Hand occured at 10/25 NL 9k effective, one of the most interesting hands I've played live for sure. A number of cool things going on here.

Villain is in a number of ways the best player who plays this game IMO. Buys in 15-20k, capable of a lot and despite not opening tons, will definitely get into 3/4/5betting wars. Has 4bet/folded and 5bet me, but this session so far things are a little more passive preflop. Apparently there used to be a bigger game here and from what I've heard he was the biggest winner. Views me as superlag, has seen/heard about me 6/7/8bet air, bluff off 400bb+ stacks, etc.

He sits/moves to my left whenever possible, and when we're 400bb+ deep he likes to 3bet small (8x my 3x opens) as something of an isolation raise. For example, a few sessions ago I opened UTG1 $75 and he made it $200 in the HJ, SB flats and I 4bet AKo to 675; both flat, I bet three streets on 884r and barrel off 6o 2o runout into both players, get called by him with 75cc and SB folds. During this session, after flatting a good reg's MP open in the CO, I raise/called a 963hh flop then bet the turn Kh and shipped river Jo and was called by 63dd (I mucked worse when shown).

Anyways, I open K8cc in the hijack playing a little over 9k and he covers. Blinds and button are passive and BB is nitty. He flats the CO and we see a Qd9x8x rainbow flop. I cbet 150 into 185 and he calls.

Turn (485) is the 8d and I bet 375. He calls.

River (1235) is the Kd, completing the backdoor flush. I tank for more than 30 seconds then bet 800. He thinks for a while then makes it 2500. With a little over 7k behind, I make it 4700 after thinking for 1.5-2 minutes. He tanks for over a minute then announces all in.

So there are a number of things to go over here, and I think it's a much more complex hand if we are 15k-20k deep. I'll just start with my thought process chronologically and try to be pretty thorough.

Preflop, I open which is pretty standard with a nitty BB. He flats, which he can do with any number of things. I cbet the flop with bottom pair, which is also standard. He's folding 22-77, maybe some lower suited connectors that he decided to flat with the plan of raising a good % of flops, Q98 not being one of them. Axss stuff probably just folds flop too. He's flatting with Qx, as well as 9x and 8x since most have gutter draws too. AT AJ KJ KT all don't fold, perhaps he thinks about raising them. JT might raise. If he opted to flat 99 or 88 preflop I think he's flop raising, given stack sizes. He's shown a tendency to raise flops and with such a gameplan, him both not 3betting QQ/99/88 and my having a blocker to bottom set makes him having a set unlikely. Q9/98/Q8 are possible flats though.

On the turn, I bet of course and he flats. He's probably folding some more speculative hands here, KJ stuff and maybe as much as A9 or T9. Qx calls, 8x calls, slowplayed JT, etc. 98 might raise now I guess.

River is obviously the interesting part of the hand. I bet on the small side for a number of reasons, and after ruling out open checking (as I thought a CR wasn't likely enough to induce a 3bet bluff or thin b/c's) I considered this sizing optimal mainly to widen his value raising range. When he raises, I'm wondering if ATdd stuff plays this way, whether 98/Q8 ever folds to any size, and whether he shows up with 99 or even somehow something bigger. Additionally, if I click it back, will I be able to play well to a 4bet? How does my decision change if I have 15k behind rather than 7k?

I'm leaving out a few things as this is a public forum but I'll post more thoughts later. Any comments/criticism on my own play are appreciated.

call if he rarely slowplays. fold otherwise

How do you think he plays K8o, Q8o, Q9o, 98o pre? And if they're suited?

Seems pretty clear he likely has kk. His line is consistent with that. (given he got tricky preflop) k8/q8/98 you can take out of his range given river action.

as for what % of time he can somehow got to the river and is spazz bluffing, you would have a better idea than anyone here. don't think it's that interesting of a hand

Seems like kk to me also

yeh seems like a pretty sick cooler, but can't see him ever expecting you to fold here, so you should !!

I think you have to call now given your KK and 88 blockers, folding getting these odds is too exploitable. I'm asking the above because I don't know how I feel about your river 3bet.

With the history you provided I think you played it perfectly and I think calling is slightly better than folding against this opponent..
I think his range is more polarized than you originally stated tho.. I don't think he ever has 98 here and even Q8 is unlikely given the river action
A9dd, KK, JT, A8 are more in his range.. I do think he turns his value hands into bluffs a lot here tho to get you to fold exactly the type of hand you have..

Fold pre?

Vital question: With what range of hands are you making it 4700?

cooler.

can we flat his raise? what are we getting called from worse here? wouldn't make sense to reraise this.

am i the only one who is noticing that he cant have 88...that means 5 8s in the deck right? or am i missing something here

he probably heard about you 8betting air and is putting you to the ultimate test.

Is this a hand from M8trix? Villain's description pretty strongly matches a player there and 10/25s are rare enough that I feel compelled to ask. Sorry if I'm off base.

I'd 3b ship the river, not really close. He so often has a value hand worse than ours that won't fold because we're crazzzzzzy. I think it's much more profitable than your weak raise. I also think it's much better for balance purposes if that's relevant for the future. Only reason I would ever make it your sizing is if I was trying to induce a 4b shove which is no good for the reasons I want to fold now...

As played, I'd fold in part because people don't 4 bet bluff rivers ever. And when they do, they don't like giving you 163:1. And if he's really good, he's just going to have it a lot in general against someone like you and like always here.

I call, dont think KK is really in his range here given his line and the king in our hand. Pot odds are too good to ever really fold here especially given the history between the two of you.

I call and expect to be good often enough or to lose to QQ, but given your image and given the fact that you made it 4700 which is a very uncomfortable-looking size (ie. "i dont click it back because i'd give too good odds, i don't shove coz i dont wanna burn too much money when he snaps, i don't make it 6000 because it's substantially a shove that looks a lot weaker").

I also dont think you should having a 4700 range, either cib or ship.

also, as a rule of thumb i dont like to fold boats when your thoughts and your opponents' are prolly lost among 5 or 6 levels too many.

After check-raising to 100bb on river does he really felt a hand like 89 for 100-200bb more?

Even ignoring how unlikely he has a hand like 89 that could perhaps continue and be behind vs a river raise (since you have K8), shoving 888KK makes little sense when his value CR range is heavily weighted towards QQ-99, KK combo and range wise.

... especially since neither of you should likely have Q8 or K8 combos preflop, which would be more likely if you were say BTN v BB or SB v BB.

If you shove over his CR w K8, would you be bet/shoving KQ if you were XXXbb deeper?

Those two plays plays wouldn't be very congruent explo wise, so probably just call the CR and shove QQ/KK/88, KQ.