V ($400) - Young white kid. He hasn't opened or been involved in many pots since Hero moved from a broken table. He's observant and could be capable of hand reading. In one hand he played top 2 with JT passively (called $5 bet on turn in $100 pot when possible straight hit, c/f river when flush completed). Struck me as a fit-or-fold player. Straddles every orbit.

Hero (covers) - May have an image of a young aggro because I look like one. Been to the table for 2 orbits but been pretty active as I've picked up some good hands. My first hand I pick up KK and raised V's straddle to $20 UTG+1 and only SB called. Flop comes 987ss, SB leads out for a PSB, I c/c, c/f on the turn when he bet pot again (put him on a set). Then in another pot, I won a $100 pot and showed 88 against T7 in a 7236A board.

Hand

V Straddles 5 UTG, UTG folds, Hero UTG+1 raises to $20 with QQ, folds around to V who calls.

Flop ($40) 10 107

V checks, Hero bets $25, V c/r $65, Hero thinks for a bit and calls

I was having a have time putting V on a value hand. I think he would 3b pre with AA,KK,AK and I didn't put him on JT or T9, or combo draws like 89 cause I dont think he'd call with those heads up, 77 would slowplay. So I put him on pp's maybe JJ? Maybe I give him too much credit by thinkinkg he wouldn't call me with wide range...

Turn ($170) 3

V tanks then bets $100, Hero tank calls

I seriously thought of shoving here with about 100bbs behind but I decided to stick to my plan of letting him value own himself with his JJ or let him continue to bluff.

River ($370) 9

V quickly checks this time, Hero?

check back. You're never folding out better.

I can't think of many worse hands that will call. JJ, 8h9h, Jh9h, maybe he spazzed a little with lower pocket pairs and will look you up cause draws missed, but that's pretty optimistic. I don't mind checking it back.

You're exactly 50/50 against JJ, Jh9h, 9h8h, 6 combos of lower pocket pairs (say 88), and 28 combos of 10s (say JTs, QTs, KTs, ATs, ATo). If you think he has more worse hands he calls with or less 10s (or better) then bet, if you think he has less worse hands he calls with or more 10s (or better) then check behind.

I say check it back. You are not getting called by much that you beat. He may well be giving you a chance to bet with missed draws. The pot is plenty big, and we do not have a big hand here. I'd be happy to take it down as is.

I think it's pretty close. Obviously he could have c/r with a flushdraw but players tend to go crazy on these paired boards sometimes. I think a lot of 7s might play the hand like this, and maybe an underpair to the 10s. Against an unknown I probably check, but I hate it because I feel like we're losing so much value - if he has a hand like 89 and we make a small value bet we can probably get a call. Flush draws will most likely fold (possibly shove but unlikley) and any 10 will probably just call, but if he had one he probably would have bet it otr (unless he has kicker problems).

One thing I'm trying to work on is getting value from Vs after they spaz out like this otf and ott and give up otr - this does depend on your BR and increases variance though (in the cases where V does have a 10/boat).

FWIW I find that when Vs check quickly it means they have something - that's not very specific but I find they definitely have showdown value. If he had a huge hand he would probably at least think about what to do, and the same goes for if he had total air.

Also many people like to defend their straddle and don't think about position as much as their hand - especially with 200 BB, V is probably more inclined to call with speculative hands like AT-9Ts, 89s/78s etc.

The pot is almost 200BB's and you have 1 pair on the river. I really hate his c/r size on the flop. I mean he cant be semi bluffing this small. And the lead on the turn just screams pure value, including the snap check on the river. If he had a flush draw you would expect him to have to contemplate a river bluff. If he had a monster then he already made his mind up, plus young players like to make moves and I'm sure he'd be very proud of himself for check raising you. You could bet something absurd like $30 and expect JJ to call, but is it really worth being jammed on? Just check and see what he has and exploit it later. $370 pot is a pretty good take for QQ.

Yea its pretty much undisputed that we check it down with our QQs. Basically wanted to see what kind of ranges we can put him on.

Hero checks, V sighs and groans and tables a 9..

I asked him to show the other card which was a 5 before I flipped my QQs

I kept my cool but inside I was flipping out, I couldnt believe it.. I wonder what made him spazz like that.

We have top 2 pair actually :P. And we have to be looking at relative hand strength, not just say "we only have a pair and the pot is big enough, we should be happy". At the other end of the spectrum, if we have bottom set on a KcQcJc10x9c board we can't really do anything. But V has basically said I'm done trying to win this pot, and his check on the river most likely means he has completely given up or now has a hand that has showdown value.

FWIW I probably lean between check and bet too. I'm just trying to argue that sometimes we should think deeper and figure why our opponent gives up so quickly instead of shoving, and potentially exploit that.

Easy check back otr, your hand is not strong enough to vbet unless villain is extremely loose.

I don't see why he'd check a ten on the river, we have the best hand here so often. I'm betting but I'm not expecting a call b/c his hand just looks like air.

no it's good to check back as he won't call any worse - and you can see what he is capable of bluffing with.

It's not like your folding out his oddly played KK or a T with a bet. So by checking we found he did this with 95 which is just terrible.

bad/nitty players will check a ten because "the pot is big enough," but I agree that we can probably safely bet small here without value owning ourselves too often