2/5, hero sat down about an hour ago, so pretty much readless, done nothing non standard up to this point, maybe opened one or two hands, never went to showdown yet. sitting in bb, 500.
V1, seems to use his position well, tight in EP, loosens up in later positions, seems to use different sizings on different positions, likely a bit barrell happy, not seen a showdown yet though, just get the feeling heīs comfortable at the table, not afraid to put chips in, doesnīt seem to be affected much by winning or losing, overall just has the vibe of a decent player, late twenties, BTN, covers.
otth:
9 handed, folds around to villain otb who opens to 12, sb folds, we defend with 97o.
he prob got a pretty wide stealing range unopened, any pp, any two broadways, any ace, any suited connector, lots of suited garbage, lots of Kx, Qx Iīd assume but obv canīt be sure about that, he could be tighter, he could be opening near 100% as a btn steal, think heīs somewhat reasonable but very wide nonetheless. obv not a great hand, but we have the odds to defend, so we do just that, letīs see a flop, dealer.
FLOP (25): J75r, we check, he bets 15, we call.
TURN (55): Kh bringing bd fd, we check, he bets 40, Hero? obv hits his range much more than ours, would assume heīs good enough to still vbet Jx and QQ, not sure about 88-TT, A7, Q7, T7, and Iīd assume heīd barrel with all of his picked up equities as well as all str8 draw combinations heīd bet the flop with.
whatīs our action? if we continue, whatīs our action on various rivers?
The blind defence is reasonable with such a small raise - and given we hit a piece, the OTF call also works. But continuing further with a turn like that is spewy, IMO.
Not in love with the pre call, especially without a plan. Playing to make a hand OOP against a decent or better player not exactly printing money. I think fold > 3b > call.
So what was the plan? Make a hand and get paid off? Steal?
As played, we have a modest hand that can't stand up to pressure and we've played it weakly against someone IP. V could be barreling with literally his entire range, we have no idea where we stand, and there's another street coming. We kinda asked V to put us in a difficult spot, pretty please.
If V is indeed barrel happy, we could check here and hope we either see a free showdown or that he triple-barrels with a hand we beat. Not loving that. V can get value from good hands, bluff his crap, and check back with showdown value, which is probably beating us.
I think a x/r on the flop was our best move. Our hand isn't strong enough that we really want to try to get to showdown against an aggressive V, but does provide a little equity if we x/r and get called. Obviously we're folding to a 3b.
Given that V still has pretty much 100% of his range after the turn bet, I think a x/r here will work out often enough to be profitable. It's not a play I'd make all the time, but we need to be bluffing here sometimes and this looks like an OK spot, though not perfect.
There are some second/third level thinking dynamics. If V thinks we're not that good so that he thinks we think "Oooh, K. We pretend we has it and bluffs!" he's more likely to call with less. If he knows that we know it's not a great bluffing card, our bluff looks stronger.
Fold pre. Not really interested in defending here. While you likely have enough equity against his range to justify a call, you're OOP with a hand that will have a hard time playing a big pot and faces a lot of RIO when real money gets in. I'd 3-bet 97s some if I thought BTN was making a move, otherwise I let him take my $5 here and see the next hand.
As played, flop call seems fine. King on the turn is a great card for him. I fold to the turn barrel. Other than the two remaining 7s, there are no cards we want to see on the river.
Defending your BB is donating chips. Most of the time you miss, then X/F. This time you catch a piece, then X/C, then don't know where you're at when another overcard comes on the turn. Meanwhile you have yet to consider any aggressive action - bet, raise, re-raise or X/R - to give V a difficult decision to make. This is textbook OOP passive losing play.
Rather than "defend" your BB, far better to counter-attack with 3-bet pre. If your assessment of his range is correct, this will win you the $12 most of the time, and when he "defends" you can take it down with a C-bet often. And you send a message for him to remember the next time everyone folds to him on the button.
The next best alternative to 3-bet pre is to simply fold. The you can relax while OOP, rather than donate chips and stress about it.
