$1/$3

Just got back from dinner break. Three stations in game on my right have gone and been replaced with tight players. Rest of table are old regs. with the exception of guy on my immediate left who just sat down. RTM please!

Villian is a 60something reg. Typical reg. range here pf includes any ace, QXs+, offsuit connectors maybe down to two gappers, blah blah blah. Knows how to protect his made hands. On the passive side pf. A raise post flop from him is always going to be a made hand. Does the old ''sigh, frown, etc'' literally on every hand when the cards come out when he has a big hand and the initiative. Playing abc. Makes good folds against me. A few hands earlier in a limped pot he called a pot sized bet from me on flop, a 3/4 pot bet on turn when possible flush came in, and then folded to 3/4 ish pot bet from me on river that would put him allin. I had the nut flush and he folded a baby flush. Great laydown.

I have a history with the regs here of being very very tight and aggressive. But tonight I am seen as a bit LAG pf. Most of the night was opening all of my decent hands to get the regs behind me to fold so I could play in position against the three fish to my right. Some of the regs. have been complaining but so far they have been dutifully folding without big hands.

Most of stacks are around $200-$300. Villian has $135. I cover.

I am in BB 98

UTG straddles to $5, 2 reg limpers including Villian in MP3, SB calls, I call, UTG checks.

Flop $22 K67

Old man in SB who does this routinely with nothing takes like 15seconds before he checks. At this point I can see a couple of regs are going to fold, so I bet $20, folded to villain who calls, SB folds.

Turn $59 2

I bet $40, villain takes 15 seconds or so before he calls. I don't think he has a strong hand here. Probably the nut flush draw, some sort of lower combo flush/straight/pair draw, or a king. I was feeling nervous when I bet and even more so when he called.

River $139 3

I usually watch my opponents when the cards come out but was feeling so uncomfortable and hyper aware of myself that I just stared at the board, thus missed his reaction.

I push in a stack ($100) which covers villians remaining $70 or so.

I'm never winning with 9high and I reckon I'm getting juicy odds of 2:1 on a bluff. I think villain is folding anything less than a decent King here against me, unless I give away too much though my weak body language.

nice hand
you´re not trying to fold out any king btw and most pairs, but profitable bluff imo

Your line is solid, as V has played this very passively. Vs who can find a fold button at these stakes are good things to have around sometimes. A decent V shortstacked would take the opportunity to get his money in sooner with any kind of made hand. This feels more like flush draw/second pair. With the line you've taken and how V has played it the only thing I'm worried about is something weird like 54hh, which obviously got there on the river.

However, pre-flop, you're in the BB and while I don't hate your call pre it should be noted that you're playing speculative cards when the straddle has made effective stacks ~25BB due to V's short stack. Even the biggest stack at $300 is only playing 50BBs if the straddle is $5.

People think straddles create action, but all they actually do is lower the effective stacks.

Line is fine. Here's the thing... V is folding to any bet if he missed his draw. He's not bluff-catching you.

Also, he's never folding Kx. Never. You could bet his SS check for the next 24 months, and he's probably incapable of folding.

So what is the smallest bet that gets the job done?

I'd start with "same bet". This looks like, "I have a monster and I just want you to call."

Sometimes it does...

Sometimes I UTG straddle because it does actually turn up the idiot factor at the table (and not just me!).

This. You need to bet to fold our a hi and q hi type hands. Think 55 gets the job done. He's not releasing kx

With a LAG image, flush/straight draws are definitely in your range and you will often get called down by a pair. Seems like a good opponent to try this on, though -- doesn't seem like he would play the K passively. The key info would be whether he calls turn with a flush draw.

Being out of position will make you uncomfortable.

I like it. I got snapped off in a similar hand last week however because V only had $75 left on the river and the pot was $130. Almost identical sizing. He tank called after 2 minutes with A-high and beat my OESD K-high. The deeper you are the better I think this works.

I would also just call preflop and see a nice multiway flop for cheap with a nice multiway hand.

Since some of our outs could be no good and we're in EP with not much info, I'd probably lean towards a check. However, with our reads that some of the players are looking to fold, I don't mind a semi-bluff. However, I would keep it cheap; let's throw a 1/2 PSB out there and see if that gets it done.

Villain at this point only has about 2x PSB left. Unlike before where he managed to fold a hand, he's not folding any showdownable hand (i.e. Kx) this short / with this pot size, imo. He could definitely fold a flush draw. If we had a PSB or so left here I could get behind a jam (fold out flush draws, apply pressure to Kx although honestly they ain't folding, all with decent equity). But with 2x PSB left, it would be too much of an overbet. I'd check/call a reasonable bet. If Villain checks behind on the turn then I think we can consider a bluff on the river if the draws bust.

On the river we only have a 1/2 PSB left. He's never folding a K, and I think he might even have a hard time folding any pair that he's now come this far (all of the draws busted, and he'd be correct in putting us on one). He could certainly fold a busted draw (most of which are better hands than ours). One draw (54) actually got there. He's already folded once to us (and is probably wondering about that fold if we didn't show). I think I give up again (but I would have given up earlier).

I really wouldn't worry about our body language or villain's body language, they're pretty unimportant 99% of the time and you'll do fine totally ignoring them, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

WP

Yeah, being out of position sucks. If I had been on the button in this hand I can comfortably bluff the river knowing this particular villian never has a King.

I agree that few players are folding a king here but I know our man and I'm pretty confident he folds bad kings here some of the time.

This I disagree on. Even at $1/$3 but especially at $2/$5. Maybe by believing they aren't paying attention you take the pressure off and not be so self aware.

Meh. I think you can pull off the third barrel profitably, but it isn't going to be hugely profitable as he calls you with 7x.

River is a good bet, not because V would fold a pair, but rather that he would fold a busted draw that's better than your 9-high.

Turn barrel of decent sizing usually narrows a tight V's range down to mostly draws, because most have MUBS and will give you credit for river shove.

Results: Villian quickly folded Q7, face up.

Edit: The flop was actually K67

Lucky he didn't know enough to think through how much equity he had on the flop.

I think this may send off opposite signals to V and make him call with 7xhh or some bottom pair hand. Just not worth to level yourself for $25-$30 more.