaining some or even doubling up profits.

Yup, still not sure about postflop play in #2 but I'm pretty sure fold isn't an option if OR is loose preflop + BB is sitting out.

KJo flat in the SB is bad IMO, I'd much rather be 3 bet/folding this hand.

OP, I like the line taken in both hands, if anything I think maybe the sizing of the 3 bet in hand 2 is a little big.

Points 1, 3 and 4 are valid reasons to be 3betting as a bluff. My issue is with 2. This hand is really far away from even a loose but still good flat range. Let's say that we 3bet something like AJo, KQo, A2-A5s, Q9s, K9s and 87s as bluffs. If you wanted more, you'd choose a lot of stuff before getting as far down as A3o. If you include everything all the way down to A3o, then you'll simply be 3bet bluffing way too much.

I'm on board for getting in more bluffs, but think this is too much even with the BB sitting out.


I think the ante makes flatting fine from the SB. I dislike the logic that you don't want to barrel off. You're going to need some bluffs here, that's just part of poker and this hand actually makes a very reasonable triple barrel even though we have turned a pair. Firstly, we have equity which is a good thing on an A high board. Secondly we block 2 pairs. Thirdly, triple barrelling generally goes fantastically well.

I've played a decent amount of heads up, and the line you have taken just ends up being sending your red line off a cliff.

Side note, you should 3bet bigger in both hands.

Don't you think that if OR is loose (~30/20 overall) then he probably has a good spot to open even wider here (maybe even more than 30%) despite me being aggro?
If you think so, do you think this range would be too wide (or too unbalanced) for me to defend? (blue = 3bet, yellow = flat)

I normally don't flat A2-A8s vs EP open but this spot looks different to me. Also he raised only 2x despite us being deep so this makes him look weak to me (haven't checked his sharkscope them AFAIR so I'm not doing this now since it makes no sense but I think his opening sizings aren't probably balanced).

I'm not trying to prove that you're wrong etc., just want to learn as much as possible from more experienced players.

Can agree with your opinion regarding the second hand, thanks again.
Now I think gregz's view makes more sense than my actual line. Thanks for posting though.

you'll be loosing too many times flatting with KJ out of the SB

I will always play heads up when BB is sitting out and I have good odds to call.

I like the approach you're taking, I just think it needs fine tuning. I dislike the offsuit Kx combos you're using here as well as the Ax, I think these are just too weak. I think something like:
Flat:
99-22, AdAs, AhAs, AsAc, AQs-A7s, K9s+, QTs+, J9s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s
3bet:
KK-TT, AdAh, AdAc, AhAc, A6s-A2s, K8s-K7s, Q9s, 97s, 86s, 76s, 65s, AQo-ATo, KJo+, QJo

will work a lot better. This gives you nice board coverage and still has lots of bluffs.

Good. Not sure if I really have to be perfectly balanced here like putting half of AA combos in flatting range (ofc would have to if I was playing vs a very good reg but probably not vs most low-midstakes players). Will try to work on it, thanks for your time.

Just fold hand 1, and hand 2 is played perfectly fine.

standard to fold both hands pre youre right