Live $1/$2 Cash Game 9 handed
[B]V (LJ): $600 Late 40s. Very good reg. Loose pre, solid aggressive post.
[B]H (BU): $525 Mid 20s. Reg. tag.

Preflop: Hero is BU with AQ
1 fold, 2 limps V opens for $14 (typical raise size for the table)
2 folds, H flats, 4 folds

Flop: ($35) AAQ
V checks, H checks

Turn: ($35) J
V bets $27, H calls

River: ($89) K
V checks, H tanks and bets $230

Okay, let me explain my thought process. I don't want to reraise AQo pre (villain is the type to 4Bet and put me in a tough spot which here would be a clear fold imo).
AAQ is a tough flop to connect on so I check behind. V doesnt open often so I put him on a pretty good range. 9s, AJ, KQs or better. I could see an argument for a bet here, but V and I have a lot of history and this is the line I decided to take.
I consider raising on the turn, but Villain bets large enough for me to just call (I think he's taking a stab at this point and is likely to do so again on the river). Again, I think raising is also fine.
When V checks on the river, I'm confused. I've played with V a lot and it is strange for him to bet large on the turn and check the river. He looks comfortable. I re-evaluate what I think he has, and decide that he probably has a hand that wants to call, but can't stand a raise. I put him on AJ, JJ, or KK. He would most likely snap call any reasonably sized bet I would make. So I decided to massively over bet the pot. If he has a full house as I am guessing, it would be almost impossible for him to fold. I think my line looks incredibly strong, but hardly anyone can fold a full house.

Thoughts on this line?

I like it. Your trying to get paid by a pretty narrow range, so go ahead and over sell it and hope.

No good IMO. Seems unlikely most full houses would check. If they would he might be playing so scared he folds to this. You block AJ and QQ. KK and JJ are possible.

So is KQ, QJ, AT. Hands that call maybe $40.

If he's checking a full house it isn't to call

The river bet is really bad. Just make a normal sized bet. He's not calling $230 with a straight. I'm not sure why you are eliminating AK from V's range. I'm sure that he plays AK like this some of the time.

I know that if I bet 50 or something and he called and tabled KK, QQ, or JJ I would feel like I lost a ton of value, especially in your average 1/2 game. I'll forego the 50 I might, and I stress might, get from a straight or trips, in an effort to let a 1/2 player call 5 times more with a full house.

Just to clarify, how many times have you successfully bluffed out an underfull in 1-2 No Limit Holdem, I mean come on.

Kind of want to dissent. If your plan was to over bet the river then you should have just raised turn so river was a more normal size. You picked the only way that V ever could reasonably fold a boat.

Yeah, waiting to the end to try to get something out of this pot is probably a pretty poor way of getting value out of worse hands.

I think that you should bet the flop ~$30. A loose preflop raiser is going to have a wide range, and if he has 89s, there's no way you're ever getting big action from him. If he has QQ, you'll stack him regardless. If he has KK/JJ, he's unlikely to improve, but may look you up on one street thinking that you'll take a stab, hoping he doesn't have an A.

When the J comes, had you bet the flop, and it was checked to you again, I think would be a decent spot to check behind to induce a bluff on the river when he has little more than air. If instead he bet into you on what would be a ~$95 pot, let's say $60, now you raise to $150, and he calls, leaving about an even SPR that would allow you to get your money in on any river.

The K gives you the second nuts to any AK, which would certainly be in his range, so your overbet leaves you in a position where he's able to get away from a small pot with a lot of marginal hands (Tx, Ax, maybe even JJ), but give you really significant RIO when he slowplayed his second best hand into a monster.

On the flop, I probably bet to maximize my expectation when he has the case ace. Problem with slow-playing this hand is that it's hard for V to improve if he doesn't already have an ace. If he has a pocket pair other than QQ, he has two outs and may call a flop bet anyway. If he has Qx he again has two outs. I guess KJ/KT have 4 outs.

considering V will be checking his range for the same reasons you did, I'd bet 20 otf flop almost always to get things moving against his Ax combos and look to cooler him. 88-JJ might ck-c, QQ/KK will always at least call, bway gutters might peel sometimes too and if they connect you might be able to squeeze out one more call from those hands.

AP, by ck flop you basically have to call Jx turn to have any hope of having him bet or ck-c riv.. The worst hand you have that raises turn is KT which is firmly a call and V knows it.

Meanwhile, V still has AK in range when he cks riv and if you think a good player is ck-c a riv overbet with JJ when you have absolutely no bluffs then you're mistaken.

I'd have made it an even 200 but I like how you played it

So villain is a very good reg, who will read our hand as good but not great preflop and 4bet to put us in bad spots if we dare 3bet; but will also call off a massive overbet OTR. Interesting read.

If this guy is raising loose preflop, I'm 3betting him here. If he is always 4betting, I'm still going to 3bet for value and then I'm going to call and make his life miserable because I have position and a hand strength advantage.

I want more money in the pot before the river. If I xb flop, I'm raising the turn to set up for a good river bet.

The 'nothing flop, nothing turn, OMG SPAZ RIVER!' line is the flopped nuts every time I've ever seen it and I guess villain knows that as well.

It's a strange line because you're losing a ton of value and that's why people don't do it. Even if V has an underboat he's going to have to think you flopped it. You're basically hoping he has KK and you can cooler his tits off. If he has KK just make a normal bet so he can c/r you and then you shove River.

3b pre on the button and fold if he 4b because people don't 4b light OOP this deep hardly ever.

I agree I played this hand poorly. I didn't get enough money in by the river. Pre-river I did not put V on a full house. I sort of had a moment where I decided "He has a full house," and then changed my strategy. I can't really explain any more why I thought this, it was just kind of a feel play; we have a very long history. Basically I played incorrectly pre-river, and decided to make a strange play to force some value.

Were I to play this again, I think checking flop is fine (but maybe not the best play), but I think my turn call is horrendous since it gives me a much smaller chance of stacking an unberboat in a spot where I should fairly often (if not always).

I had no plan to overbet the river. My plan was to raise river after I presumed he would bet. I didn't think of what I would do if he checked.

Your line isn't strange. If you gave a description of yourself and removed your hand, everyone would assume you had exactly AJ, AQ or AK.

If you had nothing and wanted to make a big bluff you'd go smaller since V's calling range should be very strong regardless of your play. I'd have folded JJ in V's spot, doesn't beat any value hands and it's incredibly, incredibly rare for someone to 3x pot bluff anything at 1/2 or even 2/5. It's almost always just the nuts.

Preflop: standard for the most part

Flop: I like the check here. Hero is too far ahead and needs villain to catch up to make money off of the nutz.

Turn: I like the call here. I think that raising would clearly indicate to the villain that the hero has a monster hand and would cause the villain to fold his whole range.

River: $230 is wayy too much. The only hands I see calling this are AQ, AJ, and KK, maybe QQ and JJ. AK would raise you.

I think they best play on the river is to bet less than half the pot ~$35 and feign weakness to induce a call from weaker hands that wouldn't call bigger bets (Ax, 10x, maybe even Kx) or induce the villain to try to (what he thinks) bluff or valuebet you with hands like (KK, AQ, AJ, Ax, QQ, JJ maybe even 10x). If villain comes back at you, then hero get more of his stack in the pot with villain committed.

Why are you trying to play a small pot in this spot? What hands do you put V on that are likely enough to make a second best hand that could pay him off?

Not really trying to play a small pot, but trying to get the best value out all the hands that Villain could be playing.

Hero stated that "[B]V (LJ): $600 Late 40s. Very good reg. Loose pre, solid aggressive post."

Villain's range is pretty big as stated above. We want to feign weakness on the river because villain is "solid aggressive postflop" and we could induce a checkraise bluff/valuebet from villain on hands villain thinks he is ahead.

Right, but on the river, you're trying to induce a bluff in a $90 pot. Why would you prefer that over inducing a bluff in a $250 pot? If you wouldn't prefer that, what can you do to make the pot bigger on earlier streets?

While how you got to the river might be up for debate, I always thought your river play was solid. You are targeting very narrow, but you might as well. A guy you described as pretty good rec called it off for that much with the worst underfull. Surprise, surprise, 1/2 player can't get away from strong absolute hand value. The guys who can at this level are black swans, so you might as well go for it once you got there.

Against a very good player a turn call is pretty much mandatory once you ck back flop, and often will result in riv value with V betting more of his range otr or at least ck-c most of it. Getting two streets this way could contend for max value, though your sizing choice as if you have bluffs to rep was a mistake. (Shocked he called/he's not that good/this isn't a level spot)

Against an average player/poor player, you might look for 3 streets immediately or fall back on a turn raise as they are likely to overplay worse hands for value or call down because they still operate under Zeebos theorem.

which hands would he have that he is sure enough are ahead to c/r this river? When was the last time you saw someone in 1/2 c/r bluff the river, and especially this kind of texture? Come on, once you get there, you hope he has an underfull, and can't lay it down, even for an overbet. Very bad to assume people play as well as you, it can be really expensive. I am not being sarcastic. People on here are very good players for the most part at the stakes they play, and when you only think from that perspective you miss out on how badly people play in real life sometimes, and how prone they are to call with "big" absolute value hands. You used to be able to stack guys when you outkicked them, no we are wondering about how not to lose them when they make underfulls, times change, lol.

I see your point, but given the situation... if hero bets on the flop or raises on the turn. Then the hero essentially shows the strength of his hand (basically Ax). This gives the villain the opportunity to fold marginal/2nd best hands and would not consider even trying to bluff given that the hero's image is reg tag.

As played, hero leaves villain in the dark as to the strength of his hand. The only indicator of strength is the best size of the hero (an overbet of $230 into a $89 pot). Only a real calling station(not villain's image) or better hand would call the overbet. An overbet would rarely ever induce a bluff from the villain.