Game is being played 4 handed after we lost a couple of big donators. Villain in this hand is the only competent player in the game. He's late 20's, wearing a beanie, having his GF sweat him, and has been fairly aggro, pouncing on weakness whenever he can. He has about 1200 to start the hand, hero covers.

Hero is probably viewed as competent LAGgy, he and I haven't tangoed too much this session, mainly picking on the other people at the table and staying out of each other's way, but he hasn't seen me get out of line yet.

Preflop. Villain raises to 15 UTG, folded to me in BB, I make it 45 with QQ, villain calls

Pot is 87 after rake

Flop is 876

My plan for the rest of the hand is to c/call the whole way unless the board changes dramatically (wondering if this is ok against this villain)

I check, villain bets 60, I call

Pot is 207

Turn is 2

Check Check

River is 8

I bet 120, villain raises to 400

Comments about all streets appreciated.

Why did you change your plan?

Raise more pre

Bet flop

Bet turn

Fold river



If you want to be tricky and c/c do it on a drier board (but I thinking betting on all streets is higher EV)

+1..pre is fine

because he checked behind on the turn

My plan of the c/calling wasn't to be tricky actually. OOP, against a player who's range is fairly wide, on that scary of a board, I really don't want to bet and get raised and not know where I'm at, so I'd rather try and pot control a bit, go for lower variance against him, and also get pretty much equal value (2 streets) if he has a pocket pair lower than mine but higher than the board.

AP, c/c river for the love of all that's holy.

I would have just led flop though.

Now it's an easy fold. You can't have a bluff here, and you in fact are representing a stronger hand than you have. Don't think he's bluffing ever.

River bet is beyond terrible. I guess now that we got here though I'm probably calling because most if not all FDs and all sets/2p are betting turn. We only need to be right ~30% of the time and his entire preflop range got to the river. Plus we have the sexy Qs blocker so that blocks a lot of suited broadway hands he can have for flushes. After thinking about it maybe bet/calling isn't so bad because he's going to overbluff here and when you check it looks like you're check/calling a reasonable bet almost always...

Preflop: This deep and out of position I'd make it a little bigger - 55-60.

Flop: There is almost no better flop for him to raise than this one, so check/call is fine I think.

Turn: Ok.

Now when he checks the turn behind, I put him on 8x, 7x, 6x, 5x, 9x, fd sometimes but not often and other bluffs as JT etc.

River: Bet of 120 from you seems a lot like thin value bet by exactly the hand you have and villain can represent a lot of 8x, flushes... If he is competent to see this, I would actually call here.

Perhaps I would make the river bet even smaller, like 90-100, so he raises it with his bluffs even more often. Of course, sometimes he shows there 8x or weirdly played flush, but he should be good often enough.

I would c/c River.
What I meant was that you had a plan you decided to play a bit tricky I would have stuck to it.

Folding now AP.

+1

Fold river. You really need to c/c against this type of villain. Don't stray from game plan because opponent checked behind on that brick turn.

if you look at your line from his perspective, this is a very good board for him to bluff. You took a passive post flop line and decided to take a stab at it otr after he checked back the turn. You do look weak, and this is why he could be bluffing.

The bet is 120. He raised to 400. The question is does he want value, or a fold? Would he raise less with value? I probably would.

I would love to hero call him.

You did re-raise pre, so the only spades you should have are AK. He could be bluffing with the As. Hero calling is tempting, but I think you should have bet flop or stuck with your plan.

It's four handed, pretty sure 3-bets are not only going to be JJ+,AK

+1

i'm not in the business of hero calling but if there is ever a time to hero call, this may be it. it wouldnt be outlandish to see him turn a random 6 into a bluff either.

This simply isn't true when 4 handed, Hero should be 3betting AK/AQ/AJ/AT/KQ/KJss.

That's fine. I'm not sure I three-bet w/KQ or KJ, but I'm sure many would.

However, if he has the As, he still knows we can't have it.

If it goes check check on the river, and he shows JJ-99, A7, A6, 97, 76, 65, etc... (which he very well may check behind on the river but call a river bet), I feel like we missed out on a lot of value, vs the time he decides to stab at the pot with a missed A9, J10, etc..., makes me think betting the river even though it wasn't my "plan" the correct decision. Most of the time I'm not going to face a river raise, this just happened to be one of those times. Good discussion so far.

This makes a lot of sense. As far as preflop, we had just started playing 4 handed, I didn't know how long we were gonna end up playing this way (it ended up being a couple more orbits before the other 2-5 game broke and they combined tables), and I was planning on 3 betting a lot, so felt like I should stick with a relatively smaller size.

More PF .. just a bit .. you both are deep enough for it and I don't think it narrows your range too much.

Not sure I want to bet 'that' River, some Rivers yes. I think it allows V to continue to bet/raise with all his bluffs .. and you were planning on calling anyway.

AP .. Being OOP we still have allowed V opportunity to bluff, but with more on the line now. Not sure that a larger River bet prevents this, but maybe. V could be sitting there with AxAs and you still lose the Hero call.

I think it comes down to 'that' card is not one to bet into here if you plan on folding to a raise most of the time. It shouldn't be a Hero call decision to call this raise and that needs to be figured out before you lead out on the River. GL

Against an aggressive thinking opponent you're getting called by worse close to never and getting bluff raised by whatever he feels like bluff raising with. So if you're betting river it better be to induce a bluff raise and not to bet/fold.

Not sure you get that many Arag to call. I think once you bet the River he can 'safely' put you on 99-QQ at a minimum, so you are betting into a pretty small range that you beat if called IMO. He sees the pair and flush just as much as we do .. what does he think is our reason for betting into an action card would be?

I think we can bet out on a lot of Rivers per your thoughts, just not this one. GL

Results: I got a couple physical tells to indicate strength and ended up folding. He told me after the session that he had a flush and I don't have any reason to disbelieve him. Thanks for the responses guys.