Dudes,

Last weak I played 2/2 euro cashgame in our local casino. With only two hands to go before the casino closed, I got 8h8s. oN the other side of the table sat a player which I played the entire evening. He is a regular who plays a pretty standard game. Mostly he bets after his opponent has checked, he bluffs a lot and he is obviously one of the or maybe the best player on the table. He is there every evening and makes profit. Although these facts he likes to gamble. My image is tight. I play 2,3,4 hands per hour and I am always trying to keep the pots small. I bet when I have something and rarely bluff, because of the calling stations on the table.

The opponent calls my raise of 9x BB (I know, looks big.. but with all these Asian players who are there to gambleand the fact im out and im out of position, its a pretty standard play for
the type of game played there.

The flop comes K 8 7. Rainbow.

I was all like w00w. I had to figur out how I could get the highest amount of money from him. I thought for a while, and madea bet of 42 euro.Considering he could have AK to even K8.But most likely KJ or KQ. He was pretty loose and made a lot of bets and bluffs and reraises. The total potout amount was 50 euro. He goes in the tank, Thinks about it pretty long and then folds KQ.

My thought behind that bet was he prob thinks I had 99-QQ. Making a big raise like that looks like I want to close it right here and now. Result is, he making a reraise or a call. When he made a call I would check on the turn on every card, except AK or Q. With those turncards I would raise. With the check he would probably fire a raise. In that case I would call to make the pot grow. Considering he had KQ, he probably thought I had a set, or that i had AK. My giant raise, which was supposed to give him confidence, actually scared him away.

Whats your opinion of this hand and what should I do in the future?

Seems like with your image, and description of villian, i check flop.

bet like 28 imo

The good thing about playing tight is that you rarely have a marginal situation. You either have a hand or not. The bad thing about it is that when you bet, everyone knows you have a hand. Since this is a good (relatively) winning player, he's observing you. He should know you are playing only something like 88+, AQ+ raising early. The next thing is your bet. It is fine if you would bet he same amount if the flop was K73r. However, I suspect he's noticed that you either make a small bet or check if you miss on the flop oop. Once he sees you make a big bet, he puts you on AK or better. It is painful to fold TP, but he figures you're never cbetting this much with worse.

The answer is that you need to open up your game. The place to do it is first on the button. Start playing more hands there. The next thing is to cbet. You need to cbet the same amount whether you hit your hand or not. Sometimes they'll see you fold on a later street. That will encourage them to call your bets on the flop when you do have a hand.

FWIW, this is a soft game. Calling with KQ is a terrible play against a player with your characteristics.

I realize that's not the answer you were seeking, but it will in the long run help you. While I don't play as tight as you do, as played I would probably trap and check the flop and call his turn bet under your circumstances. If he doesn't bet, then you shoot to collect one bet with a 1/2 PSB on the turn. I'm never folding to a raise.

Bet 1/2 pot. Kind of cries for a call.
If that doesn't work next time, then just check the flop and just call if he bets. Then, try c/r on the turn.

You mention that you are a conservative player with a tight image and from your description of villain he is an aggressive player who is also observant.

With this information my advice would have been to check and let him bet into you. Then you check the turn and hope he double barrels at you to try and steal. If he doesn't then you value bet on the river and hope he has enough of a hand to pay you off.

Now if you are known to do a continuation bet even if you miss the flop (which you do not describe yourself this way) then a bet on the flop would have been fine but I would have made it about 1/2 pot bet of around $25 - $30.

One more thing. You rationalized that he would put you on any hand that he could steal the pot away from you and then fired. My guess is that as soon as you bet he put you on AK, AA, or 88. All of those hands probably had him dominated with whatever he had.

This is more about balancing your play then this specific hand but playing only 2-4 hands per hour will not give you enough hands to really balance your play with so you are probably seen as a rock. Loose tourist who are not paying attention to how you play will pay you off but an observant regular will nearly always muck their hands if you bet out at them and they have anything but a monster (thus giving you opportunities to steal a pot here and there from them). Checking to them though they will also try and steal on you more often because you probably check and fold flops you miss more often then most.

What is your stack size? i will assume effective is 200. Say you bet 20 on the flop. he calls and then there is 90 in the pot with 160 behind you bet 45 on turn. 180 in pot with 115 behind then you jam the river. Mission accomplished.

He is NOT folding KQ for 20 into 50 on the flop.

Thanks..

Ofcourse I realised as soon as he folded my plan failed. AK, AA and 88 were probably the hands he thought I had. Normally I would make a bet of about 50-60% of the pot. But I did have a little history with the guy. In an earlier hand he called my raise with 6 high because he thought I had nothing, and he might got lucky on the turn. He didnt, and my lowpair won, but imo he though I was playing a little scared and to obvious. Thats why I tried to keep up my scared image by betting almost the size of the pot.

Thanks for the tips, I will take them to the table, although I already pretty much aware of my leaks.

The thing is that most players playing there have no experience online at all, and are using very strange tactics. I have seen them put 150BB in pre flop with ATo, and limp KK in a 7 way pot.

Im still trying to figure out their tactics before I will start playing more hands.

I started with 220, but at that moment Ive already won some. I think when the hand started I must have had about 320 to 380. He actually had more then 500.

explain why you make a 9x bb raise with eights. if you're oop you want to invest less with a hand that will often miss the flop or face overcards. in position, less of a problem. also, i thought you said you always try to keep the pot small.