Live £1/2/5

Hand1:
Hero opens 88 to £20 from late positions
Only the straddler called
Pot: £43

Flop: T64r
Straddler checked
Hero bet £20 and straddler check-raised to £80

Effective is about £500 at the start of this hand

Thoughts?

Hand2:
It is against the same villain but he is in SB this time
Hero opened TT to £20 from mid positions
Only SB called
Pot: £46
Flop: Q62r

SB checked
Hero bet £20
SB check raised to £80

Similar effective stack as before around £500

Thoughts?

Am I being perceived as someone who has too high of a cbet frequency maybe?

Once check-raised, I reckon I would just have to painfully let them go?

The villain seems to be reg but I can see him being sticky from time to time with a second-best hand

Both are decent C-bets (especially against more passive or fit/fold players) in terms of denying equity and giving yourself good chances of ending the hand right there on the flop with cards that have very small chances of improving on future streets. There are very few good turn and rivers for you with those kind of medium strenght pocket pairs.

However against more trickier opponents that have lower thresholds for making moves on you (forcing you to fold the best hand with a raise for example) the more i like checking in both hands. If this is a reg chances absolutely are that you are being exploited for over C-betting and that this reg have observed this tendency in your game.

I agree with the user above, both c-bets are fine in theory, you deny equity to the 6 outs your opponent might have but he might also call you with worse pair or a draw, though both boards are dry.

And you have to have a plan of what to do against certain opponents. If this guy is a reg and is capable of bluffing and he perceives you as not a great player then these two boards are perfect for him to check-raise because you can't really have much, most of your range missed this flop and if you c-bet this flop all the time then him check-raising is printing money. And if you fold a hand like second pair then even better for him.

I would be suspicious of his raises here if we know he can bluff because he is not really representing a whole lot of value hands and many players have a tendency to call and trap with sets etc. on dry boards because they're not afraid to be outdrawn.

So you either check back flops like these against an aggressive player or you call his check-raises sometimes and call down.

Call hand 1. Fold hand 2.

Hand 1 is a clearer c-bet for me. I think we have the best hand a lot. There are a lot of cards that change the board for the worse on the turn. Most of his broadways have missed, but they all improve to pairs or draws on any turn above t.

Raised by a tricky V I call. There are a pretty fair number of turns that improve our hand. There are plenty of straight draws for him to have, though we block some.

His CR just seems a little fishy because his real monsters are almost always sets and this is probably too aggro for a set on a dry board. A set lets an overpair keep blasting here. A set would HATE AK/AQ to fold here, rather than see a turn.

So I think this is either a bluff, or a thin value/protection raise with a t. Perhaps a lower ten, since a hand like A-t is a little less afraid. If it's a bluff, it's a bluff. If it's a t we will draw out sometimes and find a bluff sometimes.

While I'm not super into such dynamics, we are also letting V know that bluffing us will be expensive and lead to some tough spots.


Hand 2: I'm more open to checking the flop. Top pair is higher and our PP is higher, so the turn won't change things as much. There isn't a whole ton to value target.

He is really repping very little with his CR, unless he is doing it with medium queens, which I think might be the case. When you look at both hands, it seems like his story is either "I always flop sets and fast play them" or "I'm like to CR top pair." Latter seems more likely.

This one you can dump, unless you want to try to run him off QJ. There aren't a lot of draws or even 2nd and 3rd pairs for him to turn into bluffs. There are fewer scare cards for top pair and also fewer cards that improve your hand.

I agree with Johnny as V’s range is way stronger from Sb than from straddle.

AP I would be tempted to 3b hand 1 as so many overs can turn and complicate our life versus this tricky V

Grunch.

My experience at these stakes is that c/r usually indicates significant strength. I think in both cases it should be let go, however, you are correct in identifying that the reg may be exploiting your c-bet frequency and you need to readjust in hands against that villain.

How often are you raising? How often are you c-betting? What happened before Hand 1? Are you really aggressive? Have you laid down a few hands to aggression?

If you folded Hand 1, I'm more inclined to call Hand 2, but more info would help.

My guess is that if you're defaulting to a cbet in these two spots, your cbet% is very high, and if so, a thinking reg is going to exploit it. These kinds of hands are good candidates for checking back on the flop; you have some SDV but are very unlikely to improve to a hand that's more than a bluffcatcher in a big pot. (Hand 2 especially; you're not getting much value from worse otf, and you're rarely getting him to fold much equity, pretty much just AJ/KJ.)

Against a random LP, you could probably justify cbetting your entire range on both flops; they're not going to c/r without a monster ever. But if you're over-cbetting against LPs, all the more reason not to do it against good players who have seen you doing it!

As played: assuming this is a thinking reg who's seen you cbet a ton, you almost have to continue in hand 1, otherwise you're going to be way overfolding. (Sometimes we're wrong and this is just a level 1 dude with a set; see above about not cbetting if he's not obviously LP.) In hand 2, your range has enough Qx in it that folding TT is probably fine.

Nothing wrong with either C-bet........

As long as you don't overdo. You may be doing it too much and V's who flop top pair are checkraising you to pick up an extra bet. Also, do you fold all the time to these checkraises? If so, you're exploitable. If Vs know that you will fold except overpairs and really strong hands, good villains will raise you frequently as a bluff or semibluff.

You either have to 1) C-bet less, or 2) call the checkraises more often.