This first hand occurred in the 500/1k/100 level. My opponent was an Asian guy in his 20s with a big stack. He had been at the table for about two hours and seemed competent. I had been playing pretty tight but was winning most every pot I played. Hadn't been out of line.

Villain -- 150k
Hero -- 48k

Action folds to villain in the hijack and he opens to 2300. I have AQ in the big blind and was planning to flat call but the small blind called, so I decided to 3bet to 10k. Villain called after some thought and the SB mucked. Heads up.

Flop is A98. We checked.

Turn 4. I bet 7700 and he called after about 10 seconds.

River 6. I take about 15 seconds and jam for 37k. Thoughts?

------------------------------------

Day 3, blinds are 1200/2400/a300. Laggy Euro with a big stack (200k) opens to 5200 in the lojack. I flatcall in the BB with KQ. I started the hand with about 65k. Flop is KK8 rainbow. I bet 5100 and he calls. Turn Ace and puts up running flush draw. I bet 10,500 and he calls after some hesitation. River 8 and diamond flush gets there. I think a bit and jam for 47k. Thoughts?

Thanks much.

I hate both of them.

Hand 1
What do you expect to be called with? You are expecting the villain to hero call a weaker Ace, or an 8 or 9? I think you should be betting smaller to get value. Villain is not going to fold worse. I think you should be bigger on the turn for value if you want to shove the river. Build the pot more.

Hand 2
I think you should let the Euro bet the flop. I don't understand why you are jamming 47K on the river. I think you should be betting something that is more likely to get called. Like 15K. Maybe the Euro has a hand like QQ - 99 that he will try and turn into a bluff. Hands that will call your all-in a King, probably an 8, and maybe an Ace.

I actually don't mind the line in Hand 1, although I would probably do a smaller sizing. I think villain's will be exploitative here and will bet sets/AK on the flop but will check back weaker aces, so we are almost always ahead. Not impossible he checks back 99/88, but much more weighted towards weaker aces. When the board sort of bricks out like that and villain has shown weakness, I think people can talk themselves into looking you up with hands like AJ/AT. Really player dependent, would expect it less vs. competent opponent, but like I said I think we're ahead here 80-90% of the time.

Hand 2, I'll throw it out there that I like jamming preflop. We got 27 bigs and the pot preflop is massive, especially with those 12.5% antes. We will increase stack almost 20% with a fold. We can fold out so many hands that have reasonable equity against us, such as AT and worse or the smaller pairs, and we block some of his top range. Obviously calling is fine and more typical in this spot.

Anyways, leading the flop is painful to my poker sensibilities. Let him bet and go from there. This is a river where given his range it will be very, very hard for him to call worse. Prefer a smaller bet like Phatpots said.

Most every pot
You sick, you sick



It's a bit high var but since you were winning most every pot I think it's ok.

Your sizing pre was quite large thus HJ will have less crappy 2p by the river.
Good hand to mix flop furthermore your capped range otr increase pressure on best bluffcatchers AJ, AT - big part of his river range which will be interested in bluffcatching. Guy also has huge stack.
Yet you'll run into occasional slowplay or stupid 44.
Just one A4s (discounted pre), yeah it's fine.


I don't understand hand 2.

Edit - @shove_pre_camp
It's not b33 really, I like flatcall.

Pot 1 I'd just bet like 12k on the flop so we can jam turn for like 26k. We have so much equity even when behind that I don't see much merit to checking the flop.

Hand 2: Flatting pre is fine. It's a bit too much to rejam with KQs here. Def would check flop and let him bet at it. If you're going to go bet/bet, I'd size it a little bigger so the river jam isn't for as much. As played I feel like it's rare you're getting calls from worse, but you've gotta bet river. I'd prob bet like 16k on the river, something that might get calls from strong aces.

Do we have AdQd or AxQd in hand 1? Either way I'm just gonna bet flop/shove turn like I'd do with my bluffs. Line you took has more fold equity vs AJ and more chance he catches random stuff on the turn imo.

I hate a jam pre in hand 2 unless villain really needs to be slowed down. I hate your line postflop from a theoretical perspective but in the main event where we don't give a crap about balance it seems fine. Bet more on the turn so your jam is for a bit less on the river though.

It's AdQd

I'll go against the grain and say WP on both. I never lead the flop on hand 2 but I guess it's fine. Do we have a bluff leading range? (It's the main event so I guess being balanced isn't terribly important)

Hand #1 - pre is fine, can see some merit to checking flop but prefer a bet as a third diamond can kill action and we want to get value from worse Ax which should make up a sizeable portion of his continuing range. As played your turn/river line is fine other than maybe some nitpicking on sizing.

Hand #2 - pre call is fine if we think we can maneuver postflop reasonably well, otherwise cashing out equity isn't the worst idea. No idea why we lead flop here unless we think villain is a station who's going to call multiple streets with all sort of random garbage. As played, there might be a bit of merit to checking turn as we're rarely getting three streets of value and our opponent may either have turned an Ax or may start trying to rep it to push us off weaker hands.

In hand 1, you're not deep enough to get three streets after the PF action, and I'd be likely to take those streets on the flop and the turn given the board.

hand one set up turn bet to jam river, so bet more at this spr

hand two I wouldn't jam river as I don't expect to be called by worse even 8x. check and go from there. Leading is interesting but having Kx in your checking range is good to protect it

i think there is 25k in the pot pre, so the 7700 on the turn sets up a pot-size jam on the river -- so I think CJD got this part right.

Ya I agree with the Bet/Bet on Hand 1. I actually like how you played hand 2 although I mightve gone FPS and check turn as our line would like pretty FOS/weak because he leads Trips on a rainbow flop.