Hero: SB, 2nd time to casino (1st time was 1 year ago), 24-year-old Asian, playing since midnight (time is now 4 AM-ish), generally respected by table, always showed the goods (never caught bluffing), probably seen as most aggressive and semi-tight but toned down a bit as stack grew, ~$1000, QQ

Villiain: BB, late 20s/early 30s Asian, moved over when his table broke ~1hr ago, caught bluffing river a couple times with missed draws after chasing (once by me calling $75 very lightly), almost always limp/calls pre but more aggressive post, ~$700

Pre: UTG raises to $8, folds to hero who 3b to $25, BB (villain) and UTG call.

Flop (pot at $75): AK8 and everybody checks

Turn (pot at $75): Q, I lead with $55 which villain calls

River (pot at $185): 7, I check and villain bets $125

???

Evaluation on every street appreciated. Thank you!





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I would Bet/Fold the river (~100-120). Rest of the hand is fine.

As played its close between call and fold - its villain and read depending. But for your descriped villain I tend to call.

Bet fold river all day. Ur losing too much value check calling

hmm

^ Thanks for the useful comment...

Agree with everyone, this is a standard bet/fold and maybe even a bet/call if you think he could be doing this with a set of 8s and you have some crazy soul read.

As played you have to call the river. Villain, by your description, is capable of bluffing the scare care, he might even think he's value-betting AK.

Since your other option was to bet/fold river it's costing you about the same if you're beat.

agree with b/f.

what is UTGs stack size? probably 3b a little larger from the sb

If villain is capable of bluffing I have no problem with c/c the river. b/f'ing with this much SDV seems .... poop. I hate folding strong hands so maybe I am wrong though. I guess the questions are, if you bet the river would he call with worse? We know he will bluff the river. Is he capable of raising the river as a bluff, or does he only stab bluff when he is checked to or first to act? Pretty important questions IMO.

Why is everyome so quick to say bet fold? Are we really that scared of a back door flush in this situation?

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Um? snap call? And then see he got there with a backdoor flush I'm assuming?

Agree river you should have led UNLESS you know he will bluff it, but this is not the river for him to flat turn bet river as a bluff I don't think. He still could be very well betting for value with 2 pair hands as well as a set, so this is a snap call.

Sorry he backdoored you.

Thanks for the replies thus far... I ended up taking a check/call approach instead of bet/fold to minimize loss instead of maximizing win in case he got there with something (MUBS...). After I called he flips over 25 for a backdoor flush Seriously... calling $25 pre while stuck between the raiser and 3-bettor with potential for being 4-bet, good for him I guess.

Does nobody like c betting the flop?

You 3b an utg open, so the AKx r, flop should smash your range. When they check to you, it seems like they should fold a decent % even to a small cbet. If you get raised you can fold, if they call you have position on later streets and if you brick turn you likely can check to get a free river card.

+1

I was a little worried there for a second. YOU, young dude, took control of this hand with your 3-bet PF. You need to c-bet out on this Flop 90% of the time. I dont buy your 'most aggressive' tag and 'never been caught bluffing' tag working together with a check on this Flop. Forget your cards, play poker based on your actions. Play this Flop like you have AK and then you get 'super' paid off when you hit the jackpot Turn if someone actually does have Ax!! Maybe not during this hand, but these are the hands you are looking for when you 'semi-bluff' here with your c-bet.

Your description of V is right on, so why let him look at a free card? You could be worried about the UTG c/r possibilities, but $8 UTG at my 1-2 game is a HUGE range of hands that needs to be defined better with a c-bet. V floated your Turn bet knowing you showed some weakness and he could make a 5-card hand that probably has some implied odds attached to it. You and I both know we want him to make this call but he is looking to put in 55 to win 255 (75+55+125) and that gives him the right price to call here if he is fairly positive that you will call a River bet. He is not risking the $125 unless he hits the flush.

He can steal quite a bit from you on River since you 'allowed' the Flop to check through. OBV in this hand you are not folding to a blank River, but he doesnt know this. That is possibly a reason to check this Flop, to give this type of an opponent rope to bluff with, especially after you hit your set. He also has the option to check it down and muck without putting in anymore money in since he has position and will see your cards first at showdown.

I think you need to lead out on the River for value and then decide if you call his raise or not. Moral of story: Better to win $50 with a c-bet than lose $205 to runner-runner. It makes no sense, but I would rather lose 350 to runner-runner since I was at least making him pay the whole way down. For whatever reason poker just seems to punish you for 'non-standard' play. You went 3-bet to check to leading out to checking. That can't be a very profitable line in the long run.

Hope you ended up still way ahead. While you do need to mix up your play and perhaps 'lock it down' as you near the end of a session, but I have found it is better to just leave than to play lock-down poker as I always seem to lose one in there that bugs me way more than all the good hands I had played previously. GL

Well said.

Sure, AK8 board smashes our PF 3bet range but it also smashes their 3bet calling range. Given that one of the biggest problems that LLHE players have is calling bets too often without thinking too hard about the relative strength of their hands, I'm not very happy about betting 3rd pair into some potentially sticky opponents when there's a good chance someone's just tagging around with A4s or something ridiculous like that.

I don't mind checking behind and seeing what happens. Often in these situations the preflop 3-bet is enough to cow them into checking behind the whole way.

Of course, you can bomb it on the turn once you hit your set and HOPE they're sticky.