I’ll preface this by apologizing, it’s not a mid/high buyin, but we are playing for good money with 20 left out of 10480 players and since I only post in this community I’d rather get input from it not the low stakes forum. $22 buyin, $37k up top. All the money is at the final table, current payout is $450 or so.

OTTH:

We have a top 6 stack and about 54bbs. I’ve been pretty aggressive, opening a lot of pots. We’re 7 handed.

I open Q♣️9♣️from UTG+1.

UTG+2 calls with 42bbs behind, BB calls with 20bbs.

Q♠️ 5♦️ 7♥️flop.

BB checks, I check, villain bets 2.8bbs. BB folds, I call.

K♠️ turn.

I check/call 7.3bbs

9♥️ river.

I lead 3.43bbs, he jams.

Ugh... this is tough. I'd probably end up folding, but I'm generally not a fan of the blocking bet precisely because it invites a good player to jam on you (unless that's your goal). Especially one that's, what is it, not even 15% the pot? Any reads on villain?

That said, I doubt villain got here with JT or called pre with 68, but KQ or 77 is certainly possible. I'm just not sure because it's such a narrow range of plausible hands that beat you, but villain has been showing strength on every street.

I'd have to feel like someone is really capable of making a total move for their stack-- not yours-- to call here. (Or that villain is the kind of bad player who will felt top pair for value like this.) Like if I thought villain was capable of putting me on some kind of JJ-88 hand after the flop check/call and trying to push me off, that would lean me toward calling.

I agree with Nath; never leading this river. Out of flow plays should only come when a card changes the nut holdings and you have the nuts in your range (that is a generality, but I don't see many exceptions when I run PIO for other spots. That 9 is not a card that helps your range.

I am struggling to come up with the bluffs, and 2 hands make perfect sense here: KQ and 77. Villain might have stabbed with JTs and a BDFD; that got there too. I guess he could have some Ax spade draws that turned a flush draw, but he might not bet the flop or the turn with those; he is always betting the turn with KQ/77. I am putting this hand in the muck here, though in real life I might have sigh/called.

I think this hand is easier to play with a bet on the flop. If UTG+2 raises we get to fold pretty easily. We can also check/fold the turn depending on bet sizing. But if we call the turn we probably should check/call the river.

As played I would fold to the turn bet. We can be easily drawing dead to KQ/77/55. We are also drawing slim to QJs/QTs. It is unlikely villain has 7x or 5x at this point as checking back would be the best move with SD vlaue.

As played I would have check/called the river for about 12 to 15 bb's and folded to a larger bet.

As played I would fold to the river jam. He has to be bluffing more than 33% of the time here for it to be +EV to call. He has virtually no semi bluffs on this flop and one of them got there on the river. So this would have to be a triple barrel bluff with air about 30% of the time for the call to be profitable.

Thanks guys, there are one or two more guys that sometimes post that I would normally wait on but I'm so fired up about this hand I'll just share what I thought about it minutes later.

Ya'll pretty much nailed it, each of you. He ended up having 77 and I made a HORRID call on the river. I don't mind my weak lead too much, I treat it essentially as a check with the small benefit that it may get some value from a King and maaaaaybe AQo. I figure he'll be jamming both his value hands and bluffs.

Mr. rick, you might be right that the turn is a fold since I'll most likely be facing a river bet, at the time I figured my hand was underrepped by my flop check that I had to call once more.

By the river, sure I can come up with some bluffs, namely what 3+3 said about Ax in spades, but the fact is that we're down to the last 20 players in a tourney that started with over 10k runners and he's almost never bluffing here on the river. I didn't have much time bank left which didn't help (ACR sucks in that you only get 120 seconds to play a huge tournament. I've noticed on youtube videos that GG and party give like 10 minutes, which is extreme, but for certain tournaments I think ACR is way too tight with the time they give us. I believe the Venom adds some time but it's still like just a few minutes. Ridiculous imo).

But all that's just excuses. Huge punt where I got caught up in the absolute strength of two pair neglecting relative strength. On to the next. Thanks for the input.

if V is playing a standard UTG3 flat range then the c/c line is good and c/c river with Q9s would seem fine too, but depends entirely on how balanced V gets to the river.

the thing I rly dislike is your block bet on the river

Fold pre. The lead is actually pretty nice for your exact hand. But you should probably size up a little bit
Anyways otr I don’t see any way you can fold there’s like one hand that beats you realistically which is 777. Sucks he had that