Crazy 8s. We play 8 handed.

The villain is mid 30s and wearing some poker gear as if they are a sponsored pro that I've never heard of or work a training site that I've never heard of. They just got to the table.

Blinds 2.5K/5k/5K

Hero has about 300K
Villain has 175K

Preflop: Hero has K J in MP
Hero raises to 12K, Villain calls in the BB

Flop: J44
Villain checks, hero checks

Turn: 3
Check, Hero bets 15,000, Villain raises to 50,000, hero calls

River: 6
Villain shoves for ~100,000, hero?

a 4 is in his range. I keep thinking my hand looks like a busted draw or a weak pocket pair. What would be your calling range in this spot? Comments please.

He has a polarized range here and you have the chips to call.

One thing pros know how to do is extract value... and utilize fold equity... in his eyes he probably thinks you're an average scared money wsop donk and you have at least a J when you call his raise. If he doesn't have any SDV then he has to shove to represent the 4 because if he just checks his loss of chips is gonna hurt him substantially so it's worth it to him to shove and get you to fold your J which obviously is going to work a good amount of the time if we're talking about it here.

Flop is 100% a bet for something small like 1bb with your entire range. In fact, checking here with any hand is highly suboptimal.

When you check back flop, V should still be reading you as merged (you can have anything) because it makes little sense for any hand to ever check flop, it's just you've now arrived at turn suboptimally (your value hands haven't gotten as much value as they ought to, your bluffs haven't gotten enough fold equity as they ought to)

Hence V should also be checking flop with most of his range, most of his range is gonna be straight air and your range is much narrower and stronger than his and that 3h OTT is such a dry card that changes almost nothing in both your ranges such thathe can't probe turn wide.

Hence V should have tons of 4x here, but also 65s, 65o, A2s, 52s, some Jx, and lots of FDs. So KJo is a turn call.

River is basically a toss up at equilibrium so try to make a quick qualitative judgment about whether he's overbluffing or underbluffing, close your eyes, and do the appropriate thing based on your read. There really isn't a clear-cut answer here.

This particular combo should be one of your highest freq KJo hero call because it unblocks FDs.

^basically this

And not this ^

I know a young pro that would slow play kk, qq, jj this way from the bb based on the preflop action and hand being heads up regardless of what he does preflop (mostly a cash player). I like Eggs analysis and would be inclined to fold unless I could come up with a reason to call, ie., i had a good reliable read that he was bluffing. I would definitely tank.....tough spot.

What exactly? You disagree that this is a polarized spot? You think we should just insta muck?

I forgot to mention this as well. Should be betting these paired flops most of the time.

I disagree that this is 100% a bet. I think I would normally bet the flop and make bet on the turn and check the river. But I think most of the time just betting the flop gets the villain to fold. Our hand is vulnerable, but we want to get the villain trying to lead some turns and take stabs to get more chips.

Anyways, we called the river and where shown A2o (no spades).

At equilibrium, this is absolutely, without question, 100% a small (in the vicinity of 1bb) bet with your entire range. If you wanna be exploitative, fine go ahead a check. But, as I wrote:


So I don't think you induce leads or stabs as often as you'd like.

NH though. WTF was he doing?