So this hand happened a few weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about it. Really would like y'alls input. It's quite strange.

V in this hand is older white guy, baseball hat, looks like he could be a tradesperson or junior college lecturer or something...has a pretty big stack. H just sat down a few orbits ago, has seen villain play a lot of hands, one of note was when V 3! 99, ckd oop on a j high flop, then turned a set and got decent value...H is mid 30s white guy, wearing hoodie, headphones, prob generic grinder type image. OTTH.

Folds to H in HJ, H has A2 opens to $12, folds to V in SB, V 3! $25. We are $600 effective, H calls. I feel this is pretty standard because the 3! was so small and we are so deep.

Flop (HU) $50 35J V leads $75 into $50...????
So weird right? WTF does V have here? I was kinda confused, does he do this w QQ-KK trying to protect against an A? Does he do this w a nutted hand to prevent draws? I really have no idea, I tanked for awhile, considered raising, considered folding, decided we are so deep, I have a huge draw, V is not scared to put money in, I call.

Turn $200 35J5 V insta checks...like INSTA... I'm even more confused now...that 5 is kinda a blank, right? I rarely would have a 5 here, I'd think most hands in V range would consider action for a lil longer instead of literal insta ck when turn comes out. H cks behind.

Riv $200 35J57 V cks, H thinks, bets $125 into $200...V does some chatting..."well, I'll probably have a chance to win it back from you, you know what, I'm all in"..."If you have the card I think you have, you'll call"... so now the pot is $825 and it's $375 for H to call...2.2 to 1. His talk and manner really led me to believe he wanted a call, my thought was maybe he checked a boat on turn, but what boat could he possibly have? Why would he overbet the flop with a set? WTF is going on here? I've never really folded a hand this big in my life, but I cannot think of bluff he would do this with...??? thoughts??? I had lost a flush vs boat a few days previous where I had told myself I'd bet/fold but then couldn't actually fold lol...trying to work on making some big folds (since I'm naturally a calling station)...but is this the spot to do it? V line makes no sense...

Pretty easy fold given the confident talking.

Ugh. This looks so much like JJ (or 55), but what's with the huge bet on the flop? So incredibly weird.

I'm fine with the bet on the river, but the speech alone makes me want to fold.

OP: In Jorge Luis Borges’ classic short story “Death and the Compass”, the hero detective gets trapped by the Villain because the detective overthinks a complex situation. He begs the Villain to kill him in a more linear fashion when they meet again in the next life.

I’m no crusher but the first thing I ask myself when encountering a Villain is: “what level of thought does this guy/gal look capable of performing “?

So what were your initial thoughts? What impact did the speech have? Was the speech a story V told himself to self-soothe or to intimidate? Did he make eye contact?

Arent overbets on the flop usually draws or overpairs being over protective?

My initial thoughts about the villain were that he had a decent sized stack and seemed somewhat competent but probably too loose preflop. The speech seemed like he wanted a call and he was trying to frustrate/or confuse me. He seemed like he was filled with a kinda nervous excitement. I got this energy from the way he donked the flop too.

I snap call, villain way more likely to have worse flushes and random spazz than boats.

I also lean betting turn given villains erratic line.

This should be an easy call.

Maybe he was trapping OTT w/ a boat, but there's no way he checks the river *again* after the turn checked through.

Once he raises you, it's slightly gross. But even with the talking, I think he can be feeling *confident* with worse flushes.

This isn't the spot to start folding more. Focus more on the spots where you're "bluff catching." You're not bluff catching here, you're just calling against overvalued flushes.

I'm a simple minded person.

Villain told you he had a strong hand pre, he told you he had a strong hand on the flop, and he told you he had exactly JJ on the river.

Like it's live, people do weird ****, his line is weird, but bottom line he's telegraphed the nuts, he seems excited about it, I say we give him credit.

Narrow ranges are hard to reason about because they're intrinsically unstable. If you add even a few combos of freak-out to villain's range, you start to want to call. I think it's good discipline to recognize that you're assigning villain a very narrow range, which is a mistake against a skilled player, but not a mistake given the information we have.

You’re losing to exactly JJ which usually isn’t going to overbet the flop. So call. If he has JJ chalk it up to a cooler. People do dumb things.

NFD + Gutter + Overcard. Can't go wrong raising this on the flop, right? We're flipping even against his good hands. If we can get him to fold something, all the better.

Yeah I've run the math on some different ranges, it's obviously highly villain dependent. I think some OMCs wouldn't even check shove the nut flush on a paired board. Some super LAGs would do this with any flush as well as some bluffs. I think against unknown I def have to call w the nut flush and just be prepared to lose frequently. I think folding most other flushes is ok. Not many old white dudes are 3 betting low suited connectors at 1-1-2.

If V was good I suppose he could be putting me on and overpair and thus really thinking he has the nuts...but my hand could also very easily be the NFD so it seems like a bit of an overplay to check shove, I also have JJ in my range, though of course I would bet it on the turn.

I've been trying to learn to bet/fold more, but agree this isn't the spot because against an unknown I have to have some non-boat calls.