Very open to criticism. After typing this whole hand out, I can spot some leaks in my thought process so am already learning

Villian ($800) - Tight, seems a bit tilty and has lost his stack twice. A bit of a call station, thinks himself as a great player based off of table talk. I would say he can read hands decently. Aggressive in terms of betting frequency, but really passive and small bet sizes.

Hero ($780) - LAG, young, a bit quiet but friendly. Has shown down winning marginal hands, and a couple of flushes with hands like J10s and 68s. Beat villain with 2 pair once, A10. Haven't been caught bluffing yet. Haven't shoved yet.

Pre: Hero is dealt Q10 in MP

Folds to hero who makes it $20. Folds to V(button) who calls $20. BB calls.

1) Here I put V on Ax, any broadway, any PP, and suited connectors 56+. I take out TT+ because V 3!s those. I've seen him call with AK before.

Flop($58): A24
BB checks. Hero bets $45. V calls. BB folds

2) V calls my c-bet and, his range narrows to Ax, 55-88, (maybe..KJ+), flush draws. I doubt sets a bit because he'd probably raise me on a board like this.

Turn ($148): A243
Hero checks. V bets $55. Hero C/R to $250...

3) I check hoping for a check back to bink the flush or a pair from my over cards. V however bets fairly small, $55. This removes 66-99 from his range, and pretty much only leaves Ax, flush draw, or 55. I decide to take a c/r semi-bluff here because:
great fold equity: I think V will put me on a set or a straight.
good implied odds: I think I can value bet around $275 into ($~550) if I get a call from a set or 2pair and bink my flush.
I think he'd shove with a straight, in which case I'd fold.

V takes 10 seconds, pretty surprised at the check raise. V calls.

Here when V calls, I get a bit confused about his range esp because he did it fairly fast, and only calls. This makes me think A4, A3, A2 given my read of him being slightly stationy. He might be calling with a set he can't really fold or potentially even 55, scared of a 56? But I think he shoves with 55. I'm just really hoping for a .


River($568): A2434

I watch him before I see the card fall, and I get a read that he doesn't like the card. This makes me have a really strong feeling that his 2pair got counterfeited, or he has the 55. My read removes a FH from his range. I had wanted to c/f if I missed the flush, but this read gave me a huge gut feeling to bluff shove my $500. I think I can rep a BD flush or any full house here and get him to fold anything. I think if I bet lower, he calls or raises.

Hero shoves $500.

What do you all think about my thought process here? If you were villain and you saw my line, what would you put me on?

Result:
TBA

If villain hand reads pretty well, then you're not selling your hand very well.

What are you selling after you raised pre and cbet flop? Almost entirely Ax or mid to big PP.

After you checked turn, what do you think is villain's betting range? If it's Ax, his sizing indicates that he puts you on PP and wants to turn your hand into bluff catcher.

If it's 5x, he is doing the same except that he's less threatened by possibility of bigger Ax.

If he's betting turn with above range, when you check raised the turn, he is only folding Ax and only if he's convinced that you have 5x. Have you established anything for him to suspect that 5x is likely in your range?

looks pretty bad and i'd snap call with probably JJ+ once you check raise turn

you should be able to fold out 66-88 though and maybe king high flush draws


just bet the turn yourself - check raising turn is really bad

I don't think 66-88 is betting turn after calling flop. It would be a pretty advance move and if so, he's certainly capable of reading check raise as bluffy.

IMHO, your line doesn't make a ton of sense.


So you have 5x, then why would you ever check the turn? If I was him, I would call too OTT. He could have the 5x you are trying to rep here.


So if you are semi-bluffing with some gutter OTF, you hit the turn, and check? I don't think so. Like what 5x are we checking OTT? Like 5x clubs? Pretty unlikely you have exactly that. And even if you did, it wouldn't make a ton of sense to check the turn.


If you have a set, you check raise the turn? I don't think so.


What is villain going to put you on here?



It is pretty tough to play OOP, and I think you were trying to hard to win this hand. I sincerely doubt villain would fold river, after he called the turn. 5x makes no sense, and set makes no sense, according to your line.


Just my opinion. I would love to hear some other opinions.

Bet turn since we get all pocket pair and Ax hands including some 2pair hands to fold. If we check raise and get called we have =0 fold equity on river imo. If we had 5x we would always bet turn to get value from Ax, two pair, set or fd

On river, you can bet $350-400 and get likely the same results

What was the point of the C/R on the turn? What are you repping here? Straight? Wouldn't 2 pair/set hate this turn card? BD flush draw with an Ace makes some sense but such a small % of your range. Plus when he calls and the board pairs, are you really confident that a BD flush is good?

I would be super confused by these 2 actions together.

Yeah, I'm not buying your bluff here. I'm certainly not buying a BDF for you since you checked the turn. I think I would most likely put you on Ax hoping for a cheap showdown that switched gears once I bet the turn.

Edit: Of course, I can't think of a range I would bet so small with OTT, so there ya go.....

Hate the bluff, rep nothing, villain clearly has a hand, players like this will get stubborn with misplayed KK or just choose to call down with a straight for one reason or another, putting you on a 6 high straight or some absurdity. They'll still call thinking they are behind. In this circumstance I doubt V is really trying to put you on something, he's just confused and likes his hand. The only way this bluff works is when he has an emotional reaction to the amount of money going into the pot. I've done this before out of desperation and got way too much credit, only because my bet represented too much to my opponent and he just couldnt risk being wrong and losing.

come on, be honest, if you guys are villain, you fold everything but A4 and Axspades in this spot.

On a non pair spade i would say this is quite good. You rep the flush pretty decently. But now its polarized to air or FH. And i dont think the turn check is consistent with a set. You would always barrel a set on the turn. So in terms of story line this is a lot weaker. However calling a psb for 500 vs a polirized action is scary. So could still work fine. With your read, on balance, i kind of like it if he is able to fold a straight or flush here. The relative strength of those is the same as an ace, really, but people have a harder time folding absolute hand strength. So thats quite a big IF.

Hard to say. I certainly wouldnt choose this line for myself.

The description of villain has a lot of inconsistencies btw. Just saying

Lol this forum is so entertaining.

Everyhand the response is literally fold pre, fold flop, fold fold fold everywhere. But everytime someone says rate my bluff everyone snap calls 100bbs.

Yall are just a bunch of cheeky kunts. OP reps nothing but this is far from a snap call.

check raising in a heads up pot is really bad? ok. sure.

grunching. I read a couple of the responses you got and they are just terrible.

I like the CR on the turn. you are repping a set, or trying to get this value off of AK, or trying to squeeze out flush draws with AJ or AQ, but because of your position and the texture of the flop, you hand is pretty well hidden.

I don't like the river bet becuase a majority of the hands you CR with on the turn are going to be AK and AQ. so even if you are going to go for value with one of those hands, you are going to bet like 300, or, the vast majority fo the time, you are going to check it to him.

so when you shove, it looks bluffy.

but, the most important key to making a bluff work is what is your table image to the V at the time of the bluff. So if he still views you as strong, it should work a large % of the time and he is only going to be calling you down with trips, or maybe AK on that board.

but to make the bluff look stronger, bet 445 on the river, and leave yourself like 50 behind. it makes it look like you are begging for a call.

lol... obviously this. it's like most of the posters don't read their own input.

^ There is a world of difference between what I would do myself/recommend another play do and what I see other players actually doing. So I will strongly recommend folding in a spot where I expect almost no players I play against to fold. It is the nature of the game that, against loose passive opposition, you mostly have to fold when they bet and simultaneously cannot bluff effectively against them once they start calling or betting.

It is annoying but there isn't much you can do apart from be very selective about who you bluff and when/how you bluff them.

Things counting against this bluff working:

1) Villain is thought to be stationy.
2) Hero is perceived as slightly LAG.
3) Villain thinks he is excellent.
4) Hero beat villain with two pair (presumably) after starting preflop with a weaker hand than villain - liable to tilt V and make him more stubborn.
5) Turn check raise doesn't represent much.
6) Villains in general struggle to fold top pair or better.
7) If this is different to the line hero took with two pair earlier.

Reasons bluff might work:
1) Check raises scare people.
2) Large bets scare people.
3) If this is how hero played his two-pair earlier.

Personally if I wanted to fold V's AX here I would barrel the turn to set up possible third barrel on the river. However I would definitely make use of how the two pair hand was played or any other history to help me.

Last thing I will say: I went through a stage of heavily testing my bluffing technique and one thing I discovered was that my bluffs very rarely worked when my line was inconsistent - like in this hand. I found that maintaining aggression works OR playing passively and then aggressing a scare card that fits my range works. Aggressing, then attempting to slow down and switching back to aggression in the face of V's aggression, regardless of board, seems to have a spectacularly low success rate!

Overall now I bluff much less than I used to and I'm quite happy with that.

You check raise the turn with a set here?

I think that if you decide to turn this hand into a bluff, you need to lead out turn again. I suppose you want to rep AK, AQ, AJ here.

IMO your c/r on the turn seems weak while if you lead out for $85 and make a big river bet I am more likely to put you on AK.

Really depends on who I am playing against.

Plus if I think 5x is likely in hero's range, why would I bet turn? Plus what range would I be betting with on turn?

My thoughts exactly lol

Hah spot on.

There is also a concept in poker where players fold just because they can't match the size of the bet to the strength of their hands.

Most of the times players play a hand where it makes completely no sense, it ends up being the nuts or nothing, and that is something the villain is going to have to deal with when Hero bluffs the river.

Why not call turn? Getting 4:1

Lot of unhelpful responses in this thread, some were good. Thanks for the comments.

Result:

V tanks very frustratingly. He yells a little bit, and flips over 55 (straight), wondering if he should call. My read was somewhat correct, except he had called me on the turn with what was the second nuts, instead of shoving with it.

After 1 minute, thinking out loud about how "every draw got there, and the FH.. this is sick.. at best I'm only chopping", V eventually threw it away and I won the pot.

At the time I felt really good about myself, but after reading through some comments here I believe I got super lucky. If the V was thinking at all, I think he should have discounted me for the FH because it's rare for people to check a set OOP after getting a nice call on the flop. They'd want to continue betting for value.

I'm not repping a BDF/straight because normally, competent Vs would know that I'd also be scared of the FH. I wouldn't risk shoving with a flush on a scare river card like that. Great Vs would have realized that since they called the turn instead of shoving, a straight is now out of their perceived range, and a river shove becomes pretty bluffy.

In the end, the only thing really working for me in that situation is that my chips are all in the middle with a weird line. That means nuts or nothing usually, and I ended up on the lucky side.

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