Prehand Descriptions
Villain: regular, lots of history with hero, biggest fish I have ever seen. If there is no 3 bet, will see every flop. Frequently min-3bets OOP with any ace from blinds regardless of action before. If last to act and checked around, will fire 80% of the time regardless of number of players in pot. If missed flop and action is heads up, will multi-barrel bluff more often than not. Has check-shoved with absolute air to 3 bet postflop with multiple players in pot several times before. Does slow play every once in a while, but usually just bets big with any sort of hand. LOVES to bluff. Entire table knows this, so we often let him double barrel flop and turn and bet into him on the river when we actually have a hand. No one has ever showed a bluff in this situation, but villain still consistently tank shoves with air in such spots and stacks off every time. Only redeeming feature is he does have some slight ability to understand player characteristics, and will fold more often to raises from tight players and tends to bluff weak players slightly more.

Hero: regular, lots of history with villain, extremely loose aggressive, sees most flops but is able to get away postflop, frequently raises to isolate weak players then 3 barrel bluff or float, very rarely slowplays

$1/1 NL home game (7 handed)
SB
BB
UTG hero ($200)
MP
MP2
LP
Button villain ($300)



Hero is dealt 99
UTG Hero raises to $3, everyone folds, Button villain calls, SB BB fold

Flop ($9): 257

Hero bets $7, Villain raises to $18, Hero calls

This raise really means nothing here. Villain, while an idiot, understands that hero is extremely loose, so he tends to value bet/hero call with weak hands much more often. What he doesn't realize is that while hero might be much looser with everyone else because he has bluff equity, against villain hero never bluffs because he has no fold equity. Villain's range here is literally still any two cards.

Turn ($45) A

Hero checks, villain bets $25. Hero?

Here, hero assumes he's good most of the time but because villain's range is any two cards, he can't be sure. What is hero's best choice of action here?

Easy call! I highly doubt he has an ace. As you described i think him we would bet bigger with an ace. The bet is small enough that you can call and evaluate the river. But prob every river should be a call because i dont think he will turn some kind of 1 pair showdown value (in his eyes) into a bluff on the river without having the A or better.

If villain's range is ATC and loves to bluff, then call turn and plan on calling river. Your EV won't be high because villain will turn up with random AX or other hand that beats you some of the time, but it should be positive and against a villain with this profile you need to be willing to call down pretty light.

I would just open limp. Seems like we really just want to get into a hand with any two playable cards against the main villain and then think about value town after we hit. Although, I guess stacks are deep and it will be easier to get them in postflop if we juice it; plus I guess we did manage to isolate villain (which may be helpful). I still lean towards a limp though.

Against a spewy guy I probably just check/call all three postflop streets and let him barrel off.

GcluelessNLnoobG

In this situation, should I raise the river and try to take it down then? What happens if I call the turn, river comes an overcard to the 9s, and villain ships?

If an overcard hits river and villain ships your in the nasty case. Given villain's history, I think you still need to mostly call. Essentially, against a villain who will triple barrel bluff and bluff shove a lot, you have to decide on flop if you your ahead of his range or not. If you are, then call down and accept that sometimes your going to pay him off.

Pay attention to his bluff patterns and any tells to get a better idea of which hands to call off and which not to. If he has a real hand will he slow down and bet less? If so then you should be more likely to call big bets. Will he slow down when ace hits? A lot of villains will slow down after the ace hits and the river bet usually bets top pair, so you can easily fold.