Quote:
Originally Posted by Stupidbanana
Sorry I'm not understanding why we WANT to have the Q? Wouldnt that be a good card for V to bluff with? Hence he has more bluffs? Or is it:
We have no Qh ergo he has more flushes ergo his range has more value?
...
We have no Qs ergo he has more missed spades ergo his range has more air?
also...
Afterwards V told me he has waaaay more heart combos than me. I disagreed at the time but now I'm not sure. He said he would have 3bet me with all the 45hh 56hh 67hh 78hh T9hh etc etc
Re - the Qh - what Davo said. When the flush draw comes in, we want to block it (or at least, block the nut flush). When the flush draw misses, we want to unblock it (preferably the missed NFD).
Here, we'd ideally want to have the Qh, and NOT have the As, so that we're blocking the nut flush in hearts, and unblocking the NFD in spades.
V's FOS, or an idiot. He 3B you next to act. He should have more big PP's, and fewer middling SC's. You opened the HJ, and just flat called his 3B. You should have fewer big PP's, and more SC's that can make flushes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stupidbanana
Another thought I had in the moment: "If he bets huge and I fold AQ OOP on a AK28... what hands AM I calling with? 22 only?"
The answer depends on the run-out, and the action. On a brick run-out, AQ is a decent bluff-catcher. On a draw-completing run-out, it's going to be even more dependent on our read of V and the action.
The way this was played, both of you are repping pretty thin. V could conceivably have some flushes here, but not very many, unless he's VERY aggro with his pre-flop 3B range. He shouldn't be 3B'ing you with any hand that makes a flush here, but MAYBE he's LAG enough to 3B QJhh, if he thinks you're opening too wide. He'd have to be a savage to get here with a worse flush combo.
V's range should actually have more suited Aces and Kings in it, which don't make flushes on this board, and big pocket pairs. So he could rep AA, KK, and AK for a boat, and some KX for trips, and some AX for TP, but that's about it, unless he's maniacal enough to play QQ or worse PP's this way, and you block QQ.
My suggestion to block-bet the river REALLY reduces the ranges to the point where any further aggression from V makes his hand face-up, and we can easily fold. Alternatively, we can check-fold, check-call, or bet big/jam, but I don't like any of those choices as much, the way we played this.
Generally, we'd be 4B'ing AA/KK pre-flop, and probably AK a majority of the time. Against most V's, most players would donk-lead or check-raise flop or turn with those combos, when it's such a wet board. So it's hard for us to show up with a boat here.
But we'd probably just flat call with AQ and worse AXs, KX, and our flush draws, so on the river, that's our range - mostly flushes, trips, top pair, and some tiny sliver of slow-played boats.
We can go for a check-raise with our boats, because we shouldn't have any. But we wouldn't check-raise or check-call our flushes, or our top pairs. We might occasionally but probably wouldn't usually turn trip K's into a bluff by check-raising.
Most of our range wants to block-bet to get value from V's worse AX, and perhaps optimistically fold out some of V's weaker value, though he shouldn't have much, because, again, he shouldn't have any flushes here, much less low flushes. It's unlikely, but occasionally he'll fold trip K's, if he convinces himself we'd only bet our flushes and boats for value, never AX.
Either way, our block bet keeps him from bluffing with a worse hand, or turning a worse value hand into an unintentional bluff. The fact that we can occasionally show up with a boat, and might not fold the nut flush helps protect our trip K's and AX from him raising as a bluff, and reduces his ability to get max value with his strongest hands that want to bet bigger when we check.
The worst hand he could raise here would be the nut flush, again, unless he's absolutely maniacal. Occasionally he might just flat call with the nut flush, worried we have a boat, and not thinking he can get value from anything worse. So, in that scenario, we limit how much value he can get by block-betting, instead of check-calling.
It sucks when we bet-fold to a raise, when we get snapped off by better, and occasionally when V calls with AJ, if he might have called a bigger bet. But the block bet protects the rest of our stack, and what we've already invested in the pot.