Trying to get a little better at these type of situations. Villain is a regular I sat because I've been sitting everybody, he may be a little tilted down 2-0 but probably not much. He's shown willingness to make non-standard bluffs but not with a big frequency or anything. So far, I've seen him donk bet a fairly balanced range, with air, T5 on 544, and I believe one stronger hand. So I think Jx, 5x, air, and even Ax are all in his flop donking range. I'm not really sure how often he pays off a river bet with Jx, something we have to guess.

Best line if he bets this size? If he checks river? Issues with turn bet?


Full Tilt Poker $220 + $10 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 2 players

Hero (BTN/SB): t1815 60.50 BBs
BB: t1185 39.50 BBs

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BTN/SB with A 7
Hero raises to t60, BB calls t30

Flop: (t120) J 5 5 (2 players)
BB bets t60, Hero calls t60

Turn: (t240) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t150, BB calls t150

River: (t540) 8 (2 players)


Scenario #1:
BB bets t360, Hero ?


Scenario #2:
BB checks, Hero ?

scenario one call, scenario 2 bet fold or bet call

I don't play at these stakes, but imo I would probably puke fold scenario one. I don't think I've ever seen a reg take this line as a bluff but I def don't play high enough for levelling wars to be an issue such that I may be more inclined to call.

Scenario 2 I'm bettin 210, and maybe calling a shove depending on reads because our hand is basically face up (or is this lol bad?).

Some reads to add:

His lines always "make sense" for the most part, he's a thinking player and while I've seen what I think are errors, he takes lines for a reason and there's always been a decent justification for them so far. He's passed up on a couple of opportunities to multi-street bluff, this hand is one of the reasons to believe he's not in too much of a nitty box:

Full Tilt Poker $220 + $10 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20/t40 Blinds - 2 players

Hero (BB): t1945 48.62 BBs
BTN/SB: t1055 26.38 BBs

Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is BB with A 8
BTN/SB raises to t80, Hero calls t40

Flop: (t160) J T 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: (t160) K (2 players)
Hero bets t80, BTN/SB calls t80

River: (t320) Q (2 players)
Hero bets t220, BTN/SB raises to t895 all in, Hero calls t675

Final Pot: t2110
Hero shows A 8 (a straight, Ace high)
BTN/SB shows 4 K (a straight, King high)
Hero wins t2110

is this vs me?

scenario 1. shove
scenario 2. bet 300

for some reason I think he has a hand when he donkbets that J66.
Anyway, I think you have to bet big on the river and just hope he'll call you with Jx or some weaker hand. something like 300 or 320 imo Bet/fold obv
2) call if he bets 360

Then scenario one is a snap call right, he repping absolutely nothing?
I mean if hes thinking the c/c turn lead river with any hand better than ax no kicker is ******ed.

#2 Easy bet/fold on the river right? Your hand looks like an ace or some sort of k high and if he called the turn he should have showdownvalue.
why? everybody loves as big bluff, but i can't see him having better ax/folding a bigger hand than ax.

would just be a ******ed line to take for value here imo. the only hand i could think this play might be good with is A8. 5x should cr since A is a great card for mers to rep as a bluff and he will value bet when he has it to try to get value from Jx. and i disagree he never folds Ax

what about pushing Ax off chops

who plays ax this way? c/c to catch bluffs and then bet on river for value vs jx?

hes gotta know mers is good enough that hes unlikely to fire one with a bluff on the turn

the second hand you posted would make me more likely to think he wouldn't be bluffing in scenario one, or that scenario one may not even be in villains repertoire (with this board text) because it is probably not the most +ev way to play both made hands and bluffs.

the more i think about it i think this situation didnt happen and mers is ****ing with us or maybe had A8

Situation 1 happened

fold and tell him you're way too good to get suckered by his 5x there and that he's awful

think i have changed my mind and he has a 5 and is ******ed but stil think shove > call

What is wrong with taking that line w/5x? I would def take that line in some situations, Ax I think is far less likely though.

what calls the river that doesnt bet?

Why would you not bet turn after he flatted the donkbet on the flop?
He should be calling with pretty much everything that calls the flop.(especially since A-high just hit TP)

oh sorry i misread, i thought he lead 3 streets.

call 360, bet 315 would be my plays.

dunno about the call it's really hard to put him on 5x, I mean if he has 5x and you fire an A (which is a lot of your float range), why on earth would he not raise there? I dunno I don't play these stakes and the more I think about it the more I doubt what is the best play. good hh imo

I would try to avoid those situations vs this type of player.
His strategy is to always make u guess 50/50

but in this scenario 1 I would probably reraise the turn and fold if played back because the river will be a tough decision 99% of the time.

in scenario 2 I would go for showdown value

fold scenario 1

value bet 299 scenario 2

I'm pretty sure that villain had 5x here, and thats what I think was his reasoning behind: on the flop villain was making a lot of dbets so it makes sense to stab with a hope that mers will flat his bet, and mers will flat that bet all day with A,K highs, some pocket pairs and some other stuff, since A hits on the turn it will scare some of mers range and sometimes he hits that A, so when he checks that turn, mers I think will be betting as a bluff/for value close to 100% because villain's line looks weak, but when he calls mers' bet, mers probably thinks that villain doesnt have much air in this range, so 2/3 pot bet on the river looks like Jx, Ax, mb middle PP that decided not to 3bet pre like 66-88, and 5x, so the line was "design" to possibly get 3str of value from bigger part of mers range.

^^ this very well could be nonsense, but I thought its fun to think like some higher stakes guys, so I tried

I fold lead,just don't see many bluffs with this line,even tho i don't see why he would lead 5x here when c/r is far better imo.A8 makes sense tho.

As for betting river,i don't think he would turn something /w showdown value into a bluff after he had shown down that he can,so i'd just bet like 2/3 pot.Depending on reads betting close to pot might be better. I'm folding to a shove.