1/3 NLHE 9 handed.

V - Competent TAG. Plays the room a lot and can even balance into LAG territory sometimes. Has a check-raising range and can bluff and so on. Usually plays 2/5. 600$. LJ.

H - Just sat down and V doesn't know me. He might remember me from months ago at best. 400$. CO.

--

One limp to V who opens to 12, H to 40 with J J, only V calls, HU IP.

Flop 80 (360 back) - Q T 9

V checks...

We block KJ and I guess we have more NF, AQ and KK/QQ. V has more TT/99.

So I guess we bet small or x behind on monotone flop. Getting xr'd here would suck. I lean toward checking behind and hoping that V will bluff a lot of turns.

I'd just check behind - I think in theory we shouldn't be cbetting this texture at a high frequency as we shouldn't have many set/flushes so a good villain can abuse us.

We have all the sets and all the flushes, but I am not sure if we should be betting this hand in particular.

I would probably cbet small, but proceed with caution because if V calls and the four flush comes, we aren't going to be ahead a lot and we certainly won't get paid.

I c-bet probably about $40 and call a raise vs his player type, or I check behind. I mean, if he has diamonds, it sucks, but we have outs -- we aren't behind much else. I'd like to let him bluff now, but if he'll stab at the turn, that works too.

We have QQ, maybe TT?, probably not 99. There's not a lot of flush combos we can have here since the Q/T are out there - AKdd,AJdd,Kdjd. Most of our perceived range is vulnerable here - really nothing to worry about at a live 1/3 game but higher level players could really punish us.

Generally...

I don't like slow-playing monster hands by checking. Instead, I'll just bet very small. To balance this, we need to likewise pick some spots where we'll bet very small with a super-high equity semi-bluff.

Weird to call JJ with an OESDF a semi-bluff, but it basically is. Doubtful just a pair of jacks is going to win at showdown if a lot of money goes in.

But we have a 15 out combo-draw, and one diamond in our hand, making it slightly harder for V to out-draw us. Our pair COULD be good now, and MIGHT be good on the river, but a flush we make SHOULD be good pretty often, especially when V didn't 3B pre, and a straight flush will ALWAYS be good. Even a straight will sometimes be good.

I'm assuming V would have 3B AA/KK and AKs pre. Maybe also A5s with some frequency. There aren't too many AXs combos he'll have here, when he opens and just flat calls a 3B, given the cards on board. It's basically slivers of A2s-A8s. He might have the nut flush draw, but he can't have a pair and the nut flush draw.

He might have TT or 99, or 2P, but doubtful he's going to blast off with 2P or a set on a monotone flop.

I wouldn't be too worried V is going to check-raise huge if we bet small, because we're never folding, so I'd probably just bet small, and go from there.

I would check behind with this. We have a decent hand and its a weird situation because its a middling hand, but because we have such a big draw its actually not very vulnerable so we really dont need protection and its not strong enough to bet imo w the 3rd nut flush draw, straight draw, and currently only second pair. Like I would much rather bet something like AsJx on Qs Ts 9s.

As more money goes into this pot we will be in worse and worse shape. Id much prefer to bluff catch with this hand instead of piling money in.

I disagree with the comments that we are happy to pile in money if we get check raised. We have the 3rd nut flush draw. If this guy has something like KdQx we are in real bad shape. Its just way too likely that he has our outs when he starts piling money.

We can just bluff catch turn and river easily here.

You only need to balance if you're playing against the very same people constantly.

We 3bet 99 and the nines we don't have is counterbalanced by the fact that V doesn't have a lot of QQ either.

Besides AKs-ATs we are 3betting a good deal of A5s-A4s and also some suited connectors. Also, if villain is good, doesn't call a lot, so he has a similar number of flushes as well.

But we do have AA and KK that he shouldn't have.

in theory is (very) high frequency cbet spot with both range and hand. in practice bad people generally way overplay weaker hands that appear nutted on this type of texture which is not great for our holding. like if u look at solve for co vs mp hes supposed to just flat half the time with sets and flushes and i think in practice that doesn't really happen. i think the ev between them is similar but i would think people will make more mistakes vs check as opposed to bet (things like bet 77 ott bc protection or whatever, potentially bluff on the cards that improve you). rangewise you maybe want this hand in your betting range but im not really sure how much that matters vs someone who plays different stakes than you especially if you dont approach the game in that way

It's a 9 handed table, villain opens UTG+1 - 3 betting 99/suited Aces seems spewy against a TAG 9 handed. This board favors his range - I don't think it's close.

V called a 3bet and can be bluff-y -- from LJ, not UTG+1. This is the perfect board for him to bluff check/raise our c-bet. Let him. It's hard for me to believe we are behind here, and if we are, we have a lot of most likely clean outs.

I can get behind a check, too, and let him bluff turn (let's hope it doesn't kill his/our action), but I prefer a c-bet.

You think a competent opponent isn't capable of noticing when we bet for value and check with our draws?

Result:

Next time bet flop, bet turn. He doesn't see river.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

Huh?

I can get my head around a flop check but not at all a turn check after the flop check.

If we are 3betting CO vs UTG1, we are 3betting less suited Aces, but he's also calling less suited aces. In both scenarios, we have a similar number of flushes, but we have more A high draws, because we have AA, AKo and AQo (and also KK) whereas the PFR should be 4 betting them a lot of the time so that his only off suit hands would be some AKo and pocket pairs lower (lower than JJ though).

A monotone board is bad, if we are the EP or MP PFR vs BB in which case the BB has far more flushes than us. It's even worse if it's an A high board.

Now, if you want to argue that this live poker and people overcall vs 3bets way more than they should, then you may be right and he could have a lot of A high flushes.