My local card room has been filled with more reg, thinking, decent players recently, so rather than just blast blast blast and get paid, I've been working on better more balanced lines, especially with nutty hands. For example...

Hero: Mid 20's, reg, seen as pretty tight pre but have shown down several big bluffs this session, the thinking players know im a thinking player who will iso, barrel, etc, stuck about $600, sitting on $900.

V1: Only other youngish reg at table, thinking, creative, will hero call in certain spots. was up 3 buy ins very early but has lost a large chunk of his profit, sitting on $800. Plays more straight forward vs hero, we usually steer clear of each other.

10 handed:

Hero is in MP and is dealt JxJx.

Ep limps for $5, MP limps for $5, HERO raises to $35, folds to VILLAIN who flats, EP flats, MP folds.

Flop is:
3 3x J (Pot $115)

VILLAIN checks, Ep checks, HERO Bets $60, VILLAIN flats, ep folds.

Hero continues, as I would with almost all of my range. I chose a smallish cbet, which villain may or may not notice the sizing of. His flat narrows his range to mostly flush draws and pocket pairs 10,10 and below, and less likely, a 3 or a J.

Turn is a 8, for

3 3x J 8 (Pot $235)

VILLAIN checks, Hero bets $90, VILLAIN calls.

This is where against the bad players I would just blast near pot size bet, (as I would have on flop as well) and probably get paid by the majority of their range. But against villain, I know that if I continue strong, it severely narrows my range. I decide to make a weak blocker type bet that widens my range to include overpairs with a , top pair with a , and other mid level value hands that villain may be ahead of or villain may feel he can bluff me off of.

Is this bet sizing bad? I prefer it over a check back, as when villain leads river and i bomb its very strong, and when villain checks river, hard to polarize my river bets. Obviously I'm hoping to get raised on the turn, and I think this bet sizing is likely to get raised, especially with our dynamic. I think if i bet $200ish he flats with his flushes and may fold the rest of his range. Could I have bet $120ish and achieved same result? Thoughts?

River is 2x for

3 3x J 8 2x. (Pot $415)

VILLAIN checks, HERO tanks a bit then bets $350, VILLAIN snap calls and shows Ax3x, no A of hearts.

I think because i continued on the turn, this river bet can range from nutty/flush, or turning my hand into a bluff. But the fact that he snap called confuses me. Did this line maximize value? Or would a more traditional 3/4th, 3/4th, shove line been paid off by the 3, judging by the river call? I hate seeing the snap call and feeling like the 300ish left in his stack was missed value.

Its late and i may need to edit some grammar and rambling in the am, but appreciate the feedback.

think your giving your opponent far too much credit based on how he played his hand.

he c/c the flop, c/c when the flush hits the turn, and then c/c a large bet otr? is he bluff catching?

i know your thread is asking about your play, but i think its important to notice how you are thinking about your opponents, since every decision is pretty much entirely based on who your opponent is.

the small bet otf isn't bad, especially if you think your opponents aren't aware that you make smaller cbets with air.

then bomb both turn and river. the flush gets there ott, and no 3 is ever folding. betting small to keep some of his weaker range in is no good.

If I didn't know you had two of them, I'd say Jx would be a lot of his range here, in addition to the other hands you mentioned. Are you implying that he usually c/r's you with Jx here? I certainly don't think that meshes with your read of playing straightforward vs. you or staying out of your way, but if that's the dynamic you two have (and it's certainly not a difficult one to establish, just kinda flies in the face of your description of your earlier dynamic with him) then I believe you.

Bet sizing is good/standard and I would size this way with my whole range including air.

Okay you're going about this backwards imo. It seems to me that the reason your ranges are unbalanced is you aren't value betting thinly enough. If you've unintentionally polarized yourself by playing your medium strength hands too weakly, the best solution is to start merging by valuebetting thinner, not to just play all of your hands weakly. The latter can actually end up unbalancing you further because you're (probably) never bluffing with this line. If I were villain this bet would confuse the **** out of me, so if that was your primary goal then mission accomplished, but I don't think that means it's the best way to play the hand. From my perspective this bet looks a lot like {JJ, 88, 33, Axhh, AhAx, AhJx} because you're clearly not afraid of the FD. But regardless of which of us are correct about what your hand will look like to villain, I'd much rather just bet like $160 with all of the hands you mentioned wanting to rep, and obviously this one as well.

In a much broader sense you might have a leak in which you don't valuebet enough, and this is much more damaging to your winrate than any questions of balance will ever be. Obviously I can't tell just from this one hand, but that's just how it's coming off, so be wary OP.

wp, your read is just off. the fact that called a big raise with A3, he snapped you with a 3 and even had to show it to get sympathie just leads me to believe he is kind of a donk you cant fold trips.

Bet more on river. Villain might have the same leak that I do where I have a plan based on flop and turn action (ie "on a non-heart river I'm gonna c/c") then following through on plan without carefully considering villain bet size.

This.

He didn't call the flop (with an assumed flush draw) to fold the turn when the comes. You can still be an overpair firing away, you are worried about him putting you on exactly jacks full?

agree with this + "loosing value in nutty spot" heavily depends on your reads on villain. nh

I think it's important to think about what hands he's calling with otr. If you bet half pot or more, for instance, what is he calling you with? 3X, flushes, 88? That's basically it, right? There's no way tens is calling you anymore so your value bet here on the river needs to be high. You need to make them think you have that big pair of aces or kings. I think 300 is the minimum bet you should be making here otr since all of those hands call 300 instantly. I think a shove gets 3X to fold sometimes since you can have AKhh or AQhh, but people are bad and may convince themselves that you have AA/KK. I think bad players with flushes otr are calling a shove 100% of the time. So.....I think a larger bet than your 350 would be best. I'd probably bet 500 or pretend to misjudge my stack and shove. Oops, didn't realize I had this much.

I'd say 70% bluff catching 30% cant fold trips

No i meant that i think he c/r a 3 and that it's unlikely he has a J since I have two.

I think I value bet thinly enough, but perhaps not large enough in certain spots. This hand was again very non standard, but it sounds like i might have just given villain to much credit based on some of the hands/hero calls etc i had seen, and the fact that he was young. I do have a leak of giving bad, YOUNG, regs too much credit, since there are few young people in the games i play in.