1/3/Utg6. 9 handed.
CO (80) weak passive fish
BUT (280) Hero. Tight image.
SB (900) Loose passive. Sticky post flop. Has a tendency to float the flop if he connects at all, and will bet later if shown weakness. Also seen him bluff catch rivers/hero call. Essentially the exact player u don’t want on your left. But I think he actually plays pretty well.


BB & straddle both tight ABC.

CO limps 6. Hero BUT KJcc raises to 30. SB tank calls.
HU
(75) Flop A94cds
SB checks. hero bets 30. V calls.
(135) Turn 3h
X x
(135) Riv Qx
X x

I had decided earlier that it would be a bad strategy to cbet bluff once and then give up vs this particular player given his tendencies, however I’m not sure how else to play this hand. Are there other options?

With a sticky villain cut down your c-bets percentage. He won't go away as easily post and will still pay you off when you hit. After that it depends on villain.

How often you want to bet this flop depends on villain's preflop calling range. If he has a lot of pairs and AX that are not going to go away then this is a good flop to just give up. If he will put you on trying to steal the pot preflop and call with a wider range then c-betting is fine.

How often you want to barrel depends on villain also. If he is the sort that will float flop and give up to a barrel then barrel more. If he is still going to be sticky then mostly give up turn unless you gain some equity. Against a lot of these sticky villains you don't want to c-bet ace high flops because they will assume your bluffing, save your c-bets for boards with 1 non-ace face card.

Depending on villain you flop bet might be too small. If he is going to fit/fold no matter your bet sizing then small if good. If he gets more sticky/floaty against small bets then make it $40 on the flop. Also watch out for bet sizing tells in this situation, it's easy to get into the habit of going $30 when c-betting air and going $40 when you have AX or better.

For sure thanks for the sound general advice. But here in this specific spot what do u think?
Because I think cbetting this dry flop should be printing, given it’s hard to have anything here, and we can get folds from lots of random suited connectors, broadways, baby pairs. But then when we get called his range is still pretty weak. I planned to barrel any card that gave me any kind of equity. But when I turn nothing I kinda just shut it down, I suppose I could just barrel 3 streets as a dark tunnel bluff might actually be ok vs this villain

Disagree.

V likes to peel wide OTF, so we should be 2x barreling at a higher frequency.

OTF, we have backdoor sd and overcards to mp.

OTT, can go either way, but when he checks river I think he is VERY 9x or pp heavy and we can profitably stab.

My point was that it depends on villain and what he calls preflop and flop with and that isn't clear from your description.

Given your description my general inclination is too check turn. The key consideration here is how much AX is in villain's range on the turn. If they have a lot of AX then check turn and hope to catch your straight. If their range has a lot of low pairs and villain will fold to continued action then barrel away.

This depends heavily on villain. How many of those hands does he really have in this case? He called a raise out of the SB knowing he was likely to be heads up. He has to be very loose before I expect a lot of QJo type hands but if that is the case then c-betting is obvious.

Villain needs a very specific profile and to be spectacularly bad before regularly barreling 3 streets is a good idea. If villain has a lot of low pairs in his range, not a lot of AX and will give up to 3 barrels consistently it can be profitable but it will be high variance also.

Trying to barrel stations just because they rarely have anything strong is a mistake. They are still going to "hero" call a lot despite having middle/low pairs. Wait until you actually have value and then bet.

I'm okay with c-betting this flop, even against stickier opponents. The A high flop should be better for your range than his, especially with you having a tight image. I also think this particular hand is a good non-Ax candidate to c-bet for a few reasons. You have solid BDs with the NFD and Broadway draw, you're IP, and against a sticky V it's possible that pair outs would be good too.

As played, not totally sure what I'd do OTT, as it would depend on how I perceived this V. I'd probably just give up. You pick up a gutter and there's still a chance your pair outs are good, but the board is pretty static and dry so once V calls flop I don't know how often he's going to fold turn. Maybe barrel if you turn the FD, and I'd certainly barrel if you turn one of the gin turn cards that give you a combo draw.

Nice hand.

LOL at anyone advocating trying to blast this villain off his hand after he calls this A-high, rainbow flop.

I'd check this flop against a sticky player (possibly delay cbet the turn), and barrel more on boards with at least two undercards and preferably some backdoors. Sure, you can have the best hand if you make a pair, but against sticky players I would want to be somewhat sure of that.

In general I basically never barrel on ace high boards without at least having an ace (or a huge draw obv). That might be a leak, but personally I don't think it is.

3 barrel more often vs this player as he will arrive to the river with a lot of mid/bottom pairs and bet for thinner value.

I like these players as they build a lot of big pots for you to bluff them off of when they do not improve on the river, or just run into your monster.

Definitely a leak unless you play in strictly nit infested games. Think of how many times you value bet A hi boards and get action...LLSNL guys hate folding.

If you think only TP calls on A hi boards then you are missing valuable barreling opportunities and/or getting bluffed off the best hi card hands.




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So you say they hate folding, yet you're barreling ace high boards with K high? That way you're just blowing up the pot (versus guys who love to play all kinds of aces, mind you), hoping they'd eventually fold their middle pairs or whatever. I prefer to keep the pot smaller when my bluffs are somewhat likely to have little or no equity. I don't see any need to play a big pot with K high on an A high board.

Meanwhile, in nit infested games you don't want to barrel with K high? The way I see it, nits are the ones who ARE willing to fold to pressure.

I'd probably add this hand into my give up range vs an opponent like this. There's a chance we can get to showdown for free and win or that we hit a K or J and it's the best hand.

Seat change obviously.

I would actually just overlimp preflop. The limper is passive and short and could easily be limping in with a dominating hand here (and possibly just limp/folding his dominated ones), so it's a meh stack to be attacking since we'll often uncomfortably commit ourselves with TP which might not make up for all the smaller pots we steal. I used to think this was an autoraise, but I'm just not as convinced now. We're also cool with others coming along for the ride with this multiway hand.

I'd probably also cbet the flop, although against a sticky guy it's probably fine to check back unless we're thinking of barrelling.

We're kinda lucky that he gave us the option to check back the river as facing a bet would put us in an awkward spot.

Overall, I'm moving towards not playing huge pots with mediocre hands, so that's where my head is at lately.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Yeah I had both seat change buttons on lock hehe XD

I don’t hate the limp pre but with position, initiative and a pretty good hand I still like a default raise here, in less concerned about being dominated by the short stack since even if I am the RIO are pretty low if I’m out kicked with top pair.
I prefer to play KJ and KT hands for top pair value more when stacks are shallow (common tournament theory)

I was planning to barrel any club, Q, T, and check back/ value bet riv if a K or a J came, but this is also just my default strategy and I wanted to Taylor my play more to exploit this villain but not really sure how since double barreling when I DONT pick up equity seems kinda spew

You misunderstood my point.

We should be firing turn and river vs sticky V types in this hand since they arrive with marginal holdings that can't stand multiple barrels (even on A hi boards). IE You can't just assume these guys always have TP when they call OTF.

We should NOT be firing multiple barrels vs NITs on these boards since they very likely have TPgk or slow played monsters.

So your advice is to blast away at sticky villains because they have a weak range, even when we completely brick the turn?

Does it even matter to you whether we have a hand that can realistically improve to beat our Villain's updated range after he calls this flop?

If I wanted to be masochist I'd contact my second ex-wife and ask her if she wants to hang out.

In this case, 3x OTT is probably a good spot to delay barrel a good river, which we get with an overcard.

I think we have a very profitable bluff OTR vs this V type. It's pretty awful if he shows us 9Tcc, 45cc, etc OTR.

Personally I check back these flops with basically my whole range against LPs and then am delayed c-betting with almost my whole range if he checks twice.

I have a ton of mediocre aces that I’m ok pot controlling/underrepping/letting V catch up and barely any equity laced draws I want to realize. Also tons of air balls obv that play a lot better as delayed cbets.