Typical loose no fold em hold em game. Hero is on the button. Stack is $320. Villain has like $280ish.

V in hand seems someone competent, just limp calls too much. His hand selection is on the tighter side, maybe playing like 20-25% of his hands, just tends to always call OOP when he limps. Can be weak tight post flop.

Two limps in a 9-handed game. Hero looks down at KcKd on the button. Raises to $15. Only one call. Let’s take a flop.

FLOP ($37) QhTh7c
Villain checks. Hero feels $20 is a good number based on this board being draw heavy. Villain calls. Let’s take a turn.

TURN ($77) Ad
Villain checks. I decided to check back. I didn’t want to bloat the pot in case villain called the flop with A-10, AQ Q-10 type hands. I only block AK which is unlikely for villain the have. I elected to go with pot control.

RIVER ($77) 10d
Villain leads for $50. Hero?
Villain can have AQ. At this game people rarely raise with AQ preflop, so it is in his range. Before the card was dealt, in my mind, I added J-10 to his possible holdings. That would’ve just gotten stronger. 10-9 as well.
Comments on all streets appreciated.

I size up a bit on the flop, probably make it $30. Yeah it's HU, but that's a really wet board and there's a lot of runouts we hate. Most Vs that are calling $20 will call $30, and there's a ton of hands to get value from.

As played, fold river. If you think he's weak-tight post, then I assume he wouldn't lead missed draws very often. Absent that, all you beat is some Qx hands and those have enough SD value that they shouldn't be betting river on this runout, especially when you have plenty of Ax hands in your range.

When a weak tight player leads 2/3 pot on the river and you can't beat top pair, it's probably time to fold.

Yeah, the hearts bricked out, but heart draws that decide to bluff the river are just a small part of his range. This would be a weird bet for a Qx hand, and you block lots of the KQ combos that you beat, so that really leaves QJ and some other weaker Q's that don't show up preflop as often.

I think you played the hand pretty well, although I agree with going bigger on this flop bet. $30 seems good. There is some merit to betting the turn, but you are now behind to so many of his hands at this point, and the ones you are still ahead of don't have much equity and probably fold anyways, so there's no value there. I take the free look at the river and hope to bink the nuts, or at least a set.

Raise more pre. You have two limpers (including at least one who limp calls too much) at a call happy table and you're on the button. Raise to at least $20-$25.

As played, agree with others that you should bet more on the flop.

River is a shrug fold.

I think if you take the pot control line you have to be prepared to defend thin value bets on the river. It looks like you made one cbet then shut it down. Your hand is under rep'd. V could have a lot of hands that you beat in his range here the way it played. Qx, missed hearts, KJ, maybe he peeled a KT,... There are some players I would fold to in this spot but I'm not sure I have enough info on V to agree or not. This line relies heavily on reads. You could also bet turn in position for $45ish then fold to any further action and check behind river UI. If V has the Ace what did he peel the flop bet with? If he made two pair or a straight you set the price by bet/folding turn in position. I probably also size up flop bet to 25 or so.

I can’t argue with the points of bet more pre and calling thin on the river as I took the pot control line. Good points!

Agreed, but betting A2 on this board is thin value, and we lose to them. Also, this is not a small bet. This is $50 into $77, which is a much more polarizing bet size than you will typically see with Qx type hands that we could beat here. Sure, he could just be an idiot that doesn't know how to bet size, but it's generally not wise to base our calling decision on that until we know it.

Not really. Our hand looks exactly like what it is. We raised preflop, bet the flop, then checked the turn when we can't even beat top pair. Pretty standard line so far with KK/KQ, which are effectively the same hand here.


Check the board again. It's AQTT7. We lose to KJ and KT. With the QT of hearts on the board, there are a lot fewer heart combos that he likely plays that we can beat here than if it were 2 low hearts on the board. We also lose to all Ax of heart hands. I've discounted Qx hands a bit because 1) we block KQ, and 2) the bet sizing is inconsistent with a middling hand.

LOL @ not reading the board correctly. Maybe the T and 10 threw me off. Agreed, the range of hands we beat are much smaller than I was thinking.

fold and forget about this hand.

small pot. weak tight player is betting into you with a possible range that mostly beats you. easy fold.

This hand illustrates a huge problem for me which is putting these low stakes players on a range of hands. I’m thinking about the types of hands you all are thinking about.
I folded. Villain showed 98 of spades for a missed gutter.

98s is an open ender if you typed the flop correctly, only this hand and hearts didn't get there. Still super tough to call this sized bet here. The sizing doesn't seem to want a call.

Sorry. I meant open ender.

Bet/fold the turn if raised. Avoids river issues.

I lose zero sleep over that hand. Your average LLSNL player doesnt make this bluff, and even if he has the capability, you probably still dont want to call with KK. KQ/QJ are better bluff catchers since they block more value hands he can have.

Preflop for me all comes down to avoiding low SPR multiway pots. Our raise size managed to get this HU in position in an SPR 8ish pot (ok room to move, especially in position), so nice result. However, if just one other player called, the SPR would have been 5 (much more difficult to play). It's a tricky thing, imo.

Against a weak tight guy who likely isn't getting out-of-line postflop, I would mostly just bet/fold smallish 3 times. So I'm cool with the flop bet.

Turn is admittedly a sucky card as KJ got there, as did the nut flush draw Ax, as did AQ/AT. However, some draws have still missed. Against straightforward players who aren't going to turn their busted draws into bluffs on the river when we weakly check back the turn, I think I lean to a final bet/fold on the turn to setup a river checkback (note that in betting we get to set the size of the final bet we're willing to put in the pot instead of letting them do it on the river). Against more aggro players, I'm fine with a check back (and will likely have to bluffcatch a lot of rivers).

River is tough and mainly comes down to whether this guy ever bluffs. Some people never bluff, and a lot of people rarely bluff (especially with showdownable hands), so it's a difficult spot.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I’d call but expect to lose often.

The ace doesn’t change much imo (except the obv AQ, and occasional AJ and A10...though there’s just not many combos of AT left and I wonder how often villain is calling the 3 bet pre with A10 and AJ)...so villain either has a T, overvaluing his Q (clicking buttons), or is bluffing.

It’s a marginal decision long term, and calling is more fun.

KJ gets there. We lose to a 10. We lose to literally every hand except for a random bluff, which v probably doesn't do often. We aren't getting an amazing price.

I don't say this too often, on this board, this is an easy fold. To say otherwise is purely being results oriented.

I overlooked KJ, but again, not many combos.

Villains bluff in low stakes all the time. At least where I play which is one of the tougher areas in the country to play i guess.
I don't know why everyone always assumes there's no bluffing in low stakes.
Only, low stakes players are usually horrible at it.
They rarely sell a story line, it's usually an attempt to take down a pot after a busted draw, as in our sample. And, it's more often than not, a timid bluff attempt, small bet on the river. Rarely is an all in or a good size river bet a bluff.
You just always have to pay attention to what's going on in hand and the player involved.
We'll still be on the wrong side lots of times, no matter how hard we try.