Microstakes homegame that's pretty loose, relatively little 3bets preflop.
Villain 3 (the relevant one) plays pretty tight postflop, with the ability to get away from strong hands, be it the right or wrong decision.


0.02€/0.04€ NL (6 handed)
SB V1 (~4€/100BB)
BB V2 (~4€/100BB)
HJ V3 (~8€/200BB)
CO Hero (~8€/200BB)

I'll go in BBs from now to make things simpler.


Hero is dealt Q♥️8♥️

UTG folds, V3 raises 2,5BB in HJ, Hero calls in CO, BTN folds, V1 calls from SB, V2 calls from BB


Flop (Pot: 10BB) A♥️8♦️4♥️
V1 checks, V2 checks, V3 bets 6BB, H calls 6BB, V1 folds, V2 calls 6BB


Turn (Pot: 28BB) A♥️8♦️4♥️5♣️

V2 checks, V3 bets 25BB, H calls, V2 folds

(I call the big bet multiway having a lot of equity with my second pair + good flush draw)

River (Pot: 78BB, around 160-170BBs eff. behind) A♥️8♦️4♥️5♣️7♠️

V3 bets 35BB, Hero?

I would play Q8s from the CO in a very weak home game, but I wouldn't play it normally.

Raise the flop, raise it big, to like 20 or even 25bb. You have a pair and a good flush draw which is an unusual hand and it plays oddly. You have great equity against anything, but also not great equity vs anything. So a weak ace beats you almost the same amount as 84 or even 44 beats you. That means if you apply pressure you fold out the weaker hands - great for you - and you get called by the big hands - not great but not that bad either.

Villain has shown a tendancy to fold and from his initial raise he may well have AK, AQ, AJ type hands which might fold to a lot of pressure. This is perfect for you.

If you get called and you miss the turn (which you do) the pot is now 50bb and you have 150bb left. You've lost a lot of equity but given villains tendancy to fold (if he checks to you or bets small) I would put in a large bet on the turn as well, if he checks I'd bet say 40bb or if he bets 20bb I'd raise to 70bb.

If he calls this and you miss the river I'd give up. You beat nothing with your 8 (this is true as played, I would fold river as played).

Ironically, I did the exact opposite of what you suggest on every decision node postflop��

I decided to jam river for 160-170BB representing the straight (maybe set) since V3's under half pot bet made it very likely to me he was trying to get thin value with top pair or similar. In fact, V3 did end up folding 87 (two pair).
I checked the play against a 100BB solver library (not completely accurate since 1. stacks are too shallow 2. Q8s is not in the GTO BTN calling range so I had to make the board A9568 instead but it's close enough)
and it seems to be fine.
I also did this because I know V3 is capable if laying down hands.

You're probably right that raising flop or turn would be good, but I think calling is just as good an option actually. Especially against the big size there shouldn't be too many raises since you can get stacks in either way (although being relatively deepstacked I'm sure a raise is also good.
I'm actually not sure if V3 would fold any top pair against a flop raise (he might on the turn tho), but even if he does that, I have almost 50% equity against a random top pair (unless it's AQ) anyway with my pair+ flush draw since I'm also drawing to two pair and trips. So a raise isn't really necessary to bluff out better hands (you won't fold out the hands you are significantly behind like sets and two pairs) and imo against the worse hands there's both an argument for calling to let the opponent keep bluffing and raising to get value from flush draws that don't have a made hand like us yet.

So overall, both calling and raising flop and turn should be fine, but I would rather tend towards the raise if V3 bet smaller. Tell me what you think about my river bluff, if it's too risky and I was just lucky (given I risked a 160-170BB stack) or you think it's worth it.

It's rare that I want to bluff more than pot, especially in a weaker game. A pot bet will usually get all the folds a bigger bet will.

The 6 is very credible, Imagine you had Qh6h or 8h6h, something like that.

V3 can have A6, 76, 56 as well with or without hearts but they are far more likely to have a big ace or 2p given the way the action has gone.

2x pot bet means you need him to fold 66% of the time to break even, a higher fold percentage starts to make a profit.

Even if villain is capable of folding he won't always fold, people are funny and don't act consistently. He'll always call the 6 but won't always fold 2p.

V3 doesn't play that tight post flop if he is betting middle pair, terrible kicker multiway.

Well including his bet and my call on the river, the pot is 78+35+35 = 148BB already. When I jam the remaining ~130BB on top of his bet, it's a little under pot size. Still very big for a raise, but at least it will make a difference in how much of his range is folded out especially against a tight opponent.
You're probably right and I could also have chosen a smaller raise size like 90BB or something which would probably suffice to fold out all the top pairs he's still going for thin value with on the river. Altho I'm not sure if it would have folded out the two pair V3 ended up having. (that's a bit eesults oriented tho, maybe raising smaller is higher EV overall against someone who will probably fold an ace)

Also the fact V3 is playing tight doesn't mean he's incapable of bluffing multiway (which he clearly was until he hit his two pair on the river), I would say he's a fine player overall.