Didn't get a chance to bluff much tonight because I was hitting every hand but I do have a few. These are 2/5.

Hand #1

Not sure of preflop action aside from it was $15 pre and I had 44 in MP. To put a little context around this hand, myself and another player were having a high level intellectual conversation about how deuces were hot. I had just stacked a guy AA vs KK on a 4-straight board where a player folded a 2 preflop that would have won the pot. Also, a couple recent hands the flop had come 22x.

Anyways, there are 5 players to the flop and I'm calling for a 2. The flop is T98. Checked around. I call for a 2 again. Turn, 2. A player makes mention of the 2 and then bets $15. I raise to $75. Folds to original better who folds quickly. I did not show. Sometimes when you call for the card you want it actually comes.

Open raised with 5h6h yesterday. The table was short and passive and I was card dead. They gave me 3 bucks, but it felt like 8!

Hand #2

Button ($500) - New player, young and seemed to know what he was doing in a general sense but not a pro. Playing reasonably thus far.

SB ($650) - Young player. Gambly, splashy, aggressive. Overvalues some hands.

Me (Covers) - Not so young. Playing lots of hands, winning lots of pots. Winning image.


6 handed. I limp K8 UTG. Button () makes it $25. SB calls. I raise to $100. Button folds. SB Calls.

Flop J95

He checks, I check. Turn A. He bets $100. I call. River 3 He checks. I grab chips and he folds.

Hand #3

Different 2/5 table.

SB ($3k+) Middle aged asian woman. Plays a very tight hand range...a TAG recreational player. Didn't seem to get out of line until she called a 3 way all-in over 200bbs effective with another player when the flop was 532 She had 88 Shorter stack had 53 and bigger stack that shoved had A4 straight. She hit a spade to scoop.

Hero ($700) Young at heart. Been raising liberally and winning lots of pots. Started with $300, so up a bit since starting at this table.

6 handed. I raise to $20 from CO with AJ. SB Calls. BB calls. Flop 334r. SB is suddenly on her phone for some reason and leads for $45. BB folds. I call. Turn 2r. SB put the phone down but still seems to still be talking on it. She bets $100. I raise to $250. She thinks a bit and then folds. She says she folded a "big pair" Not sure what constitutes a big pair. Maybe tens if we are being optimistic.

Wow, played this hand like azz and still won. Luckbox!!

I actually like the way I played that one. Felt good about the flop but figured I had it all locked up when the Ace hit the turn unless he hit some miracle river.

Ummm he bet the Ace and you had King high. How is that locked up?

That card hits my range way harder than his. I expected him to stab at a lot of turns. His expectation should be that I would be betting all my bluffs (if he thinks I have any) on the flop as well as all my draws (heart draws, QT). So when I check flop and call turn my perceived range is heavily weighted towards made hands.

Is our hand too strong to bluff (K high has showdown value against all his missed draws)? Or I guess it's worth our while targeting weak pairs?

GcluelessbluffingnoobG

Absolutely must bluff. Inexperienced players tend to be way too stabby. They stab with air, they stab with their draws, and they stab with their mediocre one pair hands. Maybe they are trying to protect their hand or maybe they are trying to find out where they are at. Not sure, but I see it as an opportunity. I wouldn't check back that river in a million years. It's not like we're playing against Vanessa Selbst and if we bet she will bluff ship over top or something crazy.

Anyways, I was going to bet $300ish. I guess he saw that and decided he wanted no part. I make nearly all my decisions in under a second which means he folded really really fast.

Well if (thanks to our weak flop checkback) they are stabbing the turn with both air and draws and weak pairs, I think checking back isn't horrible as it costs us nothing to win against air and draws. But I guess if we have a high success rate of folding pairs then it's fine?

GcluelessbluffingnoobG

But it costs us over $400 when he has pocket deuces or a 3. Our river bet needs to work less than 50% of the time and it's going to work way way way more than that. If he has a small to mid pair he's going to fold over 90% of the time. A lot of players will fold an Ace there. Like it wouldn't surprise me a bit if a player moans and groans and then tosses the AX hand in the muck because what does he think he beats when I bet the river?

This is a lot to ask of a rando 1/2 player to think about. So many of them will play Ace-rag as well that I really don't think your logic is all that sound on the turn. Sure, it worked this time, but I think long term this play will be strongly -EV.

To me it's not a matter of whether it's +EV or not, it's whether it's more +EV than checking back (where K high will win a bunch).

Ghaveamathguyrunthenumbers,imoG

This was 2/5. I think Ax was a small portion of his leading range here.

1/3. Villain comes off as typical passive OMC-type. He is @ $200 effective. Hero tight/quiet MAWG. Not the greatest story ever told (though FD hitting is semi believable), but figure he was pretty 9x/PP heavy & would fold alot regardless, so I went for it.

Hero (CO): J T

Villain + 1 limp, Hero r $21, Villain c $21, fold

Flop ($48): 9 4 3

V x, H b $30, V c $30

Turn ($101): 5

V x, H x

River: A

V x, H b $149 all-in

River shove was good. Don't look so nervous when you bluff though.

Much like Phil's no stress thread bluff, is there any reason to overbet the river? We're really just targetting weak hands here, so $65 into $100 is going to work pretty much the same amount of the time as $150, so why not do it for cheaper?

GcluelessbluffsizingnoobG

@ DC -- Glad to hear it maybe wasn't completely terrible. As far as my appearance/table-presence goes, I guess I read like a slightly older version of Dan Zack from LATB (w/ a receding hairline). Whether that induces light calls when I'm playing a super-nitty 10/8 style or not, IDK.

@ GG -- Yeah, IDK for sure either. It's arguable the math is generally straightforward in figuring these spots out (i.e. needing our bet to succeed 60% vs 50%, etc). With that said, how we range people, and what % of that range we think they'll fold to a shove (vs. how they'd play vs just a PSB), is a hugely subjective calculation. Because I chose to view this guy through the OMC-lens, I figured bigger couldn't be worse in conjunction w/ that scary board. Sometimes people are OK calling for 65-70% of their stack, but not 100% of it.

When telling a story, the shove makes it very obvious that you hit your flush.

This hand was from yesterday. Sorry I don't remember player details on this one although I recall stack depths being pretty shallow. 2/5 game.

Anyways, I'm in the big blind with 52.

Flop 932.
I check, player bets $20, CO calls. I call.

Turn 3.

I check, player checks, CO bets $60. I raise to $110. Dealer says the bet must be $120. Oops, I didn't realize he bet that much. Other player folds and CO folds.

Had a couple interesting bluffs today.

Hand #1

CO ($700) - Recreational player that was raising quite often, generally making it $15 or $20 preflop. I assume he's opening wide. Twice early in the session when I was short stacked I shoved a $200 stack in the middle when he opened to $20 and he folded both times. In that respect, not as willing to gamble as some of the players in these games.

Button ($500) - Senior citizen nitty TAG daytime reg. Mostly just plays premiums but does play them aggressively. If he thinks he has the best hand will 3bet his AK type hands. I've played with a lot in the past , but in this session just had one hand history. I raise to $25 with AK from EP. He calls from BB. Flop AT3r. He checks, I check. Turn Qr. He bets $25, I call. River Tx. He bets $25. I make very optimistic raise to $50. He calls. He has AK. We chop.

Me (Covers) - Playing TAG today. Haven't played many hands. Won some pots with premiums but haven't shown down many hands.

CO raises to $15. Button calls. I call from the big blind with 32.

Flop A44.
CO bets $35. Button calls, I call.

Turn Q
Checks around.

River 8
I bet $125. Fold. Fold.

Hand #2

2/5

Button ($650) - Playing pretty solid. Appears to be a pretty good recreational player or possibly even a fulltime or weekend grinder. I've never played with him and don't recognize him. At first glance he looks like a typical rec fish but after playing with him for a few hours I can tell he plays better than you would expect.

Me (Covers) - Playing TAG. Watching soccer game on my tablet and only seem interested in poker game when I get a good hand.

Limpers - Typical fish.

There are a couple of limpers and I raise to $25 from the CO with J9

Button calls, and 2 limpers call.

Flop 44A.
Checked to me and I start to count out chips and then start sizing down a bit but then recalled that my last hand vs button I had sized down my cbet and ended up losing the pot to him because he raised and I had nada. So anyways, I waste precious seconds counting out chips but end up checking. Button bets $45 Limpers fold and I call.

Turn Q
I check. Button bets $65. I throw in 2 black chips for a raise to $200. He tanks for a while and eventually folds.

FWIW, I rarely employ the reverse float.

Do you think V folded Ax in H2?

Yes, I'm pretty sure he had an ace. His small sizing on the turn is more consistent with a value bet than a bluff, and I don't think he has many 4s in his preflop calling range.

That bluff was particularly ambitious and probably ill advised to make against a player I'd only been playing with for 3+ hours. That being said, I had the perfect image necessary to pull it off and the fact that he'd never played with me before meant that he really had no clue that I could take a line like that with air.