Villain is an unknown. Doesn't auto rebuy.

27/18/1.0 AF over 12 hands.

•My first question is about whether I should be cbetting this flop. In certain spots its painfully obvious when to check back top pair. I have trouble with these board textures, where overs or draws can hit. I don't want to be giving opponent free cards. A lot of cards hurt us on later streets.

•My next question is more of a general question when a villain check raises on the flop. Are we always calling the check raise with top pair?? (in this spot I was comfortable calling) There are other times where I have top pair weak kicker and know I cannot withstand another bet on the turn if villain follows up.

•On the turn, I felt like we had to call another barrel even though 32 combos of straights are possible. Would you ever put in a raise on this turn?

•River I feel like we have to fold.

SB: $10.64 (106.4 bb)
BB: $9.88 (98.8 bb)
UTG: $10.29 (102.9 bb)
MP: $10 (100 bb)
CO: $3.77 (37.7 bb)
Hero (BTN): $10 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with Q 9
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.22, SB folds, BB calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.49) 8 9 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.35, BB raises to $1.22, Hero calls $0.87

Turn: ($2.93) Q (2 players)
BB bets $1.99, Hero calls $1.99

River: ($6.91) J (2 players)
BB bets $6.45, Hero folds

I doubt even a flop call is correct here...
But turn call is awful. Let me kno what do you beat on turn?
I say only 98. Say he hass all combos and not just suited(even if he has it in his calling range..). There is 9 combos of it.
67 has you crushed.(if he has 89o , he has 67o too!) so it's 16 comboe on the flop.
If he is bluffing with JT, he just got there. It's another 16 combos...
It's time to lay down Top 2 on the turn imo.

Sent from my LG-K430 using Tapatalk

Yeah as much as that turn seemingly helped you, it took away almost all the combos you'd want villain to have and to be bluffing us on the flop with. The flop was already a thin call, but unlike the other poster I could see it being +EV. But the value of our hand got decimated on this turn and we have to lay it down.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

V could find some bluffs ott with 77 66 7T

I agree thay could be bluffs here.
I don't see enough of them fo the call to be +EV

Sent from my LG-K430 using Tapatalk

Turn is pretty clear call IMO.

It would be a sick bluff with Tx...

Calling the flop raise feels a bit icky, rest is ok.

per your second question - my willingness to peel is directly proportional to my opponents - the looser they play the lighter I peel. However if they are loose and will bluff at almost every opportunity, it makes it harder to peel with some SDV since our opponent will make getting to the river too expensive etc etc.

Makes sense. Generally, how would you approach an unknown?

I am still unclear on what to do when we turn top two. I am leaning towards folding, so many hands that beat us. At the time, I didn't mind making villain play another streets OOP with top two.

I tend to get married to hands which are seemingly strong but in fact are not. This is a leak in my game and something I need to improve on.

We all know poker is not black and white. Hearing different opinions on the hand will definitely improve my thought process in spots like this. Thanks for all the responses!

Ott you have 4 outs to the nuts so you have about 10 % of pure equity vs any hand in Vs range +imo you can assume you ll stack of him when you hit at least 50 % of the time which gives you additional EV on your call.so you call 2 $ to win 3$ in pot plus 3.75 so your odds on call in eff odds are something like 2/(2+5+3.75)=18%,and you need 28% but if V has bluffs you beat those so it should be ok to call and if he dose not bluff often you ll stack him more oftne when you hit so its not horrible call even in tha case.

That's a good point. I'll have to run some ranges in equilab.

I think your call on the flop raise is highly optimistic. As played, I think it's fine.

So you would generally fold vs. an unknown with TPGK? I can at times get in the mindset of not wanting to "get pushed around." I know its the wrong line of thinking. The more I play, calling check raises with top pairs never seems to work out for me lol. I definitely need to fold more in these spots. I'm just attached to a time where top pair was much stronger.

Any insight you have would be helpful

I think flop is gross because of this exact spot. Yes it's a stronger kicker, but it sucks more to hit the Q than with other 9x. You block QT but none of the JT that plays this way and with the general pool under-bluffing it's an unpleasant spot all ways round on the flop. I'm happier if the turn is a blank than hitting the two pair.

OP just because we have TPGK doesn't mean we should auto defend the x/r. You need to start thinking about different run out and think about how many turns and rivers V is going to barrel and you will see that you'll be in a sticky spot most of the time with 1p type hand or 2p in spots like these.

Also I'd bet a bit smaller otf.

Not always but
1. He made a really big raise here
2. Your hand doesnt improve on a lot of turns

If you got backdoor flush draws on top of the pair you got more shots for play potential. And if he really did bluff you gj to him whatever this is not the hand to go ham on.

Usually you can ascertain this information in a few rounds - in the pool i've been playing in, it seems the average is overly aggressive in weird/wrong spots. So my "unknown" baseline read is that my opponent will have way more bluffs/non-made hands, will be stickier postflop, etc. Mind you this generalization is relative to how online games used to play which was the aggressive players were much fewer and far between. You saw a lot more nits or tight and passive players before with an occasional opponent who took advantage of those players by ramping up the aggression at every possible step of the way.

Observationally, this seems to have shifted and more and more players must have heard the phrase "you need to be aggressive to win" but somehow didnt bother understanding why and when to be aggressive.

However I think as a baseline read - I would tend to give credit to strong aggressive action still, even in today's climate until frequency reaches a threshold where it becomes too often and frequent and will adjust.

I was just reading an interesting article on doug polk's site about using a baseline style of simply a more GTO theory influenced play style and then adjusting to exploit opponents since opponents at these levels have such flaws in their game - I still dont have a solid grasp of this play style yet but the argument was convincing.

hand is wp

Thank you for the thorough and articulate response. I always look forward to hearing what you have to say.

lol @ folding flop or turn. this hand is wp.

Turn is fine, can still be bluffing with 56ss/57ss, we beat 98, turn is fine, think flop is close, river clear fold