2/3, 9-handed, weeknight

[HAND 1]

Villain (25yo Asian male, 90/40, $1300) opens to $15 in MP. Very aggressive postflop and overvalues mediocre made hands. Never folds to a 3-bet.
Hero ($850) 3-bets to $60 with 10s-10c in CO.
Villain calls.

Flop (heads-up, $125): Ks Jd 4c

Villain checks, Hero checks

Turn ($125): 6h

Villain bets $75
What do you do? Should you have c-bet the flop?


[HAND 2]

Villain ($1500) from the first hand opens to $15 UTG.
Hero ($680) 3-bets to $60 with AKcc. Villain calls.

Flop ($125): Qc 9d 2s

Villain checks, Hero checks

Turn ($125): 9h

Villain bets $60
What do you do? Should you have c-bet the flop?


As a more general conceptual question, should you 3-bet with a somewhat wide range for lesser value?
What should your strategy be for flopping middle pair on the flop? What about whiffing the flop?

H1 ... fold, and X back flop. Blocking the logical draw (QT), and turn completes the rainbow.

H2 ... I'd cbet flop, small, with blockers to top pair, hope to pickup equity on turn, might be able to double barrel.

H1: I like, but I call flop bet and evaluate.

H2: C-bet. As played, I call again and evaluate.

I'm assuming V is actually a mega LAG and does bluff, if not, fold H1 and I might just fold H2, but probably not. I still c-bet.

Why are we only 4xing someone who has a 40% opening range and never folds to a 3-bet??????

I'm tempted to jam pre on the assumption that the final 3 players are probably only calling us off with QQ+, AK+

At the very least I'm raising pre to say 300 (and folding to a jam from BU and blinds), and then jamming nearly every flop.

I'd need some much more specific info on V before we start shoving $600 over $15 to someone who "doesn't fold to 3bets." There's a big difference between a "LAG" who doesn't fold to 3bets and a maniac who will call everything inelastically. Even the craziest of maniacs start to fold out most everything we beat when we do that.


I'd start making raises 5-6x. But anything more is just too much without some more specific info.

As to the OP's last question.....when someone never folds to 3bets.....then you eliminate any polar 3betting strategies. You 3bet linearly and for larger amounts. Find the threshold in which they start folding and then back the price down a little.


As far as cbetting, that's going to need more specific info. If they continue with any pair post flop but fold every time they whiff, then find the smallest amount they fold for and use that and cbet a lot. If they will just continue regardless.....then you mostly only bet when you have a pair or better post flop and you'll want to use larger sizings.

Middle and bottom pair will need even more specific info.



Villains like this rarely just call of an infinite amount of money with their entire range, including air. So you'll need to be paying close attention and making very specific actions to probe and figure out how V plays post flop. Once you get some of it figured out, the answers become quite simple.

Hand 1: Your preflop sizing is kind of big for an in position 3bet. 3-3.5x is more standard. I get that villain is never folding to 3bet, but the large 3bet size is kind of rough on your 3bet range.

As played, I would be range betting this flop 1/5 to 1/3. You should have all the AK, KQs, KJs, KTs KK, JJ, AA, and a fair amount of KQo. This is probably a range bet spot. Give yourself a chance to get him to fold the flop. Likely checking back turn if he does call flop. River probably checking back/folding unless a T comes, maybe you can bluff an A or Q.

As played, probably just fold turn.

Hand 2: Preflop sizing is again big. Flop, bet 1/3 pot. You have two overs and a backdoor flush draw. You can always check turn, which gives you a good chance to spike an A or K by the river. You can also barrel cards on turn that give you backdoor potential.

If your plan is just to bet big when you hit flops, your opponents can just overfold when you bet flop, and then get you to fold on all brick turns. You're going to have a very hard time winning with that strategy.

Hand 1 - People play these players differently. What you need is a strategy though. Not a hey how do I play this hand? Does 3 betting work against him or does it just give him hands where he can make you fold on the river.? You need a strategy.

To stack this guy you need a good made hand, that he doesn't realize is a good made hand and you just let him bet. You do that over and over. If he's still a problem, coach other people at the table on how to play him when nobody is in a hand.

I'd worry less about these specific hands and more about how to play the guy.

H1: played fine now fold turn.

H2: Cbet flop. AP call turn/evaluate river.

About the conceptual question if he’s opening wide and calling too wide vs a 3bet…just expand your 3bet range linearly and do more high frequency betting on flops cause his wide/weak range is gonna miss a lot of boards. You can def start to open up and cbet second/third pair and even some good Ace highs on dry disconnected textures.

If a player always calls your 3 bets, just remove your bluffs.

As this villain is playing extremely wide pre, I’d widen my value range to compensate, 3betting hands like ATo+, KQo, JTs+, A9s+, 88+ at a much higher frequency. All these hands play well postflop, and all relatively easy to play in position, have great nut potential, a large portion of it will dominate villains calling range a good % of the time.

As far as post-flop strategy goes, you’ll be IP most of the time, so you can play pretty straight forward from there on out. C-bet dry boards and ones that favour your range at a higher frequency, check ones that favour his. Bet your made hands, do more checking and calling with your medium strength ones and bluff-catchers. Keep it simple.


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would cbet range in the first and probably the 2nd but even if i wasnt going to cbet range id bet this otf and potentially barrel this / similar hands in the hand - you block a huge chunk of his call down range (KQ, AQ) and have ~25% equity vs a ton of the weaker parts of his flop range that you're going to do a better job of realizing by betting (specifically you dont let him lead the turn depolarized vs you and can make him fold). in general if the stats are remotely accurate you're going to do best off just betting small otf a ton regardless of texture and taking it from there because he's way too wide

i feel like i say this alot on these boards and people get upset but do you realize what 90/40 would actually look like in a ring game situation?