Villain mid 40's white collared shirt w black thick rimmed glasses blindish hair. From Chicago. Playing TAGish but still open limps some hands. Maybe calling opens too wide as well.
1/3 NL.
Villain limps EP (400)
Hero raises to $15 (500) KQss HJ.
Only villain calls. HU to flop.
Flop (30) J87ss villain checks. Hero bets $20, villain calls.
Turn 9d. Villain checks. Hero??

This board really smacks a calling range so I'm checking back here cause you have a lot of cards that an improve you on the river. If you bet here and get raised unless it's really small you probably have to fold.

you have so much equity, bet. will better hands fold, surely, innit... always nice to have a somewhat well balanced range if you bet, not only made hands and c/behind with draws...

What better hands are folding besides a bare jack?? Most hands here are going to have at least a straight draw to go with a pair, on this board he probably has better than one pair. And is never folding , so I think if you bet here you have to be able to triple barrel on the river.

What about weak 1 pair hands like 75s, A8, A9, A7?

Betting turn. Most interesting question is what to do on the river if it's a blank.

SPR SPR SPR!!!!

Pre-flop play shows a lack of a plan for the hand. I think if you replay this hand with you raising to $25 or $30 pre-flop and then betting $35-$50 on the flop, the turn would be a much simpler situation.

As played, I wouldn't expect a TAGish player from out of town, with station-y tendencies to check/raise on this board. If he does, he probably has a ten, so I guess you could bet small, and then evaluate your odds with 12 outs if he raises. Checking back is terrible though, with station-y tendencies, he'll assume you don't have a ten and call you down with QJ when you try to bluff the river. Conversely, if he's also TAGish, he may not pay you off if you make a flush.

As played, bet $20-$30

I'm never betting the turn trying to fold out QJ.

1. Not trying to make someone fold top pair
2. That's the exact hand that we can double-up against on a favorable (ten) river.
3. Bet-folding a hand with this much equity is terrible, but we definitely would have to fold to a raise.

Yes, barrel. He doesn't have a ton of Tx (though he does have some), but he does have quite a bit of Jx (AJ, KJ) that can fold the turn fearing the 4-straight board. Pot is 70. You can bet 50. If he c/r to 125, you'll be getting 3.3:1 to call. It sucks to get c/r here, but you can actually b/c and then play rivers pretty perfectly. Oh yeah, if he just calls the turn bet... and then checks to you again on the river... hold the **** on because you're going to put in a huge triple barrel. You can't just barrel turn planning to give up if he calls and checks to you again on the river... you're firing the 3rd bullet on pretty much all cards, and unless you have a read he doesn't fold, it's +EV.

[QUOTE=au4all;47492551]I'm never betting the turn trying to fold out QJ.
[QUOTE]

Neither am I. But if the river bricks, I don't want top/pair crap kicker thinking that we are just taking a stab on the end. If we want QJ to fold when we only hold K high, then we need to have a stronger line than bet/check/bet.

au, you're right QJ doesn't fold the turn. But it'll often fold to the 3rd barrel.

just because he flatted a cbet does not always mean he has a jack.

Bet 40 ott. make him pay for the draw while keeping the pot under control, and if he folds 1010, it's a plus.

Don't bet too much so we leave room for a possible river jam with an ace or non spade without him feeling too committed to call it off. If he had a set/2p he would have raised the flop or the turn anyway.

Check out texture again, TT is a straight.

thanks. if he folds lower PP's.

I like that we narrowed the field to HU in position with initiative, a very good result, imo.

SPR is ~13 on the flop, which in my opinion is a nice SPR (especially in position) as we shouldn't get committed for stacks with TP hands so long as betting is kept under control.

Nice flop. Overs, 2nd nut flush draw, back door straight draw. We should have decent equity here (so a bet could simply be for value), plus a bet might give us options on the turn (such as taking a free card). I'm cool with the 2/3 PSB size; I wouldn't bet any more as if check/raised we want to give ourselves decent odds to draw (where a larger bet would not do this).

I'm either/or on the turn. If Villain could believe that we have a T, then we could get weak made hands to fold. But should we really have a T in our hand all that often here (raising preflop and betting the flop)? I'm not so sure we should. But sometimes a bet gets thru, plus we should have decent equity even if called. But other times we get check/raised (which might not give us the odds to draw), and other times we sometimes get ourselves into a spot where we figure we should empty the clip on the river. I think I would lean towards just checking behind (happy that I got money in on the flop with decent equity), realizing that equity, and quietly folding the river if I miss (it's unlikely he's bluffing with a worse hand), but that admittedly might be too passive when it's possible this pot is up for grabs.

ETA: What's the number one hand opponents put us on when we raise preflop? AK? I'll admit that calling a triple barrel on a 4-to-a-straight board is super tough for opponent to do with just one pair / two pair. But we're pretty polarized if we bet the river, and, well, we more-or-less have the exact hand most opponents put us on.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I think our SPR result is great (~13, in position, with initiative). I know PNLHE hates this SPR, but this SPR is really only difficult if someone is capable of bombing 3 streets with PSBs (few opponents do), or we aren't comfortable folding to a check/raise (or don't take a pot control line if we are uncomfortable folding to a check/raise).

A raise to $25 sets up an SPR of 7.5, which is a horrible SPR. Villain can easily make us play for stacks with 3 moderate bets. It's too high to commit with against most opponents with just TP, and we'll be forced to take a pot control route (if opponent lets us).

This higher SPR also allows us a bit more play (such as a possible 3 barrel option that we have now), plus is a fairly nice SPR to have with a drawing hand in position (where we can still play for stacks if we hit).

GSPRresultisgood,imoG

If the villain is at all competent, he should be folding the flop with all these hands except for maybe A9. Edit: If the 7 of spades isn't on the flop, he could have one combo of A7ss

I check back the turn as the 9 completes the obvious one-liner. Plus it also gives him pair + SD combos that he's not likely to fold.

What pocket pairs could he have given the action? 66?

on the flop - 55 66, even if he has 22 the point is if he calls a $20 cbet (which most people do since the bet is just a FOS cbet) and we check back the turn because of our equity and plan to check back the river unimproved, I would rather bet the turn to fold these hands out since we don't have any made hands yet, which won't win us the pot at showdown unless we hit something otr.

A 2/3 pot bet is FOS? Really?

I'm of the camp that villain *maybe* 66 calls pre. That's a small part of his overall range that isn't folding. If he's got worse spades, we don't want him to fold.

I definitely bet this turn -- ~$40. He's folding a lot here, and if not, he's folding on the river. I think a lot of a tight player's range folds to a turn bet. I really hope he has a flush draw so he doesn't fold and we get paid.

I ended up checking the turn. River came a brick and he checked and I checked again...
He tabled 75s and won w a pair of 7!! Soo tilting.

Lol, I had a similar hand recently where I flopped the nut flush draw after raising preflop and the opponent flopped bottom pair + flush draw. After my cbet was called, I checked it down, only to lose (when obviously a river bet would have stolen the pot). But I'm still ok with it as my A high had showdown value, as did your K high.

Gdon'tbeatyourselfup,imoG

Spades is a very tiny part of his range which consists mostly of a J and lower pairs that floated the flop cbet. I wouldn't want to check to target keeping in lower FD's.

I agree he has a J a lot. What Jx hands are limp/calling pre and calling a bet post? JT is now a SD and is never folding. J9 is two pair. We block QJ but that's not folding either. Let's look at 98, now it's two pair. T8 got there.

My point being there's a lot of combos that will not fold to a turn bet so let's take the free card. Just so happens we caught the villains very bottom of his range.