Villain is one of the most unusual whales I have encountered. 93/75 over 104 hands, 72% 3bet (31/43 sample), fold to 3bet when raised 44% (4/9), 4bet 18% (2/11), fold to 4bet after 3bet 33% (1/3). He opens the pot for a raise 63% and open limps 37%, and and has only folded in the blinds when there has been action in front of him (like a raise and a 3bet), so he is literally playing ATC preflop. If he limps, he also almost always limp-3bets (he has called once, folded once and 3bet the remainer). One
critical caveat - his open-raises are almost always min-raises and his 3bets are almost always min-raises as well.
Post-flop, his cbet is 53% (36% in 3bet pots), fold to cbet 57% (33% in 3bet pots), raise cbet 14% (1/7). His cbets tend to be 1-2x the pot size, though he is cautious when facing aggression and often goes into call-down mode when called (especially in position). According to Pokertableratings, villain has a spectacular loss rate of -166bb/100. I'd call him an aggro monkey, except his min-bets really don't put him in that category (and though he is clearly bluffing a fair amount post, he isn't doing it all the time.)
Notes are as follows:
[P] 3Bet range {77,AKs,A3s,T3s,85s,AKo,ATo,A5o,A3o,KQo,QJo,J8o,83 o} (13)
[P] Called 3Bets in position {J9o} (1)
[P] RWPC range {J9o,T2o,86o} (3)
[P] 3Bet+ Blind vs Blind range {77,AKs,T3s,85s,A5o,KQo,83o} (7)
[P] Limp and called a raise {K3o} (1)
[P] 3Bet Blind vs steals w/{AKs,T3s,A5o,KQo,QJo,J8o,83o} (7)
[P] 4Bet+ range {AQo,A5o} (2)
[P] Cold Called 2Bet In Position {97o} (1)
[P] Limped and reraised {A3s,AKo,ATo,A3o} (4)
[P] Called 2Bet from blinds range {TT,33} (2)
[F] Donked paired flop without trips or better (1)
[F] Donks flop with top pair or better (1)
[F] Called flop cbet with weak hand - no draw (1)
[R] River raise TP or 2-pair (3)
Two questions.
First, here's the hand.
Merge - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
UTG: $10.00
CO: $10.00
BTN: $18.12
SB: $10.45
Hero (BB): $17.89
SB posts SB $0.05,
Hero posts BB $0.10
Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 9
A
fold,
fold,
BTN raises to $0.20,
fold,
Hero calls $0.10
Flop: ($0.45, 2 players) 8
9
6
Hero checks,
BTN bets $0.70,
Hero calls $0.70
Turn: ($1.85, 2 players) T
Hero checks,
BTN checks
River: ($1.85, 2 players) 9
Hero ???
Preflop, I would have 3bet in position, but felt like that could put me in a tricky position OOP. (After the fact I stoved the hand and A9s has 62% equity vs. ATC, so I should clearly have 3bet pre). Flop is villain's standard overbet sizing, which I am comfortable calling with TPTK. (I've seen him do this with an underpair and then shut down.) Should I be raising here? Since the villain has shown he can give up with weaker hands, I'm not sure I'll get value from worse and if he 3-bets, I'm not sure where I am (he could have 2-pair+ or be bluffing). Turn is a bad card, but villain checks back. On the river is this a check/call, bet/fold or bet/call?
Second, as a general matter, what's the best strategy against this villain? The rest of the table were a bunch of 22/16-ish TAGs. My general thought was to never 3bet bluff and 3bet widely for value in position with something like {88+,A8s+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,ATo+,KTo+,QJo}. Since he seems to like to limp-3bet with Ax, my plan was to raising his limps with {A9+,22+}. My calling range for his min-raises was something like {77-22,T9,98,87,76,65,JTo}. I could have probably 3bet and iso-raised wider against the fish, but the other regs at the table were occassionally 4betting, so I was wary of getting too far out of line. I also called his min-raises widely in the BB (for 1 extra bb) with Ax, hands like QTo, 97s, etc. Not sure about that strategy in retrospect, though.
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