Questions: I am trying hard to think of ways to play big pairs best rather than just mindless bet bet bet. Flop check OK?

If I lead turn am I also leading river? C/raise any point in hand? Sizing if I lead turn and river? 1/2 pot?


Vil is a young guy with headphones who I see often grinding. I assume he is aggressive.

$300 Effective

Hero UTG A A $15. Vil calls mp

pot $34


flop Q T 9

Hero checks Vil checks I feel like pot controlling here out of position. My hand is very under represented. Betting and getting c/raised here would put me in a bad spot.

pot $34


Turn: 6
Hero checks Vil bets $20. Hero calls? Continuing with plan to pot control and see a river.

Pot $74.


River: 4

Hero checks. Vil bets $35 Hero calls. I had an inkling here to raise river. The bet sizing and bets seem like a 1 pair hand like KQ, AQ etc. Too ambitious?


Results:

Honestly, seems fine to me. It’s hard to see what worse hands can call a River check-raise.

Checking flop here isn't non standard.

I struggle in spots like this on the turn, I bet far too often. The line you took feels optimal to me

Seems right most of the time, mixing in a little more aggro occasionally. Don’t forget to thank V for never putting you in a tough spot.

Flop check is standard. Should be range checking here.

Turn you should lead much more than check. Once you check, a check/call is standard.

River you can c/c or c/r. If he jams, you now have a bluff catcher and need to decide if you think he's over or under bluffing.



Contrary to what most people think, when you have extremely narrow ranges like this, its extremely easy for V to be over bluffing. As there's only a handful of bluffs, so choosing too many is easy. Which is the opposite when there are tons of bluffs to choose from. Which means they will almost always be underbluffing as they won't ever find every bluff that's +EV.

Flop check is good.

Do you think Villain is checking flop with QT/99/KJ? I think most live players are never checking back any of those hands.

AP on turn the only hands that move ahead are 87s and 66. Equity of his QJ/JT type hands has dropped as well on the brick.

So his range is a lot weaker now on turn. So I would usually bet turn, bet river.

AP on river, his bet sizing makes 87/66 very unlikely. Seems more like his range is weighted towards 1-pair hands,

Therefore a raise on the river is definitely not too thin. Hero can credibly rep bluffs like AK/AJ that might take this line. Thinking player is likely to get curious and press call.

Mandatory river raise IMO.

Hands like this give me trouble too.
You open and V calls with what? B'ways. 9T PP.
Flop QT9,r. You block the A's, so V's probably gets a piece of this flop. In spots like this, I bet the flop-big.
Turn 6r. I bet again, Less than 1/2 pot. According to opponent.
4 brick. I may check. If V makes half pot bet or less, I call.

Going now to see results.

I’d probably play it the same way. Why bloat a pot out of position when you get a flop that hits villain more than you. He can have sets of tens and nines, a few two pairs, lots of pairs plus straight draws. In other words, he has lots of equity.

I’m not a fan of donking in general, but given the way the hand was played I would have gone max value on the river and lead for $125. You’re not going to get bluff raised by QJo so let him convince himself you’re buying the pot with AK.