Have lurked here on and off for a while but this is my first post, any pointers appreciated. Here we go...

Hero has been 'running' the table for the past 2-3 hours, very comfortable on a mostly loose passive table with fairly weak players overall who are playing their cards almost face up. Villain has just sat down, this is the second or third hand he is playing after i 3bet him in his first hand (UTG + 1 vs UTG) and folded on the flop after i missed in a 4 way pot.

Hero is a late 20s-early 30s player, could be considered a tightish reg in the card room by smarter players and my image is also a bit nitty which i try to take advantage of with bluffs on favourable boards. V is an early-mid 30s asian guy who is a regular, you can tell he has cash to splash and he is not afraid to put his chips in and bets VERY aggressively, raises and 3bets into every pot and can walk all over you if you allow him to. We've played together a few times in the past and his range is pretty straightforward (suited connectors, broadway cards, pocket pairs) - i say this as i've personally never seen him show up at showdown with 96o, 87o or those kind of hands. Hero has been working on his pre-flop game and has improved immeasurably (still not the best!) over the past few months, so i'm more comfortable defending frequent 3 bettors by 4betting and calling in position when needs be, so i knew what to expect when he sat to my right.


OTTH

Villain CO (~$500)
Hero BTN (~$350)

UTG and UTG+1 limp
Villian raises to ~$17
Hero has K8dd and raises to $45 on the button to take it down there or keep it heads up as on this table it's likely the BB and 2 UTG players would tag along
Folds to Villain and he calls

Two ways to the flop

Flop ($97) - K2J rainbow

Checks to Hero and i down bet to $35. CO calls

Turn ($167) is a 10c - board is still rainbow so no flush possibilities

Checks to me and now i'm a bit conscious of the flop call, even more so now as AQ, KJ, JJ, 1010 are very much in his range. Knowing him he could also have a few Kx hands, AJ, J10, J9 and some other holdings. I check back.

River is a K

Pairs the board and gives me trips

Villian leads for $150 into pot of ~$170

Hero?

Nice first post. Well formatted and lots of relevant information. Welcome to the forum.

I know you likely expected to (but don't want to) hear it, but fold pre. K8s is hot garbage facing a 8.5BB open, and though 3b is better than call, folding is far better given your comment about your previous 3b a few hands ago ending up in a 4-way pot.

AP, I hate down bets, especially against aggressive splashy players who may often raise us off our SDV.

AP, I like the turn check back. Bloating the pot more with TPNK would be veddy bad.

OTR, this is a mandatory call against this player, imo. He could def read your line as weakness and be betting hands like second pair. Sure, you lose to a better K often, but you only need to be good 32% of the time. Mostly though, we should never have got here because pre is pure "I have the button and I am the table captain" spew.

The 3bet is whatever, you don't want to be doing that all the time but I don't hate it.

Flop I think a range of bet sizes are reasonable, so whatever, fine. Turn checkback is mandatory.

River is a very very easy call, given villain's bet size there is no case to be made for any other action.

I saw you mentioned your working on your preflop game then you're 3betting K8s here vs a guy who's very likely to call (if not 4bet). I would rather do this against people who I know would mostly fold to 3bets or fit or fold players who would call then fold to a cbet, etc. It's player dependent, and you really can't fold the river as played. Personally I woulda jus folded pre insead of tangling with the most agreesive player at the table with king high ; )

Thanks!

Fair comments, i do think i need to pick my spots slightly better for 3betting and i'm looking more into it now, bet sizing is something i need to be more considerate of as it gets me into tricky pots like these. If the pot was smaller i'd be slightly more happy but as you say K8s could be considered hot garbage in this particular spot pre.



Definitely not a frequent action, i just hate this particular player trying to bully everyone out of pots. Understand that this isn't the right way to think though.


Fair comments. I haven't even got close to mastering the 3betting side study-wise so i appreciate the explanation.




Hand result:

Nice hand.

I was going towrite something but this post sums up my thoughts entirely

Preflop seems like spew. If we're 3betting K8s, we're also 3betting all better which seems way too wide.

Flop bet is fine as played.

Turn check is good. It's generally a wa/wb spot, not a ton to protect against.

As played, river is a standard call.

Any reason why you’re only making it $45 here? Doesn’t sound like you’re playing a linear strategy on the button, so you probably want to get folds with hands like this. $55 works better for that. It also works better for the value portion of your range.

I’d check flop if there’s no diamond. Apparently there was a diamond so…fine.

Turn looks like an easy check back. This is a bad card. Time to slow down.

Clicking call 100% of the time. Raising is spew and folding is foolish.

I think k8s 3bet is good at some frequency and especially on the bttn when it's done!! My thought on flop sizing, I think you gotta go larger. You've got range n nut advantage and alot of his range is hanging around too at least the turn. so I'd bet 50%+! with entire value range. And yes even top pr no kicker in calling value here.

Turn easy check back and as everyone else says easy river call.

Don't be results oriented. You're paying attention and trying to implement strategy based on your reads. Keep at it!

Some times they will just have it!!

Not actually sure about the raise amount, it was something i also thought about as soon as i popped the chips. Should've been bigger.



Fair comments, thanks dude.