6-handed live 2/5. Villain in this hand is a guy who’s often the table “bully” - 3betting and 4betting preflop often, and using large bets and overbets postflop. Very aggressive but not a maniac, overall a pretty strong, thinking player.

Effective stack between me and villain is around $1800.

Preflop:
V opens on the button for $20, SB calls and hero calls on the BB with J9.

Flop ($60):
T99
Hero checks, V bets 30, SB calls, hero raises to $125, V calls, SB folds.

Turn ($340):
A
Hero bets $175, V calls.

River ($690):
8
Hero checks, V bets $800, hero ?

I feel like this hand has to be a call if I don’t want to be exploited. I block the straight and I don’t block the flush draw. Also, this is probably one of the best hands I can have in this spot. On the other hand, it’s pretty clear that I have a 9, so this overbet does not look like a bluff.

Side note: I folded trips face up before in this session to the same player when the flush got there on the river, and he overbet the river in that hand, too. I don’t know if he had it then.

Stop folding face-up.

Calling a very aggressive player's open OOP with J9o seems iffy, even though it is 6-handed and he is OTB.

Flop is good. I like the sizing. Could even make it a bit more on a board this wet.

Turn is a bit small, imo.

River is a sigh/call, imo, especially given your history of having shown yourself capable of folding trips. He has straights and boats in his range, but he also has a lot of FDs, and he could be betting AcXc as a merge too.

Fold preflop: I just avoid getting oop with very marginal hands against skilled players, period. I admit I don't play well enough post-flop to do it. We flopped about as good as we're gonna flop here and we still have our chestnuts in the fire. I'm sure OP plays better than me post, so OTTH.

AP: flop is good. Need a bigger bet on turn I think. V has all the big Ax here so it's a good card to extract more value if you're ahead of Ax and punish his straight and FDs.

River is brutal as V reps QJ or the case 98. We're blocking both and we have plenty of boats here! What's he doing?

Now there are 6 slow-played TT out there too. So perhaps 20 total combos to worry about. In contrast, there's 32 AK/AQ looking for gutters and 16 KQ floating hoping to bink J or bluff river.

V's overbet is very clever because it looks bluffy. I think we have to call getting 2-1 just on the combinatorics but I ain't happy here.

Like the previous poster, my post flop skills OOP are a work in progress. However at 360bb deep, I'm calling if it's a suited 1- gapper.

AP: after a x/r on the flop declaring strength, I'm betting => 2/3 pot on the Turn.

Agree with more on the turn.

River is pretty sick. The history dictates a call (he could be using history to his advantage, though), but I don't like it at all.

Why did you check? To induce?

Do you think this is a spot where we can split our trips into combos that contain and don’t contain a club, and only call with those that don’t?

I wondered also about the check. You played the hand looking like you have a 9 that is scared of the straight, so it seems that this V played back at your accordingly. I don't think your plan was to check to induce but I think you have to call now and just live with whatever he shows you.

If you aren't checking to try to get him to bet a missed draw or you are scared of him betting and not knowing what the do, then I think a bet of $400 on the river is probably the move. It looks valuey so he probably won't raise it as a bluff and he probably won't raise it with a straight, but still might call with a worse 9 or Ax. Since he would almost certainly only raise for value, if he does raise then it is probably a fold.

I dunno if villain is really going to be bluffing in this spot ever.

exactly this.

and good check on the river, you are giving him a chance to bluff and doing a bit of pot control against QJ. but expect to see QJ here often enough that it is probably a break even call.

pre is probably somewhat bad with the SB flatter, i start calling at JTo. If SB folded, J9o is a "std" defend to avoid overfolding to BTN steals, but realistically it's probably a breakeven call and if we're not so strong post it can get into pretty -EV territory.

flop fine, turn too small.

ap sigh call, you're near the top of your range vs a spewy player and have the nut best bluff catcher. probably should be checking some of your nutty hands here otr.

Fold pre. We are OOP, villain is aggressive and skilled, we are not priced in.

I call river given history and villain.

tl;dr? just read Garick's post a few times.

fold pre.

bet more turn

dont fold face up

puke now and say im worst player alive and fold face down

a good thinking villain expects you to call with 3 9s here after you showed you would fold it