$55 15k GTD MTT
Blinds 200/400 9 handed table
Villain - UTG 25.5k
Hero - SB 8k

Villain raises to 900 UTG. Folds to Hero in SB with KK. Hero 3bets to 2600. Villain calls. Flop AQ4hh. Check Check. Turn 5s. Hero bets 1200. Villain calls. River 9d. Hero checks. Villain bets 4000.

River bet is for all Heros chips. call or fold?

fold ainec

Cbet on flop. As played fold.

because?

Agree with this....

Because to me if V checks the flop they prob didn't hit the flop. (this is reinforced by the V only calling the turn bet, they are taking more cards as cheap as they can get them hoping to hit, IMO) the Cbet on the flop shows Hero strength, and at the very least will get you information.

IF you make a cbet, NOT a shove, and the V calls or raises then maybe they do have the A, and Hero can make a decision based on that... but they might just fold and then hero has the pot...

This logic doesn't sit right with me. If this happens, then hero likely has the best hand anyway. Just because you win the pot, doesn't make it the right play. For example, I could open shove AA for 150bb in the B109 later. If they all fold, I win the pot, but this clearly isn't my best option.

Having KK on A high boards is the classic example of being way ahead or way behind. Equity is very unlikely to shift in on A high boards. For this reason, playing KK passively and as a bluff catcher is good.

heres what I don't get with how villain played it. opening for a raise UTG if hero checks the flop then villains entire range should be cbet. even if he hits that flop the check is too obvious of a slowplay and a cbet of correct value can still be sold as a bluff and extract value.
and the issue I have with hero cbetting the flop is then most of villains range can be 3bet or float called for a future bluff and hero would have almost no choice but to fold. Especially with villain being so deep stacked he can afford a funky play or get caught on a bluff.

I think villains check shows serious weakness on his part and the mistake is the small turn bet allowing villain to get a cheap chase for draws. and when that 9 blanks the river he still has plenty of bluff equity. I think the biggest change should be a larger turn bet.

Cbet on flop to fold on his raise if he has an Ace. Do we check here to show him that we don't have a top pair?

Ok. I agree. But Xh on turn or river is not a problem for us? We have XXXh on flop. Can't V call us with Qx on flop and fold on turn on a second bullet?

So we call river here? Is it a bluff we want to catch?

On the contrary, he should be checking the vast majority of his range, AT/AJ/AK, KQs, 66-JJ.

His range is 0% draws here unless he does something weird otf like c/b KhJh or something.

That said, if you're going to bet I would bet bigger bc the small sizing is too telling of your exact hand.

I might rather c/c turn c/f river (if turn checks through, bet riv for value) than bet turn c/f river. He has a ton of Ax here and you won't get more than one street on this board from his non-tp one pair hands anyway.

To get a clearer picture of how to construct our range, OP. What do you think you 3bet here?

With an open from a UTG player with a healthy stack, and us having only 20 BB's and being OOP I think we're going to be better off jamming this pre (generally).

Read gregz's first post again. It's the same concept. Why do you want villain to fold Qx to a second barrel?

Definitely C-Bet flop.

You 3bet an UTG raiser. You're very unlikely to be weak, and a thinking UTG will likely range you as JJ+, AKo+, possibly even tighter.

Readless you might range him a typical UTG range say 88+, AJs+, AQo+,KQs, perhaps AJo, QJs.

When you check flop, he's probably putting you on KK or JJ.

The trouble is your turn bet is really small, so he might even call with 99,TT here, hoping he may be able to get away with it.

As for river bet, it's pretty polarized. I think he probably checks back his queens, It's an Ace, Nines, or a straight out steal.

Can I just say I hate the amount of the turn bet? You have put 1/3 of your chips in pre. Fine, no problem - in fact, it's a good sizing because it leaves you with a pot sized bet post flop. But then you check the flop and bet out less than 1/4 of the pot on the turn, leaving you with 10 BB behind. Were I the villain, this would scream weakness and I would shove with anything on the river.

That being said, because the villain should shove with anything on the river, you should probably call. The villain's range is super-wide at this point - indeed, you have gained no post flop information about villain's hand - and you are ahead of most of that range.

Personally, once I put 1/3 of my stack into the pot pre with a premium hand, I'm going to grit my teeth and shove the flop even if an overcard hits. About the only exception would be a massively coordinated board, like JT9 suited, and I don't have that suit. If you are not comfortable with that, 3 bet shove pre.

Just seen we have 20bb in the OP. This is a clear 3bet jam pre.