villain, 50 yr old guy, heard someone say he's a lawyer. I've seen him before but no real memory of how he plays. He just moved to my table so I'm sure there's no history between us that's in play right now. He starts with $500

hero covers

Pre: hero (HJ) dealt KK
UTG (villain) limps, hero raises 30, UTG calls

Flop (65): 7 7 4 (rainbow)
UTG check, hero bets 45, UTG calls

Turn (155): 9 (rainbow)
UTG check, hero bets 75, UTG counts out calling chips and then raises to 195, hero calls

River (545): 3
UTG bets 165, hero folds


Thoughts? Would you have done the same line, or called river, or maybe fold to turn c/r?
How about bet sizing?

gotta call for that price. He bet just what I would be willing to call.

Pre and flop seem fine.

After he calls the flop bet, I'm ranging him on something like 44-99 or TT (assuming he wouldn't limp anything better than TT), 7x and 56. When he raises turn after the 9 hits, I'm removing 88, 66 and 55 from his range, doubt he'd turn those into a bluff. That leaves us ahead of TT and 56, and behind 7x, 44 and 99. Some spazz in there too of course Moreover, his x/raise sizing is pretty small, seems like he wants a call, so I discount TT and 56 some. I think we're beat and probably fold OTT. If I call turn, I'm just never folding river even when 56 gets there.

On this board, I'd often check turn with a plan to call a bet on the river or make a reasonably sized bet if checked to on river. Board isn't very wet, and a lot of the pocket pairs we beat may not want to call a turn bet out of fear of facing a third bet on the river, but will call a river bet because they get to go to showdown. Betting turn is obviously better against 56, but I discount that some because he limp/called pre-flop from UTG, so maybe he only has 56s, while all low and medium pocket pairs are in his range.

The only thing you really beat here is when he spazzes out.

His line is pretty strong...

It sucks that 56 got there too...

This never really seems like a bluff but we might have the price to SIGH call.

(Edit) I might be folding this river/turn. It is really hard to put any overpairs in his range due to the limp/call pre. 99 gets there, 56 get there. We beat a bluff and that seems to be it.

It's a great price. Believe me, I hummed and hawed for a good minute before making the lay down.

The bet sizing didn't seem to be a bluff since he didn't shove for $200+. So it's either a value bet or a blocking bet.
I just couldn't put him on any hand that he'd block bet, except maybe TT, but that's even pretty unlikely given pre.

Bet turn larger, Fold turn


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Check turn

Hate the turn sizing, It's probably a fold once he raises but I could definitely level myself into thinking he's making a play at my weak sizing. I'd rather check turn then never fold, or bet an amount that looks bluffier ($130-150) so we can get called down by 55,88,66, TT, A4 etc. and we don't have to worry that we've enticed a bluff with our sizing.

why are people capping his PF limp range at TT? I play mostly 1/3 but I don't think its super uncommon for people take this line with QQ or JJ. if he has a strong value hand (like a 7, a boat, or straight) don't you think he's shoving the river to get max value? Hero's perceived range is going to be almost exclusively over pairs, which V probably will assume Hero will call with. I read this small river sizing as either a blocking bet with QQ-TT or some kind of weird spazzy bluff. we're getting 4.3:1 so we need to be good just 19% of the time to call.

say we give him all combos of QQ and JJ, all combos of TT plus 4 combos of spazz bluffs, and all combos of value hands that we lose to (56s, 99, 44, A7s, 87s, 67s). there are 22 combos of hands we beat and 16 of hands we lose to, making this a slam-dunk call.

even if he doesnt limp qq or jj, there're still 10 combos of hands we beat and 16 we lose to. 10/26*100=38% win at show down, still an easy call.

and even if he doesn't bluff, 6 combos of hands we beat vs 16 we lose. 6/22*100= 27%... you get the point

I'm starting to think that check turn is better, but for those who say bet bigger on the turn, can you explain why?

Aren't we turning our hand into a bluff if we bet bigger?
And I'm not sure why it's a bad thing to make our bet look weak, enough so villain will spazz raise sometimes. That's what we want, no?

I would've bet less otf and bet-f turn. No problem going for 3 .5psb against this guy. Against known/better players I'd consider ck back flop w my range and aim for 1-2 streets