So I'm gonna preface this post by saying this is not a usual line I would take, however there are some outside factors that drove me to these decisions, once again thanks for any and all feedback on line and thought process. Also, I would love to hear everyone's take on speech play, how to handle it, and when it should impact your usual line.

H(190) Young competent player, visits room often and is known by some of the others. Plays tight, however not shy about showing that bluff from time to time.

V(300) is a regular, and he plays fairly straightforward. Him and I do have history, he tends to stay out of my way and according to him he "Doesn't play pots against me because I will just outplay him" I don't really see him get out of line I can't recall ever seeing him bluff and he only shows at showdown, usually.

OTTH

Pre: There is a straddle on the button to $5, First to act is V in the SB who makes it 12. Folds to H in the HJ who calls J10

I like calling with this hand and allowing following players in, don't think this plays well heads up, however, against other Vs I will 3b this just to take it down Pre. Against this specific v I don't think he is raising first to act lite so for all these reasons I land on a call.

Flop(29): Q510
V bets 25. H calls.

I have second pair and H is stabbing with overs here pretty often, plan is to call here then work some turns into my favor should they hit my range

Now, here is the interesting thing...... V usually keeps quiet during hands against me and doesn't utilize speech play much, however he stares at me, and scoffing and huffing and to me this conveys nervousness, its abnormal for him to behave this way and this can't really be a reverse tell because I've seen him play the nuts before, and he was composed then. So something seems very fishy.

Turn(89): 8
V bets 50. And, I think I end up leveling myself here into a call, I do pick up some equity here but I don't think its enough to raise, I much prefer raising any club or a 9.

And now villain says while shaking his head in a challenging fashion "We can go all 3 streets if you want to" Which I do not react to at all. And at this point I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but now I know for a fact he is nervous.

River(189): 5

V shoves, H calls.




I will leave the result of the hand out until later tonight, However there is some dialogue after the hand shows down and I would love to hear what you guys think about this spot and how maybe you could play this differently or if this line is acceptable given the contributing factors. Thanks

Flop is a fold. It sounds like you can outplay him in better spots, let it go. You have 2nd pair meh kicker, your suit isn't in play, and you only have a gutter.

Turn, I could be wrong, but it takes a lot of balls to be talking and giving speech's on a bluff. He is trying to lure you in, disappoint him and get away after ONLY losing $37. He also could be frustrated that his AA or KK has not won the pot yet and is vulnerable to you hitting 2p or a draw. Either way, you are likely behind.

River God help us. I hope I was wrong and you scooped the pot against his AK

Flop is fine and fold turn.

Raising over a $5 BTN straddle to $12 doesn't indicate a particularly strong hand, so you can call flop and see what he does, but when he bets turn on a board that crushes your range I think it's time to let it go. Sometimes he has KJ, AJcc, AKcc but there's more value combos out there. Getting 3:1 OTR calling isn't as bad as it looks with all the draws missed and you have none blocked but this is marginal at best. If he had 76cc or something then nice hand but stationing straightforward players isn't a good strat generally speaking.

I agree 100%. I really leveled myself.

Have you seen him play his draws, low pairs?

Pre I'd probably 3b vs an lol 2.5x raise size, we are IP and will overrealize equity. Flat is ok but i like a 3b better.

Ott is pretty standard, even against AA we have 26% equity. We can turn our hand into a bluff on club rivers, and we beat all his bluffs. Don't ever fold here getting almost 3:1.

river I just fold, live regs are always underbluffing wrt triple barrels.

OTF I think we can even get away from it, when he bombs it for 80% our hand isnt doing too well vs that range.

On second thought I totally agree with minatorr on the turn, I somehow missed the odds we are getting.

Actually V bombs flop for 86%. We just dont need to defend much of our rangevs that lolsizing, maybe middle pair + bdfd is ok to defend but vs that size most people arent bluffing and this is already a very bad board for him to bluff. He’s not betting that big with 76s or junky hands

I call and V shows Aq LOLOLOL so I punt off cash here.

Afterwards V says " I wanted you to fold, I really didn't want you in there fighting with me over the pot and I knew if bad cards came you were gonna put me in a spot" So I was correct in my read on his nerves but he ended up extracting the max

But afterwards he fist bumped me and said "No hard feelings right?" and told the table he isn't gonna be able to get anything else outta me so while I lost it wasn't the worst possible experience, mutual respect.

.............but I'm coming for him lol

Grunch--I echo the others who say to call flop, fold turn. If you call the turn then definitely fold the river. You have a mediocre hand and his odd behavior seems like a reverse tell to me, unless you think he's all of a sudden become so weak-tight that just the thought of playing a single-raised pot against you with a big pair on this board is sending him towards a psychotic break.

I just saw the results...LOL...but seriously, whatever the reasons for his actions, it just seems that he wouldn't have been acting like this unless he felt he was ahead (either due to fear of being outdrawn or a lame attempt to trick you into taking an aggressive action).