Villain: unknown late 20s middle eastern man; kinda seems like a typical TAG internet kid ($600)
Hero: mid 20s asian man; TAG ($600)

Villain opens $12 in EP. Hero calls in MP with KQ. Surprisingly, everyone else folds and we actually see a *gasp* heads up flop!

Flop: J66 ($27)

Villain checks. Hero bets $15. Villain calls.

Turn: 4 ($52)

Villain checks. At this point I put him on AK/AQ, maybe a weak Jx like JTs and of course 77-TT. He could also be slowplaying a monster like JJ/66 and also AA (although the latter is quite unlikely). Hero bets $30. Villain calls.

River: A ($112)

Villain checks. Now that he x/c twice OOP I definitely put him on a weak Jx hand or 77-TT. He could have been slowplaying a monster all along like JJ/66 but it's unlikely since I doubt he'd let me have the chance to check it back with a hand like AJ/KJ. I also doubt he would x/c twice with AK so the ace should be a scare card for him. If I was barreling with a hand like AK/AQ I just got there. So I bet $60 here expecting him to fold all his Jx and 77-TT.

I know I spew sometimes but this seemed like a legitimate spot to triple barrel vs what looks like an internet kid who can find the fold button. Thoughts? Especially on my sizings? He could very well pot odd himself into a call here getting almost 3-1.

Unknown is all you need to know. There's 20s middle eastern dudes that are excellent poker players. There's 20s middle eastern dudes that suck. You don't know what you're dealing with yet. Save triple barrel bluffs for villains on who you have a good read. Generally speaking, you don't want to be triple barreling in a vacuum in $1/2. You want to have a specific read that makes you believe it will work.

If he's a TAG, then he's not opening Jx in EP and then checking a jack of the flop. TAG's are aggressive. They don't c/c two streets with mid pairs. If he's got a hand like 77-TT, why wouldn't he bet the flop? I would almost rule out Jx and 77-TT just based on his flop check.

Because it is hard to get called by worse. Because he could easily be raised off his hand by worse. Because our hero will do the betting for him. Small pots for small hands.

I think the river bet size is too small. You're repping AJ here... or at least that's what you want to be repping. If you actually had AJ, would you only bet half pot on the river?

I'd make it $75-$85. Not so much to register as "fishy overbet." Definitely enough to make it easy for him to sighfold his pocket pair or J10.

[x] spew

don't triple-barrel bluff unknowns.

/thread

floating is a strategy often works again known villains specially weak tight.
against unknown, we should be playing straight forward and fold flop.

ap, im checking back turn and giving up unless I hit. Now check back.

Theoretically this is a good runout for a triple barrel but at the end of the day it is still -EV vs an unknown as live players have difficulty folding the river after putting in a good amount of money on each of the previous streets.

OK. It wasn't a total unknown but just I haven't been at the table long enough to confirm he was a TAG internet kid, which he turned out to be.

Anyways after I bet river he sighed loudly shifted around in his chair. After tanking he finally said "this is probably a horrible call" and called flipping over TT. He said he couldn't fold for $60 but would've snap folded to $100.

I've learned the hard way at 1/2 nl that villains do not have a fold button. They came an hour away not to fold they came to gamble/play as dgi would say. This isn't a bad spot to bluff, but I just wouldn't recommend it.

You bet too small on every street. Otherwise, I like it

X flop

In general yeah. But some TAGs are very bluffable IMO.

First off, if he's tight, why is he raising hands like JT EP, I didn't think that was considered tight.

So he doesn't cr here? You kind of spell out what happens, he folds whatever he had. He didn't have AK/AQ because he folded so he was calling with mid to low PP or KQ and when that A hit, he figured it was in your range.

Pretty good playing. It's important to know who can figure out your range and fold while at the same time putting them on a range that can fold to your range.

Well played.

I do agree with others, that the river bet should be larger, to make it less tempting for people to call you, but I guess if you know your opponent can fold to what looks like purely value bets, then this was played perfectly.

*** edit ***

Just read the results. Lol
Yah, I would never have triple barreled against an unknown, generally if they're calling you on the turn, they'll call your river bets, even if the size is $100. These are the type of opponents we want to play fit or fold against for a while, until they have it burned in their brains that we are only betting for value, then we can start putting bluffs into our range. Value bet larger too as they will call it.

Another note, even against tight players, the whole purpose of a value bet is to get called. It's not a good idea to try and bluff with value sized bets, as by their nature, value bets are small enough to get called. Your sizing is perfect if you have a made hand but other wise whose going to fold to it with a PP? The Ace is a good scare card for good 2p2ers who can fold...

What's your range that your value betting with on the flop and turn?

On the flop he's losing to:
AJ, 66, JJ, QQ, KK, KJ, JQ, JT. He's beating hands like AK, AQ, KQ, KT, KJ, QT, Q9, 99, 88, 77, 55, 33, 22

On the turn he's losing to:
AJ, 66, JJ, QQ, KK, JQ, JT, 44. He's beating AK, AQ, AT, QK, KT, KJ, QT, Q9, 99, 88, 77, 55, 33, 22

And now finally on the river,
AK, AQ, AT, AJ, 66, JJ, QQ, KK, JQ, JT, 44. He's beating, QK, KT, KJ, QT, Q9, 99, 88, 77, 55, 33, 22.

He has plenty of equity to call, especially with your 1/2 pot sized bets. He should call you always. He also now knows you can triple barrel air. This is bad for you. You need to balance your nuts to air ratio, as he's always going to call you down now.

Usually when u don't have reads on v to back your belief that your bluff will work, v will not have reads that u are capable of firing 3 barrels with an airball for the reason that sample is small.

I defo agree that reads are key but bluffs are investments and risk is inherent to a smaller or greater extent.

His range is wide here imo. He may have floated with some AK, slowplaying trips/better (unlikely imo), or sitting on a PP that will release now (well, slightly bigger sizing all the way down would help).

Spot is not ideal as ppl do not extract thin value too often on paired board and by repping trips/better u rep sthg really narrow. AJ makes perfect sense. All in all not thrilled about the spot but would not describe it as spew.

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I think a lot of TAGs open JTs in EP. I would so I have some playability on lower flops instead of being totally capped.

I'll check back TT-77 on the flop cause it has showdown value. So those aren't in my range. I'm not calling any KT KJ QT Q9 and only KQs not even KQo. Only hand I have in my range that is air on the river is KQs. He probably knows that I'm not calling those lower broadways and not turning TT-77 into a bluff. I guess I should have been more clear about my villain description. Wasn't a total unknown. I've seen him fold enough that I know he's not a fish.

Also I dunno about balancing my nuts to air ratio. Vs known regs sure, but since I'm actually playing like 2 or 3 hands an hour vs guys I haven't played before I really don't think it's that important.

I dunno about that. The 6 being paired is quite irrelevant since neither of us really has a 6 in our ranges except 66. I would definitely thin value AK/AQ or even QQ here to get paid by Jx. I just wouldn't expect 77-TT to call three bullets.

Depending on the game I would call with suited connectors and gappers and take a flop, and presumably many other players would, especially in live low games full of older station-type players.

I agree tho that a 10 10 x board would be way more scary than the actual one. I am a big fan of thin value myself as well, but would not start with the assumption that the stranger should expect that.

I also agree that pairs below J cannot stand too much pressure that's why I said the spot is not ideal but not bad either. I would be really surprised if any semi-competent player x/called 2 streets with some KK, so I think that his most likely holdings are 77-10s. If he hero'ed 2 streets with AK (which cannot be ruled out imo) I would vbet the cr@p out of him in the future.

By lower flops do you mean 9 8 7-2? You're going to value bet yourself when people call with A-QJ, and A-QT.

So on this flop, if it's checked to you by our EP raiser you're going to check back? What about protecting your equity against high cards like AQ, AK, KQ, KJ-Ts, and QTs? Are you not worried about these and would like him to bet smaller pocket pairs if you check back, or you just hope to check it down? I'm honestly asking, I don't know..

So your calling range IP is pretty much any pocket pair to AK, AQ and KQs?

Ya I wouldn't play any street like this again if I was you... I guess pf and flop aren't bad

I probably would have checked the river back here because in 1/2 it's too easy for V to have AK here. In 1/2 a player with AK OOP who hits the ace on the river after check/calling flop and turn will often check again on the river since:

a) they've already got a decent pot, and they've still only got one pair
b) they worry if they suddenly bet when the A falls it will be "obvious" they have AK and we'll fold to their bet, and that while all J's are probably checking behind, air-hands like ours will likely take another stab at it and it will be an easy call for AK to make.

I mean on flops like 987 I'm capped to a few combos of sets and the rest of my range is air/one pair hands. There are some regs who would notice this but I guess I'm over thinking these things. Vs this one reg on a 953ss flop I checked back and later said "I shoulda cbet". He said he would've check raised his KQ cause that flop "couldn't possibly have hit me".

This is a highly debatable area. I guess the lower the top card, the more we should bet our in between top/middle pair PPs as opposed to checking back QQ on an A95 flop. I do it to keep his range wide since if I bet a hand like 88 on this J66 flop the range that continues has me in bad shape. Obviously if an overcard falls on the turn it's bad but it may be more +EV to barrel low turn/rivers for thin value.

No since we're deep but I'm certainly not flatting dominated broadways. I'd rather flat SCs and Axs (perhaps 3 bet some of the Axs).

I probably check back the turn but if I bet turn I'm pretty much always betting that river. I go $85-$100 though.

I agree with the other points you made but disagree with this. I highly doubt any decent TAG (which villain soon revealed himself to be) would x/c AK twice here. I put his range to be exactly 77-TT and discounted combos of JJ/66 and figured I could get 100% of the former to fold.

I thought about checking back turn but was so confident with my read about his range. I definitely shoulda bet bigger than 1/2 pot on the river though. Big like you said would probably have done it. Even villain said so, and I really don't think he was lying.

River is good but I'd probably just check back and take the free card on the flop. V's usually aren't checking these kinds of flops to check fold so if you do start bluffing flop most of the time you'll have to follow through on turn and sometimes river as well.