This is an 8-handed game, blinds are $2/$5

Villain Stack: ~$500
Hero Stack: ~$600

Villain appears to be a very competent player, with a balanced range of bluffs and value.
Hero's image is also balanced, generally not getting too out of line but also unafraid to bluff


Action folds to the Hero on the button with KT, who raises to $20. Action folds to the villain in the BB, who 3-bets to $65. Hero calls.


Flop is J 3 3


Villain leads for $45, Hero calls.


Turn is 3


Villain Checks, Hero Bets $65, and villain calls.


River is 5


Villain leads for $110, Hero jams for roughly ~$400 effective.


I have a feeling I could have played this hand better but I would love to hear input from others. My logic was that there weren't too many Jacks in villains 3-betting range except for KJ and AJ, and I block several combinations of KJ. While it was possible for him to have overpairs, after his check on the turn I felt that those weren't too likely as well. Thus when the river came mostly blank and he led, I believed that I could get him to fold any hand that didn't at least have a Jack in it. I also think my line also looks believable for a slow-played overpair who wanted to play the hand in-position. Anyways, please let me know what you think!

I mean hide results but fold to the 3bet pre and fold to villain lead OTF. Turn and river, I'm never here so whatever.

Villlain probably isn’t “very competent” w/his line

And ya fold pre

Fold pre, people don't 3b light from BB because it's easy to just flat. If he were good and did 3b light he would've 100% gone bigger. The price is great but you do very poorly against a valueheavy 3b range.

Fold flop too, one could make an argument for a small raise once in a while, but I wouldn't do it because of reasons above. Calling is just losing, your hand is behind and dominated even vs a lot of unpaired hands.

AP turn stab is ok, but you very often have to shove river to make it work.

Once he donks river he I'd guess he very often has a J. He didn't want to cbet turn, because he was afraid that you fold mid pairs and now he doesn't want you to check those back so he tries milking them. Other than that his line doesn't make any sense and looks like an awful line to bluff. Jx is never folding so shoving river is losing 300$, maybe even 400$, very bad play.

About the read, that he's very competent, he's either a complete handplaying fish, or he looks you as a fish. His line is really bad vs a respected opponent.

I'd be concerned with the 3b preflop - KTo is sort of a RIO type of hand against a tighter 3b range. The flop call is fine if you're able to play the turn/river well - I wouldn't fold getting 4 to 1 with plenty of potential turns/rivers to bluff if we decide to call preflop. The turn is tricky - if his 3b range is wide than I'll go bet bet, but if he's tighter I'd just give up. You went with a small sizing which puts zero pressure on his Ax. Villain leading the river is extremely concerning - you jamming to rep JJ/55 is not good.

I know everyone is saying fold pre and they are right. At the same time if you are a good post flop player, I don't mind the call knowing that the BB ranger here is most likely 77+. Might even have some suited connectors and this would be player dependent. In most 2-5 games you will not get 3-bet by the big blind unless that have 77+. In the 2-5 game at my casino, 95% of players are only 3-betting with TT+. As played no problem with floating the flop. No problem betting the turn to fold out AK, AQ, etc... On the river this is just a fold. I think the Villain has a big pair here and he assumes that your range has some pairs to call down here.

Your logic about you being more likely to have a jack than him is solid but you only went halfway through the equation. The other half is what hand does he have and what is he going to do with it to a shove. Let’s say he doesn’t have a jack, what hand does he play like this on the river? Is he betting a pair lower than a jack for thin value after you called the flop and bet the turn? Do you think he’s bluffing with such a small size? And if so what hands end up here on the river that he just turns into a bluff? Also there’s ~$460 in the pot when you jam so he’s only gotta call ~$300 to win $860 so it’s tough to find a hand he can fold.

We can’t really put any bluffs or weak hands into villains range that he will fold so I think this is a poor spot to jam

Fold pre. There are so many better hands to call in this spot than a potentially dominated off-suit king. In general I don't think live players 3bet as much as they should in these blind vs button spots, meaning that their range tends to be pretty strong in this spot. They certainly 3bet more often today than in years past, but even then we aren't even ahead of a wheel ace here which is a favorite bluff candidate of many. If I think a villain is 3betting too often, then I'll 4bet wide, which I think is much better than flatting with KTo.

And the rest of the hand seems like a hot mess.

4bet pre but mainly fold especially vs good opponent.

Fold flop.

If we found ourselves ott I would bet half pot with plans on jamming any river.

AP otr he has a J a lot. Do you ever flat AA/Kk pre? If so you can go with it but it’s particularly dicey vs a good opponent who should bluff catch lighter than most. The fact that there’s no natural bluffs here is good for you but he might level himself into a call hoping you are trying to push him off a chop with a J. I think it’s close but I lean give up here assuming V is compentent enough to know you have a wide range and are capable of finding bluffs.

People can argue about low freq. call/4bet lines with KTs and it's whatever, I'd argue it's bad until at least 5/T but you do you.

Doing anything other than fold with KTo though is just setting fire to money. Like shoving river seems pretty bad, but I doubt even that is worse than pre. call.

Hopefully V has JTs and never folding, but wouldn't be shocked if V has AA/JJ and was praying hero keeps putting money in on every street.

Offsuit broadway in position vs a wider 3bttr I'd call. Vs a tighter Opp fold.

On flop if I manage to get here vs most competent vilians I peel in position other wise we are lighting money in fire by calling pre to fold to cbets. Vs tighter Oop if i kno at the very least they kno the power of the cbet I'm peeling with backdoors to the str8, fd and some over cards.

After peeling flop and turn check from villain, its time to spring to action. Bet lil more than half pot... He calls turn, on that river he not folding. So I fold to his bet but still sometimes spew it off and jam if he checks and hate myself for not folding pre��