The opener in this pot is very tight, plays few hands and opens even fewer. He is in early position 9-handed, but he is not the villain in this hand.

The villain and I have been engaged in a few big pots and has tested my hand-reading ability thoroughly throughout the session. He is HYPER-aggressive and has been preying on the weakness shown by other players, usually in spots that are just poor for bluffing.

For example, he opens to 100, I flat in the BB heads up, a A8x flop is checked around, I bet the turn for 125 and he raises to 400, which I call. River bricks, and we both check the river. He turned 86s into a bluff, and I called him with TT.

Effective stacks do not matter--we both have over 10K in front of us in this uncapped game.

Hero has JJ in the SB.

UTG+1 (tight guy opens for 100), Villain calls, I call, BB calls.

When this guy opens, he plays straightforward and intend to play a marginal big pair OOP for set value multi-way.

FLOP: AT3r (POT: $400)

I check, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Villain checks. I am almost 100% sure Villain bets any ace here.

TURN: 6 (POT: $400)

I bet $250, folds to Villain, Villain calls.

RIVER: 8, missed turn flush (POT: $900)

Hero checks, Villain bets $400, Hero?

I have above the second pair on the board and feel that the villain likely has a Tx combo, 2 pair, a set of 8s, or air...but should the texture of the board dissuade me given its proximity?

This was not really a huge hand, but it is the one from yesterday that really got me thinking about my play on all streets. Is 3betting preflop advisable against a tight opener with a strong EP range OOP? Is checking the river to induce value from a potential busted backdoor flush preferable to a bet/fold to potentially extract value from a stuck pair (which may bet the river for me, anyway)? And does a lesser made hand bet the river for value, like KT or QT, making the option of folding one that is out of the question?

I like the way you played it, and would now call the river. If villain turns over something like T8, that's fine.

I would 3bet this preflop a healthy percentage of the time. Stack sizes of the other villains in the hand (BB and UTG+1), their tendencies vs. 3bets, and my image at the time would all factor into that decision.

Good point about the 3bet calling tendencies of villains. Given action, I think that the opener has a hand he will call with here a good percentage of the time.

The Villain, who would act next, is not a good aggressive player, showing pressure in spots where it really makes little sense to do so. But he has been calling raises and 3bets light all day, so I imagine he is calling here.

The BB likely folds.

I am not sure if I want a 3bet pot 3 ways with JJ with someone who could have a better hand than me and another whose 3bet calling range could allow him to smash flops I could never see coming.

Effective stacks between the 3 of us would be about 12-13K. FWIW, I would probably 3bet if the opener was looser, could fold a good portion of his range, or could be outplayed postflop. The opener though has been showing down holdings off an open in the range of 99+/AQ+, so I decided to avoid a potentially gross spot.

As played, I ended up having the ability to utilize JJ as a hand with showdown value, anyway--but I will concede that 3betting JJ here is my default play.

Pre-yes.
Flop-yes.
Turn-yes.
River-yes/call.

Raising the tight, straightforward utg opener with JJ pre would be really bad. He'll fold anything you beat (assuming he even opens 1010, AQ) and blow you off a chance to setmine. Just outplay him postflop.

+ a lot

Yeah 3b pre seems kinda bad against someone nitty and river I think is a call he can probably be vbetting his strong Tx hands a decent amount and obviously turning stuff into a bluff getting a good price on it. Also idk if he's good or just an aggrotard but a lot of bad players will bet huge with their strong hands (even though your range is weak so he should probably be betting the size he did with his entire betting range) and this size with bluffs/thin value hands so you can be more confident he doesn't have 2p/set-type hands here.

I think a call is ok

I appreciate the replies, and there seems to be enough agreement to post the results.

I thought about it for about 10 seconds, feeling that only T8 and 88 make sense here that beat me, and I have under 25% pot odds, so I called and saw T8o (nice $100 call pre).

I am not results oriented, which is why I was wondering about my line as much as the final river action. I greatly appreciate the answers!

Interesting hand because all elements in play led you to play it kinda weird (flatting pre and betting turn). But given descriptions it looks like you played it for max ev. And yeah, call river.

I'd probably just bet something really tiny, like another $150 on the river. He likely won't bother raising with a weak ace or turn something like a bare ten into a bluff, and you'll still get the value of him bluffing with his total air hands. I also disagree that as played villain would vbet a strong ten this way since hero does have Ax a decent chunk of the time that's bluffcatching on the river, so the line I suggested does get that extra value from a ten.

Plus it makes it a little easier to hero-fold if he only makes it like $400-$500 total since he'd probably never expect you to fold any showdown hand to that sizing and would never try to level you that way for obvious reasons, so I'd likely b/call if he makes a pot-ish sized raise and possibly b/f if he makes it really small.

Interesting hand. Don't see too many of these types of small pot hands posted and they are important hands to think about.

All in all, I think you played it perfectly. You had a solid reason for every decision on every street and check calling the river against a hyper aggressive player is good. I don't like the idea of betting the river against a player like this. It seems obvious that you do not have an ace and if your bet is small, it will look like a blocking bet, and he may raise you on a stone bluff. Better to check call like you did.

Having seen the result, I wonder if you took note before of his river betting patterns. I've noticed that hyper aggressive players don't vary their river bets as often as they should when it is checked to them on the river. Among these players, one group will bet 2/3 to one full pot bet on a river bluff and bet around 1/2 pot for value when thy river a big hand. The other group does the opposite. The first group is much more common and once I see a few rivers from one of these guys, I can tell from the size of their bet whether they have the best hand.

That said, I would still call most of the time here and I probably would have played that hand exactly like you did. But if this guy followed that pattern of only betting that reasonable sized bet with a good hand, I would fold some of the time to save my money.

If anyone has noticed this pattern or anyone disagrees, I'd like to hear it.

pretty sure villain is gonna check back Tx on the river, so he either has 2pr or a missed FD, I think it's probably a call given the price you are getting.

Honestly, I like a fold best here.

First of all, you called preflop with an intention to set mine, so you should stick to that plan in a 4-way pot. You took one stab at the pot, and that didn't work. Time to shut down.

On the river you have a bluff catcher, and calling is trying to be a hero.
You don't beat any of his value range and are simply hoping he is bluffing.

"I have above the second pair on the board and feel that the villain likely has a Tx combo, 2 pair, a set of 8s, or air...but should the texture of the board dissuade me given its proximity? " I would also add KK, QQ into his range...
If he has a Tx combo, do you think he bluffing? Value betting? Merging? Is this villain capable of merging?

I still like a fold best. The flush draw that missed the turn is the only bluffing hand that makes sense. I don't think that's enough for us to call.

Also the size of the river bet just screams "value bet" imo.

Didn't see the result when I made the previous post. I mistakenly thought villain was the original raiser. You can factor out KK, QQ from his range, sry. Still would have liked a fold on that river tho, $400 is such a value bet.

standard

This is why it's awesome to bluff with this sizing. Not only does it make it a cheaper bluff but it looks stronger against people who can hand read somewhat. It's a spot where hero is ch/f a lot so he doesn't have to make it big as a bluff and it's just a bonus if hero also folds JJ here. But if villain has a brain we have to call I'm pretty sure.