Hero has QJ in HJ
Effective Stack: $330
Image: Hero is tag
Reads: Villain in the hand is a 25yrs old white kid with a goatee. Pretty sure he is playing poker for a living. Goes outside to smoke weed while on break. This session, he's been playing solid, haven't seen him bluff but I know in the past that he's capable of bluffing.
Preflop: UTG limps. Hero raises to $11. V calls btn. BB calls. UTG calls.
Flop ($40): KQJ. BB checks. UTG checks. Hero bets $30. V calls. UTG Folds. BB folds.
Turn ($100): 3 Hero bets $55. V calls.
River ($210): 8. Hero tank checks. Villain goes all in for $230. Hero?

I thought for about 30seconds whether to check or bet the river. Due to somewhat awkward stacks, I decided to check.

As played I don't think we can fold, as a b/b/chk line by us looks like 1 pair at best with a good runout like this. Stack sizes are too short to b/f so either Jam or b/c.

Don't like this spot at all. Do you think your tank caused him to turn a pair into a bluff? I feel that's all your hand is good for right now, a bluff catcher. Nothing calls pre except 9-10s, KQ KJs, QJs. 88 and 33 can call pre as well but they can't stand up to a flop bet. A10s also possible AK generally 3bets... I think you can only beat pure air, I don't mind a fold here

Call, river changes nothing.

Gross spot, you really didn't have to put yourself in this position.

As played, flip a coin. You played the hand to get stacks in by the river so might as well gii, your hand is underrepped after you check the river after betting 3 streets.

That being said, the turn is where you really should be making a decision on how to proceed before building a pot to play for stacks.

Before we get there: What is the average PFR? 11 clearly wasn't big enough if we are going 4 ways to the flop.

I like the flop bet and sizing, I think this was played well.

Now the turn. There's 100 in the pot and we've got a medium-strength hand. This card really doesn't change much except for bring in a BDFD which we shouldn't be very worried about. Which brings us to the crucial question: What is Vs range?

PF as described it should be pretty wide. 22-TT, 45s+, Axs, QTs+, AT+. Something along these lines. V calls pre, and calls a good sized flop bet. The turn should improve nobody's hand, so I would prefer using it to figure out where we are at.

I would c/c a small/medium bet and fold to bigger bets. If he's betting he hit something OTF, and odds are its better than our hit. Checking gives us a lot more info, and if V wants to play for stackshe needs to make a sizeable bet and let us correctly fold. Anything small we can call because even against a straight we aren't dead.

That was longer than expected. But hope it helps.

Edit: And I wouldn't be too worried about c/f the turn if he's bluffing and doesn't have us beat. 9/10 times Vs play their hand. Can't catch every bluff.

As much as I hate it, imho folding OTR feels correct.
What is he spazzing with? AK? I can't even see any bluffs.

Well played imo. Sometimes I'd c/c OTT and OTR, but think betting is better.(over the long run)

I'd probably also raise more pre (20) or limp.
They aint folding for 11 and QJo gets tricky then.

Q. What's your play if you boat up OTR?

Jam the river yourself!!!

For me, a few details are missing.

You said that in the past, this V is capable of bluffing. What exactly does that mean? Has me made small stabs at previous pots and got caught? Have you seen him AI bluff shove the river before? There's a big difference. A lot of players will take little stabs at pots, but a river shove is another story.

Most of our Vs at 1-2 aren't super creative. You're not dealing with a bunch of opponents who can turn moderate hands into bluffs. Is your V capable of turning, say, AK, K10, or Q10 into a bluff? If you've seen similar moves from this V in the past, and this is what you meant by "bluffing", then I can find a call.

But if this V is only known for taking small bluffs at pots, and this particular river shove is something you've never seen, it's a fold.

These extra pieces of information help me give a more accurate answer. Simple labels like TAG or LAG or bluffy aren't always enough.

Bigger preflop. QJo doesn't want four way action.
I like the c bet on the flop and the relative sizing is good. I think I'd go bigger on the turn. You bet half pot which led to awkward stacks and may have led V to continue with a hand like K or Q or J with a ten. If you bet bigger on the turn, then youre set up to gig on the river. The other choice is to bet smaller or check turn if you don't feel like your hand is good.
Vs most likely holdings seem to be KQ, KJ, AT, 98s or some Broadway combo with a ten. The river changes nothing and if he has a hand like a pair and a draw, he could be shoving to get you off a hand like AK.
The over bet is also polarizing, I think. From what I've seen, it's either the nuts or a bluff and this doesn't feel like the nuts. I think AT or 98 would bet 80-120 to try to get some value. I also don't know if KQ or KJ or a straight waits until the river to start to be aggressive. I would have expected that to come on the turn.
Folding is probably not a mistake but I think V is most likely overplaying a pair-draw hand that missed.

Bf river for 80. As played, fold.

There are probably a lot of weed-smoking 20 year olds that think they play for a living. Probably 0 that actually do.

If stacks are awkward otr, then sizing otf and ott should have been different, you had the lead the entire hand and had the ability to dictate the pot size throughout the hand.

I'd still b/f for value as played, betting ~half pot is going to be what this kid sees, he won't notice they you bet half of the eff stacks or even care or know what that means. Once you checked, I call. It looks like he was drawing to a straight that if it hit he wouldn't have gotten paid, i.e., Ax.

Just think it through, there's not much he can have that beats you. If he flatted, flatted, shoved with a set, that's an amzing line to take with a set. I'd imagine he bombs the turn if he had a set. Same thing with a straight because a diamond draw hit ott. Same with KQ/KJ because there's a straight draw that could suck out on him. The call/call/raise for value line is just so sophisticated. When it's happened to me it's a terrible bluff attempt with a missed draw, I've never done it before but reviewed my HHs and seen that I could have for thin value a few times.

Flop-River: fine

best play OTR: b/f river ~100

As Played:
You are up against a range of,

Value Hands: AT, T9, KQ, KJ

Possible Bluffs: KT, QT, JT, T8????

Almost all his bluffs have SDV. If he is smart enough to realize that he needs to turn these hands into bluffs I might call (but still close). In reality most players would just check here with SDV and hope his hand is good (lol showdown monkeys).

So I FOLD

Call and expect to win ~50% of the time. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield. I have a hard time believing you are good <34% of the time which is the break even point here.

+1
Specially against weedsmoking 20s. The degens. Smells like OESD with FD and a pair on turn that missed and decided to bomb river

PF: OK

F: (4) handed. Pot is $45. SPR is 7. 3/4P bet is fine. He may not have AK here becasue he didn't 3B. We were already losing to KQ, KJ, and AT. What reasonable hands are we beating? KT, QT, JT, T9, T8.

T: Heads up. Pot is $105. When we bet here, we're putting in 29% of the effective stack.

R: Pot is $215. We've got $234 left. 8h completed the T9 OESD. We check, so we are showing a bit of weakness here. Then he shoves. If he had a straight, why would he shove. Seems more likely that he would bet something like $100. If he had a hand like KT or QT, he's got show down value, so would he turn those hands into bluffs? He appears to be a competent V by your description.

Well, we don't beat too much except for air or a hand like KT that's turning his hand into a bluff.

I don't know, I guess I just fold, even though I want to call. Probably try to get a seat change.

This really seems like a call to me. The only hand that beats me and I think he'd take this line with is A10 for the flopped nuts. KQ, KJ, and sets are all raising the flop or the turn. 109 is probably raising the flop or the turn as well.

Meanwhile, I think he could take this line with AJdd, J10dd, and 10xdd. He took a flier in position on the flop, picked up outs that justified his turn call, and now realizes his only chance at winning is to bomb the river and hope you fold your top pair/missed draw/weak two pair.

Lol

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Damn! This guy's good! I'm sure I picked the right horse to learn from.
I bolded all your comments that I consider solid gold.

Can a pot-head play a set like this? Or even 30% of the 1/2 players you run up against?
And: If he has the nut str8, why an all-in instead of a value bet?!

If he wasn't calling down with the nut str8, then what the hell?! It's either that, or too much ganja.

I think people here are overrating the effects of smoking while/before playing.

However, it does bring into question the effects of smoking while/before posting...

Yeah your getting value from a lot of Ax and Tx hands with a pair to go with it, that just turn their hands into bluff. It would be nice to have some sort of blockers here to help make the call. Just call the floor and tell them he's high on marijuana smoke.

Yeah your getting value from a lot of Ax and Tx hands with a pair to go with it, that just turn their hands into bluff. It would be nice to have some sort of blockers here to help make the call. Just call the floor and tell them he's high on marijuana smoke.

Haha, except I don't partake.





1. Why would you do this?
2. They won't care.

Villain is checking back all of his pair+SD hands, like JT, QT, KT, as well as his medium strength showdown hands like AQ and basically any Kx combo.

Even AK is hard to imagine here... If he's good enough to vbet AK, I think he'd make it $100 to give you a decent price on your weak one pair hands.

So if he's checking back all those hands, what hand can he really have that we beat? I honestly think this is a really easy fold. We don't beat anything.

The only way we win this hand is if he floated us twice to bluff (extremely unlikely), or he's good enough to turn JT/QT/KT/AQ into a bluff (also extremely unlikely).

So, what did you do?