Villain ($1,250) - Short, thin Asian guy with moustache. Very aggressive player, does not really speak English. Big mark at this 2/5 game recently. Been running very hot and beating the good regs. Plays ~40% of hands. Plays top pair and draws aggressively, but will mix it up (i.e. will sometimes call, sometimes raise). Will flatcall c-bets with midpair/bottom pair. Preflop hand selection is atrocious, seen him call raises with 58s and 38s oop and check/call flop with any pair. In a hand shortly before this vs a solid reg, he flatted from blinds with ATo and then check/raised a T-high two-tone flop, and shoved turn to double up (100bb effective). In other hands I've seen him raise flop, check/call turn, give up on river. I've played a lot of 1/2 versus him and my strategy used to be to valuebet/valuebet/check river when draws brick, and call a reasonable size bet. He used to bluff missed draws a LOT at 1/2, but at 2/5 I've noticed his river bets are value-weighted. He will slowplay monster hands (I've seen him check twice OOP then minraise turn with a set).

Hero (Covers) - Been running hot, winning a lot, but still playing tight aggressive. Should have a good image but ran a huge bluff on V in a previous session and got called. After that I've pinned him as a big calling station and don't even cbet him without top pair.

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Preflop: Hero has AA (no spade) on BTN. Couple limpers, Hero makes it $30 and gets 4 callers. V limp/calls from UTG.

Flop: Ts 8s 3h (~$115)

Checks to Hero who bets $80. V makes it $250. Hero calls. Heads up.

Turn: 4x (~$615)

V checks and has ~$950 behind. Hero?

First, I think with 2 limpers in front, one of those who is 99% to call us, Im making it 40-45 preflop. Maybe even 50 to try and get it HU against V. But as played I like the flop play. On the turn Im betting here something like 350-400. That bet is big enough so that we can easily get it all in if we like the river card. He isnt folding any spade or straight draw. He also isnt folding a T or probably an 8 so make him pay.

:grunch:

I've just started playing NL live, but shouldn't we check behind on turn? Doesn't betting just give him an opportunity to move you off your hand with something you are currently beating? I'd rather check back the turn and evaluate river. This way you can catch a bluff, make a decent value bet or fold if a bad card hits on the river.

As i'm just starting out, I imagine this is probably wrong. Can someone explain why?

I would think that Villian isn't checking turn with a set or two pair. He'd be betting to GII on the river and protect against draws. I'm betting the turn and thinking I'm way ahead.

I don't think the plan is to bet/fold, it would be to bet/call.

Interesting. I'm still getting used to how to deal with stacks relative to the pot as i'm a limit player. I see you're point though. If hero bets, there's really no way he can fold to a c/r given the pot and stack sizes. That being said, it seems betting and calling any bet on the turn are correct? Do you check behind on the river if the card is a brick and he checks to you or bet for value?

If we bet turn here and V flats, river completely bricks off and V check - I think it is a clear spot to go for value.

Yeah I missed a very important bet on the turn. Honestly I was scared playing so deep with only one pair and wanted to keep the pot small. I always hear that in deepstack poker how 1 pair hands go down in value... But I guess it still would have been the right decision to barrel turn.

I checked it back, river was a Tx and V bets out $270. At 1/2 I have seen him bluff with missed draws several times, but in much smaller pots. So I called and he had 9To.

I don't know. I hate these spots. Say you bet $300+ on the turn, is he capable of shoving for $600 more w a hand you beat? Are you going to call it off w one pair hand when there was a single-raise preflop and an SPR of 10 going to the flop? V got like infinite IO to start the hand.

Until the turn, this hand is pretty similar to another thread except a little deeper. In other thread V check-raised flop and check-raised turn and most thought H should have checked behind on turn. I thought I'd bet on the turn on that hand. This hand made me think of that hand and I wondered if checking behind was the right play w stacks so deep.

I guess unless you know V is capable of bluff raising you off your overpair, I'd just B/F turn (1/2 our stack in, ugh), but still not even sure that's best in my head.

Shove

i play in some of the same games as HH2010 and have played with villain. don't have anymore to add to read from OP just wanted that clear before my post.

bet/calling 275-300 range on turn vs this villain. He is aggressive enough that I don't think he ever has two pair or a set when he checks a super blank turn after c/r flop. Also from my experience playing vs villain I don't think he checks turn very often with semibluffs either when he chooses to raise flop with them. Range is super heavily weighted to top pair, especially since this villain is willing to raise top pair without considering his kicker (have stacked villain on K hi board with AK when he c/r with KJ). River T is probably worse than a spade.

I would be interested to see the other thread if you have the link.

Agree about V having infinite implied odds. That was the frustrating part... Id have to bet the turn big to deny him odds, and would have to call it off if he decided to shove.

The fact is, after check raising flop he has almost no value hands that check the turn. Notice in my reads that V did c/r flop and barrel turn with TPTK. The turn check here made me think he had something weaker than that.

Interesting note is that the next day this V raised me with OESD and then barreled the turn unimproved, instead of taking the free card. He showed the semi bluff. Good to know for next time. In the context of this hand it means he probably doesnt have a draw.

What really sucks is that I've owned this guy so many times in the past by letting draws miss and then calling a river bet. He sucked out pretty good here with the T on river.