2/5$ nlhe, $500max, Saturday afternoon; big tournament series in town so games are juicy and action is good


Hero: $500, white male late 20s, reg in the room, on second bullet after misplaying a hand early in session; V was not here for that though. Hero should have a solid TAG image in eyes of V from past sessions together. I believe he knows I beat the game and understand the game "well"

V: covers, white male, mid 20s, reading glasses and headphones, also a reg in the room. We have played together for a handful of sessions, about 10 times, over the last 2 years or so. I think he is a small winner but his biggest leak is tilting and being too laggy in LP when shown weakness. Earlier in the session V doubled up a nit on a KxK♦️8♦️7♦️Kx when V called a check raise otf then nit shoves turn with KQ. V called about 350$ ott then got a little tilty when nit rivered quads. This is about 30 min before the hand of interest with hero.

The hand:
Hero limps utg+1 with 8♠️9♠️. Very passive table, so I decide to limp/fold if raised to 25+. This is prob questionable but, yea. One other Limper, v raises to 20 one off button. SB calls, hero and Limper call.

The flop: Jx10♠️6x (85$)
Checks to V who bets 40$, SB folds and hero calls, Limper folds. I dont really hand V pinned down to a hand here as I expect him to bet the majority of the time when checked to in LP. Heads up to the turn

The turn: Jx10♠️6x7♠️ ($165)
Hero binks and has oesfd, debates leading but figures this looks too much like a medium J and wants V to continue. Hero checks and V bets $100 after about 5 seconds. Again, I feel like a decent check raise now looks even stronger than a J so I decide to call.

The River: Jx10♠️6x7♠️5x ($365)
Hero leads 210$ expecting a made hand to call and possibly getting V to look me up light with something like KT/AT. There aren't any draws besides KQ that hero would have missed, and maybe a flush draw that floated the flop.

Hero only had about 340 behind. I feel like this is NOT one of those pass/fail situations where V will call 340 if he is calling 210; I don't know why, I just felt like that at the table. For that reason I decide not to shove and bet about 2/3 pot.

A min-raise ott def gets stacks in otr, assuming V has a hand. But that looks so strong doesn't it? I feel like it's always a set of 7s if I were in Vs shoes.

Thoughts?

would rather cr turn than call and lead out river..

vs described v i would cr river... i'm more into leading out against calling stations rather than a villian who is "tilting and being too laggy in LP when shown weakness"

Not getting stacks in by the river is a problem.

I think this was played well, and you're right that a cr on the turn looks super nutty. On the river though, I like the idea of checking a third time. Our hand is very disguised here, as the obv scare cards never hit (A,K,Q,9,8). Of course this is a disaster if villain checks back, but now we have a chance to get stacks in whether he has a hand or not. We have a ton of J9,AT-QT, Q9 and KQ in our range, and he can get us off those hands if he empties the clip. Yeah some value can def be lost if he has some sort of ten or like QJ, J9 and checks it back - but if he has air he's folding to cr on turn anyway, and at least this way you give him a chance to shovel more money in the middle.

No way im checking & running the risk of a check back

Normally I wouldn't risk it either, but based on villain's description there's a good chance that it not only works, but gets stacks in. If we cr turn and he doesn't have AJ/2pr+ he is going away, and we get same amount as we do when we lead river and he folds.

Vs described villain I think a river c/r is better than a lead. I also like a turn c/r too just because it's such a drawy board