1/2 7 handed. H with TAG image, 3b a lot.

Hand 1:

H on button with KK (~900). MP opens to $12, V (~1000) in CO calls, H 3b to $55. MP Folds, V calls.

Flop: 976 (Pot: $125)

V checks. H checks.

I check here because I think this flop smashes the V's call/call range. Wanted to play some pot control. This V just sat down at the table for roughly 30 min - 1hr and ran his stack from 300 to 1K, he seems to be one of the more competent players and gets a lot of value from big hands.

Turn: J.

V checks. H checks. Again, bad card for me especially without the K. Wanted to keep pot small at this point. I think betting small here and then evaluating river might be better as there are a lot of scare cards villain could bluff at if I check through. It would help me realize my equity in this sense.

River: 8

V leads for $120. H? (Pot: $245)

As I was tanking here, V asks if I want to see a card and shows me Q. I ask him you have 10 and he says no, that's too strong I wouldn't show that.

Relevant prior hands: Just the hand before I was in SB and 4b the V's button 3b and he folded. Another hand I saw the V in with MP, there was an A83c10cA runout where he x/r MP on the turn and jammed the river. When MP was tanking, he shows MP a 9c, MP calls with KK and V shows A9cc.

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Hand 2:

H (~900) in CO with QQ. Same V in HJ. EP open to $12, MP Calls, V (~1100) calls. H raises to $65. Folds to V, calls.

Flop: KKJ (Pot: $157)

V checks. I check. My thinking here is I have Qh and blockers to all the big draws (Q10, AQ), it'd be hard to get called by worse. The check is also partially for deception to maybe get the V to make a move at it. Maybe betting $50 here to get calls from Jack and to protect my 3b c-bet range is something I should have done as all the hands I'd 3b with here that whiffed would fire.

Turn: 10

V checks. I check.

I have SDV here and blockers to all the draws. I don't think my hand needs that much protection as I have the royal draw, betting here would be to build the pot but at this point I think even J would fold. Was learning from a previous post I made on 2+2 with SDV and OESFD on turn where I lead and got x/r.

River: 6.

V bets $110. H? (Pot:$267)

Snap call here? 2/3 pot is pretty polar but it is hard to find many bluffs V might have. Perhaps Ah10 or lower PP?

Relevant prior hand: along with the ones listed above, a previous hand I was in with V, the flop checked through. I made broadway on the turn with QJo and got check called by V. The river brought 3 to a flush and V lead for 3/4 pot. I call and he shows down 2p of A7 that came in on the turn and river.

Hand 1 i think we should bet turn and folding river should be fine.

Hand 2 not folding - not really a big fan of double xback this texture - we can also consider turning our hand into a bluff by raising to potentially fold out trips, straights - and whether it is ever morr +ev than call.

Hand 1 I think thats the optimal line, curious to hear others thoughts.

Hand 2. Raising is definitely something I thought about but what trips does V have here that hasn't filled up? We block KQ and AK would likely bet turn if not 4b pre given how often I have 3b/4b V already. We also block straights AQ/Q9 and would need to size pretty big given that I checked flop and turn to get V to fold. I think raising here might make sense if I bet turn. Curious to hear more thoughts.

Hand 2: you played this hand unusually slow. I think it is worth a bet on the turn. Given your double check, Villain is happy to go for value with AJ. So yes, it’s a snap call. Though next time I would bet turn.

Hand 1: fold is fine. This spot should be underbluffed. He would have to be turning a pair into a bluff. Not many are capable of that. Plus the show one card seems to be a show of strength based on his showdowns.

That hand was very different from this hand. In that hand you called a flop check/raise and both obvious draws came in on the turn. So Villain either had a strong made hand on the flop or he turned a flush/straight. You were betting into a very strong range on the turn in that hand.

Here Villain has checked twice so his range is very weak. So we want to bet for value. Having the Q of hearts is a good thing because it improves our hands equity, so we should be more willing to bet with this combo of QQ than a black QQ.

In one case, you had a marginal hand with JTo and were facing a very strong range, so you want to check. In this case, you have a marginal hand with QQ but are facing a very weak range. So this hand merits a bet.

Hand 1 in my experience on 3 flush 4 straight board, when they show a flush card they have a straight. Don’t really know why. I fold here.

Hand 2 bet flop small, as played bet turn small. There are plenty of hands to get value from.

Why does he bet so much on the river in hand 1? It's almost pot. What does he expect you to call with? I'm so tempted to call based on that, but then he shows the Qc, which is annoying and makes me want to fold. Really tough one, but I probably just fold and move on.

Hand 2: I bet the turn for value and to make him pay a little to see a river. As played, I call.

I am really bad at interpreting strange live behaviors so I usually ignore them, but it seems like in the HH he showed a weak card when he wanted a call. This time he's showing a strong card.

On the other hand, IME when someone admits they don't have the nuts (QTcc is close enough), they are always telling the truth, but also always have value, but does he call 3-bet with QTo?

Most defends vs. 3-bets are going to be suited unless villain is bad and loose. QJ would not bet river for this sizing anyway. It seems like you beat three combos of AQo for bluffs, one of KQo. Lose to 3 combos of flushes and 3 of QTo.

I probably would have folded before he showed a card without tanking. We block bluffs.

I agree, I was thinking the same thing in H1 where originally he showed weak but was strong and this time showed strong so maybe it was weak. Was thinking the same thought process with blockers, although the way the math works if I'm beating 4 combos and losing to 6 combos, wouldn't it be good to call since I'm getting 2:1? I ended up folding, V didn't show which was frustrating but definitely would have called if I had the Kc.

Ya that makes sense, the actions wasn't the exact same. I guess my line of thinking was I didn't really need protection against any river cards and would get max value through the opponent bluffing a scare card on the river.

Re H1: ya it was definitely a leveling game going on because he knew I saw him showdown a big hand last time he did this.

H2: I ended up making the call and V showed Q9cc for a turned straight.

Big PP

If you straight count combos it’ll seem like you have odds in every spot. You can’t count on him to take this line with all of his air. He may do this with AQ/KQ but probably not at 100% frequency. He may not do this with QT/Qxcc at 100% frequency either.

Hand 1 I fold because everything in the entire world got there.

Hand 2 I'm more tempted to call.

Semi grunch - You say V 3bet a lot, did he c/r a lot?

Hand 1 - I agree the board hits V's range, but I don't think checking is best. I think a 1/3 to 1/2 pot is good, calling flop if he c/r and reassessing on the turn with position. By never c-betting (no flop or delayed cbet) we are telling V he can stake a claim on the hand.

Hand 2 - Similar to H1, I think we should be betting here. This flop hits our range more than it hits his. V called 1 raise, then called your 3bet. You said he 3bets a lot. Does he 3bet AK? Probably, but he didn't 3bet so AK isn't likely in his range now. We block KQ, so that's heavily discounted, he's got what, 1 combo of KQs and 2 of KQo? He's only got 2 combos of KJs.

Maybe he's not calling with worse, but it sounds like you're using that as an excuse not to bet without considering the follow on effects of betting - we stake a claim on the pot. If you show weakness on two streets you're giving this player license to steal your pot on the river.

Boards get scary. You have to 1) get value before the board gets scary for you AND your opponent, 2) show that you are willing to fight for the pots you build (otherwise strong players like this one will keep blowing you out of pots) and 3) realize that scary boards actually only hit a tiny portion of your V's range, so they aren't that scary.

Aggression wins pots. Not just because of value betting or getting folds OTF, but by slowing our opponents down on later streets, and also being able to set up value on our strong hands later. Aggression makes us generally difficult to play against. Ideally in H2, we'd want to bet AK and JJ . If we are ONLY betting AK and JJ and checking QQ or AA then well... savvy opponents like the one in this hand will exploit us by overfolding or overbluffing depending on the scenario.

Will things get scary? Will we get check raised now and again? Will we run into strong hands sometimes? Yes. But these are not reasons for passive play (at least at $1-2). Maybe you can make the argument that you want to pot control against this V? But I actually think what you did in H1 is show V he can overbluff you in H2. By our lack of aggression we didn't pot control, we showed V its easy to steal pots from us.

I appreciate the thoughts. Don't think I mentioned V 3b a lot, my OP said I 3b a lot. I've seen him x/r turn with top pair NFD as mentioned in the hand history for H1.

I think in hindsight betting flop on KKJ is reasonable as it protects my 3b continuing range and if not, betting turn is fine to get some value out of J or 10. But I was actually banking on V firing the river to try and steal the pot again for H2 and call. I blocked all the big made hands and really thought I could only get 1 street of value out of worse. If V checked river I was going to bet.

Re: Aggression, I think that is a really good point and probably my main takeaway from these hands. By betting and at least repping I have a hand, it will slow the opponent down and make them less likely to polarize and try and steal the pot.