1/3 NL Jack Casino Cincinnati. $100-$300 BI

HERO - MAWG Reg in this room but mainly plays PLO. Dipping my toes back into the NL streets since the buyins have increased. I was a 10 BB winner in 1/2 back in the day but it has been a while. I have been running pretty hot thus far and have a $1200 stack for this hand.

Villain in CO. MAWG. I remember him from the 1/2 days but can't remember much about him. In this session, he has raised every hand he has entered and played fairly straightforward thus far. I have noticed that he cbets a little too much vs 3 or more opponents. He typically gives up on the turn even in position. This is only a 3 or 4 hand sample size and he is watching something on his phone with headphones in the entire session. Villain started the hand with $600.


OTTH

EP limps
CO raises to $12.
Folded to Hero in BB with KJ.... Hero calls.
Limper calls.

Flop ($37) K 54

Hero and EP checks.
CO bets $20. Hero calls. EP folds.

Turn ($77) 3
Hero checks. CO bets $45


This turn is much better for my range than his. I would think that his AA, AK and KQ would check this turn unless it was AK or KQ of hearts.

Anyone continuing here?

Ya, that card gives him a million good double barrel hands.

We have top pair.

While we don't know what is going through villains head, this is not a good board for him to pot control. I'm never checking Kx+ if I'm him. The 3 only helps a the A2s/67 hands in your range. Your range is much wider than that, and he needs to keep barreling against the rest of it. He also iso raised from the CO, and by your description he raises preflop a lot, so he has all the 76s/A2s hands as well.

I actually don't hate just folding here. This is a slightly ahead, way behind spot, and I find that I'm usually way behind more often than I actually think. If he has a habit of giving up on a lot of turns, when he does decide to bet a turn, we can weight his hand more heavily towards value. Our hand can only beat a small % of his value range, like KT, or maybe TT-QQ, but that's wishful thinking.

I'm sticking around for at least one more street, not thrilled about it.

Edit: Eh I dunno maybe this is a fold? I think it's super close, going back and forth on it.

3b pre is obv

Turn is whatever, depends how u feel about his overall tendencies. Your post suggests its a fold

You've seriously underrepped your hand. He could easily be value betting with worse.

We're getting a good price preflop but we're going to be OOP against what seems like a non-moron postflop (and possibly HU if the limper doesn't call). I think we basically have to ask ourselves if this really a profitable spot. I think most overestimate it.

I'm also check/calling the flop. Not exactly loving life at the moment thanks to being OOP and mostly dominated (which goes back to preflop).

Ditto thinking for turn, except now we're threatened with a 3rd barrel on the river if we call.

Gpositionisimportantinpoker,imoG

The 1/3 players in that casino are soooo tight and straightforward. (Maybe it's different with the change in buy-in?) I can barely stand to play 1/2 while I'm waiting for PLO, so usually try to get in a 2/5 game.

Given that and your read of V, I fold pre. Calling flop is fine. Would he bet AhQh or AhXh (or spades) on the turn? If not, just fold.

3b pre, call turn. Potentially turning my hand into a bluff on a variety of rivers.

Call pre is fine imo, we let the fish in and we have a hand that plays ok 3-way.

flop call

turn obv call when he can be bluffing a lot of Ax, double FD. we are getting a good price, cant ever really fold.

This feels like a value-bet. I don't think he bets so little on the Turn with a big draw and a free card to come.

I disagree that he would check AA/AK/KQ here. He could be planning to bet Turn to check behind on the River on a scare card.

I think this is a situation where you can either:

1. x/r Turn then bet River large if it's a heart or 7.

2. Call Turn and lead River with a smallish (blocker) bet. You will lose to KQ+ but probably won't get raised.

As described I almost always continue here. River should be easy to play, even OOP. Any heart or spade should shut him down.....

I like canadiasian's 2nd suggestion to call turn and make a blocker bet on the river, but not the 1st suggestion to check-raise. We have too much showdown value to check-raise the turn. I would only check-raise with sets or 2-pairs for pure value, or check-raise draws with no SDV and then bluff big on the river if a scare card comes.

I wouldn't fold here. Villain barreling with air or a draw himself is very possible. Fold on river if your blocker bet gets raised. No reason to bet big on river even if a scare card comes - unless you make your blocker bet too small / obvious, he's never raising with a hand that doesn't beat KJ.

Another point: Bet big if a J comes but bet small if a K comes. Even though trip Ks is a better hand in absolute terms, villain can easily have a K and have you outkicked, so do not go for big value with trip K's. However, villain is very unlikely to have a hand that beats a KJ 2-pair, so go for BIG value if you get lucky and hit that J. Hell, overbet jam. If he had a draw, you were never getting more value anyways; if he has AK, KQ, you want to extract the maximum.

The 2/5 game is almost nonexistent now. Many of the 2/5 regs are forced to play the 1/3 game outside of the weekends so table selection is much more important. I play the 1/2/5 PLO game as a short stacker mainly. Do you play that game or the nosebleeds?

I agree that I put myself here by a very mediocre decision preflop. I think it is a raise or fold spot pre and this problem disappears.

I have never really been a fan of a blocker bet. From a theoretical point of view, I would choose a c/r line over a c/c lead river line because this allows me to uncap my range. This turn card def helps my range more than Villain and should give me a range advantage and make my story believable.
The c/c lead river line turns Hero's hand face up and makes Villain's river decisions so much easier. I dnk that turning a bluff catcher into a block bet is profitable against a semi thinking player.

If we assume, that Villain bets the flop too wide, isn't checkraising the Flop an option?
If we assume, that he plays Turn faceup, check/call Flop check/fold Turn should be optimal.