Not sure there is a pat answer here, but pretty sure I messed this one up and didn't extract full value. This post is more about learning some guidelines to think about in this type of situation instead of just reviewing this particular hand.

1/3 NLH, 500 max buy in, game is pretty LAG with a lot of three betting pre-flop.

Hero has $360 effective stack, is perceived as tight and solid. Has only shown down good hands. Took a brutal river beat earlier (7 to 1 favorite for $600 pot). Had already beaten V in two earlier hands within last 30 minutes, one as a small stack all-in with an open ended SD.

V is very LAG, in for $1200 already and fires large bets, thinks of himself as a bully, talks a lot, poker expert, table captain, party animal.

Hero is SB with QJs. V is BB. Folded to mid-position player (Donk) who raises to $20 (you can just put him on Ax and be done with it). Hero and BB call. Pot of $60.

Flop is T97r.

Hero leads $40. My thought here was that I had a better chance to get in a little cheaper by leading then checking to V who might overbet hard (could easily see a $100 bet from him here). With my image and having taken him down twice, I thought he respected my bet enough to not raise here. Works out as BB calls, Donk calls. Pot of $180.

Turn is K giving me nut straight, with 2 diamonds on board.

(Side note: this casino has a promotion where if you get 9 different hands in a week you win $250. Four of the 9 hands are the four different suited flushes, so for whatever dumb reason, there was a lot of flush chasing going on, and I'd seen several of these getting chased, so that was in my head here. One woman was down $1000 chasing flushes to fill up her $250 card.
So. Yeah.).

I bet $100 feeling pretty confident about a V call based on prior 3 hours of watching him. He calls. Donk folds. I guess I could've tried for check raise here but I was concerned about free card diamond here. Looking back I might have wanted to make this $125, but I wanted a call. Probably made a small mistake here. Pot of $380.

I'm screaming in my head for no diamond and I get a lovely 2 of clubs.

I bet $150 and he tanks for a just a bit, then folds. Might have been winning an Oscar with the tank.

His range is very, very wide but what would he have here (not that it mattered, but just practicing my hand reading). JT? 99? Maybe a busted diamond draw with a pair on the flop? Maybe QT but then the turn call is super loose. He could have AT I guess but he would've raised the flop for sure. I'm thinking JT or 99 or A9d or A8d (probably not) or A7d.

On river, I moved too fast (I'm working on slowing down and thinking more) and fired as I thought at the time with his earlier play he was a probably call because he hadn't folded any 3 to 1 calls all night, but he also loved to fire and try and bully.

I didn't want him to check and get a check back, but I think if I check there he might bluff a busted draw or get a little pushy if I showed weakness (maybe putting me on A8 or weak K). Looking back, I think if I check that he is going to put in at least $100 and I can get it all in.

Appreciate thoughts on the hand macro thinking is on getting in one more bet vs. enticing bluffs.

It’s always rough with a hyper LAG on your direct left...but I don’t mind checking overcard K OTT and hoping he blasts off since he is capable sensing weakness. This is kind of FPS, but you have to mix it up vs AGGROs who can bluff off their stacks.

AP our line looks really nutted and a brick river might be a good spot to trap. I don’t like betting river since what are we hoping to get called by given they didn’t raise flop or turn on that wet board..


Feels like V had a hand like p+draw. 78; 98; QT etc

Huh? If he's going to fire a large bet with some random hand, why don't you just let him do that and then CRAI? Villain's mistake is betting too much, here you have a good hand with very good equity against just about everything and you're trying to engineer circumstances where you can prevent the villain from making his most common mistake.

River I think is close - while I'd err on the side of trying to induce with this guy for the same reasons as above, in this spot there are not really many hands with no showdown value and lots of marginal hands that might call a bet but aren't betting themselves. I think I'd rather bet, and I definitely think it should be allin, as you're trying to represent a bluff here.

Exactly..it’s not often we can use V’s own aggressiveness against them...Given the runout and V flatting, I think betting this size OTR is bad.

think checking is best and jamming would be 2nd, but our image is tight so I wouldn’t think that jamming works often enough..maybe go for the micro bet OTR to induce????

I think the opponent probably had a pair plus straight draw -- maybe QT,J9,JT,89,88,78 etc. Your ranging is off if you're putting Villain on a lot of diamond flush draws. If there are two non-diamonds on board and he's floating the flop with pair plus bdfd, there are just a very limited number of combos of suited diamonds in his range. Meanwhile he has > 50 combos of pair plus SD. Therefore your reasoning for betting the turn is way off.

I would have played flop completely differently. What was your plan if a total blank fell on the turn? Check/fold? I think the flop is a mandatory spot to check/raise. You will simply have a ton of fold equity due to your tight image, and you can never be in awful shape if called.

If Villain is aggro, I think a check is probably better on the turn. We don't need protection when we have the nuts. Villain's leak is his overaggression when he senses weakness. Give him some rope.

River is fine. Our line on the turn is so strong that we're probably not going to induce a bluff if we check at this point. I would probably bet smaller, like 80-100, since a lot of his range is composed of second or third pairs.

In general, against an opponent who is betting too wide in position, our adjustment should be to widen our check/call and check/raise ranges.

AP I’m thinking the bet is the best. The fact that he hasn’t raised makes me think he’s got some sort of value, unless he’s really the type to float two streets to bomb the river a bet is the way to go imo. If we check to him and he has a pair he’s snap checking back. If you play with this V often I’d take the time to range him on each street, I think you’ll find he has a lot of medium value and medium value with draws. So again unless he’s the type that’s going to float twice and bluff all rivers I would just put in a small bet to get him to sigh call. If he’s really that aggro sometimes he’ll see a small bet as a sign of weakness and raise us too.

Yeah, I think my all in was a bit hasty. Perhaps instead of $150 there I go $50 and show some weakness and maybe get an aggro raise. Thanks.

Not sure he would be firing with random hand but perhaps. You are probably right and I'm at times just too tight. I sometime use these block bets to try and get cheaper value at nuts (worked here). All good points and much appreciated.

Agreed that a checked turn was probably a missed opportunity where I could've gotten him to bet at it. Great point on if a blank hit on turn I had no plan. I'm thinking the river was fine AP but I messed up earlier.

I come from playing 20/40 for years as a winning player like 15 years ago, then took time off for family/work stuff, now back at it and learning NL. Plus player thus far (almost embarrassingly so on a heater) but probably make 1-2 mistakes a session that are costing me $. Appreciate the comment.

G

Thinking feedback overall is I should've checked either turn or river. I come from 20/40 limit back in the day when you had to get it in as you were limited in bet sizing, so maximizing pots was really a small amount compared to overall pot.

Appreciate feedback.

G

You gotta checkraise this flop

TBH, if you think the pfr has Ax and the main villain is running LAG with 3 bets going off all the time, you should have folded pf in the SB. In the long run, this will be the more valuable lesson than how to extract more money when you hold the nuts.

As played, you showed tremendous strength throughout the hand, from donk betting the flop into two people on a dryish board and then continuing on the rest of the streets. While the King completed your straight, it basically devalued any Tx hand making it harder for the flop TP to continue. I think you did well to get a call on the turn. The only opportunity to make more money would be to bet bigger on the turn.

The villain's thinking was probably that you had TP on the flop, you might have been bluffing on the turn, but the river bet sealed that you actually had a big hand.

All good points. At the table, I was pretty certain that they dynamic was V in BB wasn't going to 3B the PFR in that spot. He was doing it a lot when late position came in with initial raise, but he was smooth calling early to mid position raises, so felt OK with JT there and thought I'd see a flop.

My donk bet was probably wrong, I still make defensive bets from my 20/40 days when taking the lead meant more in that game. Agreed that C/R turn was probably the move and that's where I probably made biggest mistake.

On a heater lately and working hard to improve. Appreciate the feedback.

G