Game: $1/$3 max buy-in $500, max bet $700.

Hero: UTG ($900) best player at the table, sLAG image, winning reg image, lots of respect from the other regs. Everyone knows I standard raise pre to 5x often, knows I 3! light, and can barrel with air, ship with the nuts etc, and in general drives action at the table.

Villain: CO ($369 effective) good friend of mine, slightly loose gambler pre flop but supreme nit post flop who is also extremely scared money, who has recently started playing back at me at times looking to bink large pots.

Preflop action: blinds $4, Hero wakes up with 88 UTG and standard raises to $15, folds to villain who calls, and the button comes along. Pot: $49

Flop: 849

Hero bets $25, villain calls, button folds. Pot: $99

Turn: T

Hero bets $60, villain raises to $140, hero knows he's up against QJ 99% of the time (and 67s the other 1% of the time) due to villain being a supreme nit. Hero calls $80 into the current $299 pot fully intending to bluff diamond rivers if he doesn't fill up. Pot: $379. (No sense in shoving here as I'm getting snap called 100% of the time.)

River: A
Hero shoves for $189 effective. Pot: $568. Villain sighs, tables QJo and goes into the tank while trying to get a read on me.

Bigger on the flop (with your whole betting range), you're generally going to have value here to cbet against two players on this board and calling ranges are pretty inelastic so might as well size bigger.

Don't like the river bluff, feel like you don't have anything like enough left effective to get him to fold this, nit or no nit.

Its not the worst plan in the world but you have a FOS image and this guy is starting to catch on. Even a nit is going to have a really hard time folding after he binks the nuts and has invested close to $200 in the pot.

I'd fold in his spot and I'm not even that nitty. I love the bluff.

I don't say this often, but I think you played the hand perfectly.

wow you were right about him having qj, I don't think 189 is enough in relation to the pot to get the job done; If this guy has any understanding of pot odds then he will realize that he should call ; if you know the player and think you can generate enough folds against him in this spot then I like the play

V is a nit post, but calls with a gutter and the BTN behind? If he thinks your range is that wide, have to go much larger on the flop.

Logical river plan except pot odds may come back to bite. Might work if deeper.

Your table plays a lot different than mine if a UTG raise by the most active player at the table somehow narrows the field to 3ways. I'd limp, but looks like our tables / image differs.

SPR is just over 7 so we can easily get stacks on the river by just bet/bet/betting. Board is drawy and we have an aggro barrelly image so I have no idea why we're not PSBing this flop (I think we're losing big value by not doing so plus it'll require bigger bets on bigger streets in order to get stacks in).

Not sure I understand the read: he's only got the ~nuts here, and yet lately he's been attempting to play back at us? Can't he also have worse that he thinks is best? With a super active image and this relatively smallish remaining stacks I just don't see how we're not shipping the turn here, although if our read is somehow 99% nuts / 1% secondnuts, then fine.

Well, I guess our read is fine. I don't hate the river plan but I'd like it a lot more if (a) we had a different image and (b) it wasn't such a relatively small bet (only 1/2 PSB or so). Still, against scared money it likely works enough.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Some percentage of the time, your read will be off and he does not have JT. If he has JT, your play is telling a credible story of a flush draw and you will get some folds. If you think he folds more than 15% of the time + the times he doesn't have the straight I guess it's a good play. It's risky and I don't think I make this move 95% of the time unless I have a real good scared money read. But you said your style is sLAG so... I don't think its bad.

Other critique, more on the flop. As others have said, play to your LAG image for the 70% of the time the turn is not a scare card.

I like the river plain in theory but your image + pot odds = sigh call. Also it would be pretty terrible of him to show the action driver that hand face up & then fold it.

I'm literally never folding here in Vs shoes unless you're half asleep and 80 years old.

I don't particularly like the bluff. First of all, I think the amount is just too small and secondly, that A is not a good card, because it eats up most of your diamond combos you're raising with utg. You're only repping about 5 combos or something now and since you basically know he has QJ, he could even be blocking some of those. Third and last of all, the guy recently started to play back at you.

On the other hand, a supreme nit who plays scared money could obviously still fold, because "they always have it". But that read would really be all you're banking on here.

P.S. Flopbet is indeed too small.

At this point, I was already imagining...



Oh, yeah, the river bluff is no bueno.

Yeah the flipping the hand over tank is always a call.....I would put on your best showman skills and talk him into a fold somehow.

Well he's the passive nitty check-calling station who does not bet more than $40 unless he's got the nuts. Even then he's quaking in his boots and so afraid of getting outdrawn and that's why he's not shipping the turn himself. You know the type.

Well if my read is off, then I'm value shipping the best hand here, and I don't want folds.

This. The A was the worst diamond to hit the river.

Results: He tanked for about 5 minutes and kept staring at me after tabling QJ. He then sigh called and took down the pot. The guy next to him said "snap call that, hero doesn't have the flush" and he responded with "Hero could have had a pair and a flush draw."

Thanks for all your responses. In hindsight, yes the flop bet was too small and that was my biggest mistake in the hand. The river bluff on the A was ambitious as well, although it probably could have worked on all other diamond rivers. I do agree that there was a little element of FPS and showboating, but I was not going to passively give up the hand when a diamond river hit. I don't ever try to talk people into a decision, but this was perhaps an instance where I should have verbally called for a diamond river when calling his turn raise. Oh well.

Lol don't call for diamond. That is a classic tell you DONT hold diamonds.

Lol, that's so true, isn't it? I usually don't say anything because I want to let the other person make their decision in peace without influencing it with my verbal play.