Villain is in LP. He is aggressive PF and post, plays a lot of hands (perhaps too many) and 3bets very light. He thinks I am more aggro than I actually am (as he has played w/me in my LAG'gier days) although I do think he has noticed that I have toned it down (as I get the odd 'nit' comment from him) but I still showdown enough 'weird' holdings and pound enough rivers that he believes I'm FOS quite a bit (and I am.) Super nice guy, good poker player, over rolled for the game (as he is pretty successful in 'real' life) AND he posts here. I also believe he views me in much the same way (nice guy, decent player, over rolled, etc.) but his love of competition and personal confidence lead him to believe that he can out play me (which he often does) even though I have more experience in the game than him (which he openly admits.) We both frequently play higher stakes but put in many daytime hours at $1/$2 in the same room.

$270eff.

Hero in MP w/QcQh
EP (weak-passive w/~$150) calls $2, Hero raises to $12, Villain raises to $35, folds back to Hero who calls $23

- I considered 4betting but only his better hands would call/shove (this way I keep his weaker hands in and let him continue with any bluffs)

- I really can't see folding on many 'baby' flops to him but if an ace or a king should appear I would probably look to give up

- I know my call will set alarm bells off in his head BUT he also knows I'd call with a lot of PP as he almost never gets away from aces or kings if I do 'bink' a set

- comments appreciated

Flop: AhQd9c
$75 (2 Players) Hero? [~$235 behind]

Ninja Grunching Only Please
Thx

*NG*

If he has AA, you're not getting away from this. If he has AQ, he's not getting away.

If he has KK, you're not getting too much value from him.

So I think our decisions only really matter if he has AK or he wants to try to push you off your hand.

I would lead out small, say $35-40, and hope to get raised. With only 235 behind, if we get called here we can easily get stacks in with 2 more bets. If I get raised, I'd flat, check turn, and if it checks through, shove river.

pre i think flatting is fine. If you 4b here youre forced to play the bottom of your range oop against a relatively sophisticated opponent.

Flop seems relatively standard. Bet around 60 and rr if he raises you. If he flats, barrel.

*Ninja Grunch!*

i don't know if you have any specific history regarding donk bets, but in my view, the flop is dry enough and this villain is good enough that i'm donking this flop (as part of a polarized donking range which i would expect you to have against this villain). $45

*NG*

I think with us pretty much flopping gin versus his range, and him being aggro post flop, i c/c OTF and c/ship it OTT.

If he was not a 2+2'er and agro, I would lead for a PSB OTF and ship the turn.

I like a donk of about $35 as if you're trying to steal - it might induce a spazz from AK and it doesn't allow him to check behind with KK and almost disguises the set as he wouldn't imagine you'd lead with such a monster - if he has AA I don't care and I'm losing my stack.

*NG*

C/C flop shove river

He should be cbetting here more then often...I don't like a c/r for obvious reasons where you fold out too many hands.

I like preflop as well no need to go nuts here.

**NG**

I like your general thinking PF, given your history/dynamics with villain. . Villain 3 bets light, therefore

Villain's range: 99+, AK, A9s+,maybe 10Js, JQs, KJs, KQs



1) The only holdings from villain where you will have little resistance playing for stacks are
AA, AQ, A9, 99. Therefore, it really doesn't matter how you play it.

2) you may get a shove from 10J if he is a spazzy type

3) You may get a cbet from his garbage range if you check flop to him...that's about it

4) The one holding where you have to consider an optimum line to maximize would be if villain has AK or 10J

SPR is around 3...therefore, a bet and a raise (or 3 PSBs) essentially commits you both to the pot. So how best to get 3 x$75 in the middle

1) hero checks; villain bets; hero checkraises: villain may fold his "AK or worse"range
2) hero checks; villain bets; hero calls: villain may shutdown on turn and check behind
3) hero bets; villain may CR with his AK or 10J holding, and hero can come over the top at that point
4) hero bets; villain calls; hero checks turn; villain could possibly JAM turn

Again, taking an optimum line is most important if villain has AK or 10J. The other holdings in villain's range play themselves out pretty standard.

Therefore, leading flop looks like the most optimum line

*NG*

I can't see doing anything other then checking here. A lead after being 3bet pf seems way to strong especially since this board should hit villains pf 3betting range. Also villain prob doesn't think their are to many Ax hands in your bet/calling range except for maybe AQ but as their is both an A and Q on the flop he will not give you credit for that right away. I think villain cbets here most of the time with both his Ax and his air, he prob checks back KK/JJ but maybe not as he doesn't want to get bluffed off these hands and figures if he bets and you call he can check back turn and possibly get to showdown cheaply.

NINJA GRUNCH
I like PF,
w/your image/ history w/ V, i lead at this flop 1/2 pot or less.
reason being to give him room to do something stupid, if he views you as FOS. we get value out of more of his range this way, as he's not a lock to have an Ace.
if he's aggro, he may go crazy, and jam w/ JT, which would be sweet, and he's prob not folding any decent Ace, either.

I don't think building the pot is so important on the flop; the pot is bloated enough that if you're getting action, the $ will be in by the river w/ these stack sizes.
If V is a half way decent hand reader, checking flop, and dropping the hammer later in the hand turns your hand face up as a set, and would be the only way i could see to let V off the hook if he has an Ace.

so lead at it, not so much to build the pot, as to not disappoint V that you are leading every flop w/ your entire range. he should be expecting this from you;
don't want to send off any alarm bells.

*NG*

A more beautiful flop is seldom seen!

The way it looks to me, is that, with an SPR of 3, it should take 2 streets to stack off in this spot, and that is what we are looking to do. You mention that he 3bets light, which makes me think he should have enough hands with some value, that he'll bet with. (Broadways that make a draw/pair with a draw, AXs) as well as some made hands (KK, AK, AQ) that he will bet with. Include the air that fires, and I think I like a check with the intention to call, and if he checks through, it sets up a nice spot to bet on the turn, perhaps repping a play at the pot after his weakness. I would make it around $60-$65, which sets up a nice shove OTR.

If he does bet, I am hoping be takes a value line and bets at least 2/3. My intention is to donk into him on the turn for a near pot sized bet. If he bets smaller, say $40, I still lead, but this time for 1/2-2/3 pot, with the intention of shipping the river and offering attractive odds.

Ninja Grunch

Bet $50 w/the intent of getting it all in nicely OTR; don't slowplay here. Go ahead and assume he has a big Ace, big draw or a set of 9s.

Refer to NLHETAP by Sklansky pp 28-32.

First, I'm completely committed to getting all in on this flop, regardless of what cards come on the turn and river. There's enough money in the pot now that all the money should go in by the turn anyway. I'm never worried about AA or getting drawn out on because that's just a cooler.

In EP against a guy who likes to outplay me, I usually just let him keep the lead here and hang himself. It's important to keep him on the rope and not arouse suspicion, so I'll usually call his cbet very quickly and then check quickly on the turn, which looks a lot like a weak ace or a stubborn pair of Q's. If I've done a good job convincing him I'm not super strong, he'll often put in a huge bet on the turn and then I've got him.

Alternatively, if I've picked up a read on him that he's really strong (like AK), and/or if he's been running over me recently and expects me to c/r with anything, I might check mini raise him on the flop. I prefer the first line though, because since I'm never folding it gives him more time to make fancy plays against me and possibly catch a strong second best hand.

Great villain description, though light on actual play tendencies. This is a great flop for him to attack, and he has initiative, so I'm looking to let him bet it. You say he 3-bets light, so if we give him a range of something like A9+, some broadways, 99+, we are way ahead and in position to cooler his 2 pair-type hand. If he has AA this time I don't think we'll be able to get away - would he play it any differently than AQ? I think I'm most concerned with another broadway peeling off - while it could improve him to 2 pair, it could also improve him to a straight.

Pot is 75. We check, he c-bets 60. A pot-sized checkraise would be just about all-in. So, check-shove. It's a shame there isn't a flush draw out there, but it sounds like he should still be able to put enough JT, AJ, KJ, KT type hands in your range to call.

I suppose an alternate line, given that this board has the potential to get a lot scarier, would be to c/c down, if he will apply pressure when more broadways come. This has a chance to get more value from his air hands, but also gives hero a chance to make a bigger mistake (paying villain off when he improves).

1st off, if villain is actually 3betting very wide, you should consider building a bigger 4bet range. This doesn't come up much live, but here is a villain where you actually have a good reason to build a larger-than-normal 4bet range. This also will help you play OOP to 3bets.

When you flat call 3bets OOP, you show villain that you have a good, but not super premium range of hands you are playing with (99-QQ, AQ, sometimes AK but never AA,KK). This makes you easy to play against.

This assumes you 4bet AA, KK. You can balance your 3bet calling range by putting those in with the others, OR you can add more hands to your 4betting range.

If your opponent is just blindly aggressive after a 3bet and doesn't give up often, then perhaps always flatting the 3bet is fine.

Vs tougher opponents, it will be very hard to turn a profit flatting 3bets OOP. You will make less mistakes and you will be harder to play against by not flatting OOP to a 3bet and either 4betting or folding.

Your OP states you are willing to give up on A-high and K-high flops. This is 41% of flops!!! You probably have the best hand here!

Recognize that this villain is not your average villain and since his 3bet range is wide, 4bets will put a lot of pressure on him and he will have to fold often. (plus you will more often be 4betting for value).


As played:

Nice flop. Standard here is to c/c flop, c/r turn, especially vs an aggressive villain who we can count on to bet.

So far, flop doesn't warrant too much discussion....

i think flatting OOP is sub-optimal quite a bit.

If villain can view us as laggy at all, he will be placed in a tuff spot should he have 88 99 TT JJ AK AQs KQs etc, and im doubting he folds. This narrows his hand a bit, folds out junk that might have won with Axx flops etc, and allows us to take control.

Note: allowing a villain to keep range wide, bluff and all is normally a great plan. Here i think it isnt since we face A or K on flop far too often and we are OOP, AND the board will look ugly in so many other ways that will make c/c all down with QQ pretty sick by the river too often.

The fact that most players IP will call and fish for reasonable 4 bets, he may shove AK which is a pretty nice edge for us here, plus might ship some 66 A7s hand (just maybe), makes 4 betting a much better alternative IMO.

Flatting begs to get outplayed. There ARE spots i think flatting and c/RAI on lo boards is great, but lots of conditions have to exist for this to be so i think.

*NG

With your history it seems your comment that he will only call / 4 bet with better is a little off ?? I am usually all for putting myself in tough spots if i think i get a little more value that way.. ie not 4 betting. But against this guy i think 4 betting might be best.

Flop:

I guess we have to check now and let him bluff. We will probably get at least one street of value from a bluff. If i were in his spot i would probably check back this flop with AK a good % of the time, but again with your history if he checks back you may still be able to get all the money in by the river because he ll think you re trying to move him off of something like KK.

Ninja Grunch

So what this hand really boils down to is do we want to play this hand slow or fast. A lot of that depends on how likely he is to continue if we show aggression. Lets first look at the traditional value hands for him to 3-bet. TT+/AK/AQs. TT/JJ/KK all hate this flop because of overcards. We'll be lucky if we can get him to put any more $ in the pot. AQs, there's so few combos of this because we hold QQ, but if he has this, he's stacking off no matter what we do. AK is a hand we'd really love to get some value out of. He may pot control and not pay bet into us on 3 streets. So we'll likely have to do some betting if we want to stack this hand. AA, cooler, not even worth discussing. So all-in-all this is a great flop for winning the pot, but I'm not sure if it's so great for getting a lot of value of it.

Then you've got his "light" 3-betting range. Axs, Suited connectors, some suited broadways, PP's, and other miscellaneous junk. JTs/KTs/KJs are the obvious straight draws we need to be mildly concerned with. I'll just make a rough estimate that his 3-bets here are probably 30% light and 70% value. I'm guessing since he's LP he'll 3-bet light, but not super light, since we are opening from MP. It would be a bit different in your more traditional CO open BTN 3-bet spot.

Anyways, I don't take this line a lot, but here's what I'm doing. c/c the flop. This is a good flop to c-bet, and he should know that. He'll likely c-bet this board close to 90% of the time, possibly only taking the freebie with his draws, or a slowplayed AA/99. So I c/c. Now if he bets $50 into $75 and we call that bet then there is $175 in the pot with two streets left, and effective stacks at about $180. I'm betting $80 into him on the turn, and the other $100 into him on the river. I think he'll have a hard time folding AK to either of those bets. All hands weaker than AK are too likely to shut down after our flop call. There aren't really any good double barrel cards, and we're OOP so he knows we can't float. We just can't be calling that flop with junk. So we can one street out of his bluffs.

Obviously his flop bet size effects our bet sizes somewhat, so adjust accordingly. Also if a card comes that could give him a decent draw to the river, I would consider sizing the turn a bit bigger to get him to call incorrectly, but I don't ever see a way to find a fold in this hand at any point regardless of how ugly the board might run out.

If the flop checks through I just bet/bet. I like this post and am curious to see what others have to say on it. I'm normally good at extracting IP, but OOP is another story. Slowplaying gives your opponent too many opportunities to pot control. Fast playing shows a lot of strength. I'm not sure there's any great solution, and I'm not sure if my line is too great, but lets see.

i didnt give the as played, sorry.

AP, c/c flop and turn and river depends on villains tendency to VB thin or error in calling too light. So i either CRAI river or try to fake a missed draw on turn and just open shove river.

First off you said he 3bets light and he thinks your FOS plus the history involved I would think he might be calling with a wider range then normal if you do 4bet. But if we do 4bet OBV we arent 4bet/fold here so did you have a good read on him like his raise was strong? maybe a betsizing tell? Have you ever 4bet him before? Maybe im wrong here but i think a 4bet would work here to make it easier to stacks in if we want.

As played this board for this type of Vil is perfect almost. Vil will IMO cbet close to 100% of the time IP. Since we arent folding here OBV looking for best way to get in money i think if c/c and see if Vil will bet turn and c/c turn then donk river for rest of little chips.

If vil checks back turn cause he has KK or JJ or some weird hand then insta lead pot bet on river since he thinks ur FOS.

wow, i screwed this all up hahahah sorry venice.

I really think you should've 4bet preflop. You said he's very aggressive and 3-betting light so your QQ is ahead of his 3-betting range.

As played I would check raise flop. If he ships, call.

8o8, good work. Now you wait.

I like a lead of $35. If he thinks he can outplay you, he will rarely surrender to your weak looking donk and usually raise here or float with his bluffs. Netting you more from his bluffs that your usual C-R line or C-C, lead line. I think he usually raises A-K and A-Q here too. By leading out and potentially getting raised we are setting it up to get stacks in. If he has KK, he will call at least the flop bet and you probably werent getting much more from his anyways.

If called, I like a C-R on the turn and if turn checks through lead out the pot or overbet the river.

If raised, Im usually flat calling and then leading out the turn weak as the turn would likely check through if he has A-K or A-Js as we are showing lots of strenth by flatting his flop raise.

If he folds to your flop donk, yeah you missed out on his c-bet but the ability to easily get stacks in and your unconventional lead out makes this an easy decision IMO.

C-R on the flop just shows soooo much strength.