I played this hand yesterday (Only after continuing on the longest downswing I've ever had.)

Hero: Young looking, slim male with facial piercings. Been at the table maybe for 2 hours or so, has only shown down big hands. Has mostly entered the hand with raises, always to $15 or more, often getting 1-2 callers.
Had his KK cracked earlier for about after isolating a short-stacked, new player (who was clearly new to poker) who had limped by raising to $18 preflop, then ending up all in on a 7 5 3 rainbow board. New player flipped 64 for the straight. Otherwise a TAG player.

Villain: Middle-aged gentleman. Slicked back hair and button down shirt. Clearly had been running over the table and getting lucky, had at least $700 behind and was pretty LAG, limping into many pots and betting often. Changed seats after about an hour from opposite side of the table, to two spots on the hero's right. Possibly because the fish next to him wouldn't shut up. Possibly because he'd been staring at hero all night and wanted to get a closer look at his gorgeous face. Possibly because he wanted position on what looks like one of the more competent players at the table thus far. Often makes confused looks.


UTG noob folds
Hero raises UTG+1 to $15 with A K
UTG+2 fold
Villain makes confused look he's been making every time hero makes preflop raise, then calls.
Everyone else folds.

Pot $33
Flop: Q 9 4
Hero bets $24
Villain calls

Pot $81
Turn: 8
Hero: ???

c/f, the 8 improves his range way more than it improves yours.

Stack sizes? Probably just check/folding this turn. You now beat nothing that he calls this dry flop with and he's probably not folding.

respect. this is actually a good thread since this is a common spot that isn't very exciting or tricky, but comes up often.

as always, this is really dependent on your opponent.

against your standard llsnl opponent, this is an easy c/f.

not a good card to barrel, and i'm a big advocate on double barreling often when you plan on cbetting with air.

even TJ got there.

Even if i suspected your opponent might be floating with air, there is not much you can do. I would not risk trying to rep a strong hand in this game, and just let it go.

if your opponent is that good that he will often float you with air, i would seat or table change.

I agree with fogodchao that a) in general I think people don't double barrel near enough, and b) in this spot the 8 isn't a -great- double barrel card.

But I still think I bet/fold here for $50-55; check/folding the nut non-pair just because we got called once is too weak of a play.

Not only is 8 not a great double barrel card I think it's the worst one in the deck (followed by J/T, then 9).

It's not just a scare card for us tho...

Depends if he's a thinking player (hard to tell from the description if he's a decent LAG or an aggro donk). If he is, he knows there's very little JT/98 in our UTG+1 opening range. In either case, his range includes both of those hands as well as tons of pair+gutshot hands that he's not gonna fold because he just improved. So regardless I think trying to bluff him on a turn that smashes his flop calling range is gonna be bad news bears for our hero.

If villain is a floaty type, but gives up ott frequently then I'd say double barrel. But as stated above, the 8 is a bad turn card and certainly doesn't improve your cbet range. Prob c/f in this spot. But in general if you notice a player who peels flop cards but shuts down unimproved ott, then they're your double barrel targets


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It should be noted that if villain is floating hero light OTF then this is a great turn to bluffraise with his whole floating range. We can really only continue with sets (very hard for us to have 2p on this board we probably aren't opening JT from this position either) and even if our turn bet is for value 100% of the time the AQ/KK+/possible KQ combos outweigh set combos. I highly doubt he's thinking on that level, but it's a cool spot if you're ever in this situation as villain.

Sorry for spamming your thread so hard OP. Heh.

OOP i'd probably c/f on turn and c/c small bet on good river. IP check flop, bet small turn, and brick river.

What is weaker? Check/folding Ace high, or lighting $55 on fire for no reason? You decide.

If you bet here you should bet betting river as well. Giving up after a cbet>>>>>giving up after a double barrel.

Fire once or fire all three streets. Double barrel is bad IMO if you just give up river.

Dont try and bluff fish of pairs in a 1/2 game. Simple.

Oh and you are NEVER getting a fold on the turn. Qx still calls, TJ just got there. 98 improved, 9T, 9J just picked up more equity.

Sorry, forgot to mention my stack was ~$140 preflop.
I ended up checking the turn, villain bet $80 (when I had exactly $100 behind, so that seemed silly) and I folded.

Just glad to know that I played it right.
Later on I stacked off the $100 with QQ when I 3bet a LAG preflop from $15 to $45 and the board came 994r. He checked, I shoved in my last $55 an he called and flipped KK...

I run awful -_-

You said that this is a LAGgy player who's been running over the table. Consequently, unless you think he has uber respect for you, I'm not betting this turn.

If this were a drier board, such as J247, I might be willing to c/c him down. However, on this board I'm probably check-folding the turn.

if you really think he's floating that much then just check the turn. If he bets, and you think he has enough air in his range and is capable of folding a middle strength hand then you can check/shove here with great success. What is hero's starting stack did I miss it?

Starting stack was $140.
I didn't think he was floating me, tbh. I was pretty sure he had it.

LAG players don't limp a lot - they raise a lot. You're trying to say that he's often active post flop, right?

You mean to hero's left, giving him position on you, right?


Starting the hand with only 70BB I'd consider checking the flop.

Committing 30% of my stack against a player I've seen be very active post flop - and then folding - is not a winning strategy. It's a different story against a player with a timid disposition post flop.

It's actually OK not to c-bet 100%, and even though this is a pretty dry flop, being OOP and having your c-bet called is likely the end of the hand for you, unless you bink on the turn - and even then the are some unpleasant RIO scenarios potentially making the hand not super-str8forward to play.

Alternatively, make your c-bet smaller.

On a dry flop there's really not much reason to bet > 3/4 pot against one opponent. If you had a set, AQ, KQ, or eventually QJs you'd want V to hang in, right?

With $30 in the pot ($3 rake) $16 should work as well as $24, and save you 4BBs.

What was your read on what the "confused face" means?

That's a really important/obvious tell you picked up there, what did you learn from it?

In my experience it typically means they have a decent holding that missed the board and you can push them off.

Often is also a similar hand to yours, in those cases.

Occasionally it's "I hit, how do I get paid"

I've seen it = missed a lot, so I tend to try and employ it as a reverse tell when I want them to keep betting.

So your read/information when you've seen him make that face and get to showdown is pretty important...

Honestly, I didn't know what to make of it. He'd been making it even when he wasn't in hands and was just spectating, or when I had raised, but either way I hadn't seen enough of his showdowns to really get a read on whether or not it meant anything when he was in the hand.

Also, most of the villains I've met that make the "confused" face typically end up having a strong hand and are trying to give off the impression that they don't know what to do, when they know they want to jam the pot as fast as they can. But again, all reads are villain dependent.

You're right, he would limp and raise a lot preflop, but was quite active postflop also.

Oops! Must've been tired when I posted this one, haha. Yes, he was on my left. Mybad.