I find a lot of the time I identify what I perceive to be a leak in my opponent, but I have a hard time putting it into words for actual application to the match. I'm posting a particular hand I felt villain played badly, but I couldn't put into words why or how I could take advantage of it.

Poker Stars $5.00+$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 948649
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): t1480 74 BBs
BB: t1520 76 BBs

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BTN/SB with 5 Q
Hero raises to t60, BB calls t40

Flop: (t120) 3 4 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t65, BB calls t65

Turn: (t250) 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t250) 6 (2 players)
BB bets t200, Hero calls t200

Final Pot: t650
Hero shows 5 Q (a straight, Three to Seven)
BB shows A 8 (high card Ace)

flatting pf is meh
calling flop is meh
he should lead turn
obviously fold the river.

More details/explanation please. Explaining the why's of each street, and his overall leak would help a lot.

Uh...

He bets rivers when you give up on them ?
Then bet more flops when you have made hands, then check the turn, and raise river. That, or just generally speaking bet flop/cr turn/cr river. If he adjusts, well...start cbetting normally and see what ensues.

He probably just assumes you hit some bottom pair on flop and wants to scare you away. Typical play from LAGs at the 5s I notice.

A lot of them, however, won't fall in your slowplaying trap more than twice and this will quickly become -EV.

"can bluff river scare cards when show weakness with weak show down value?"
I think you can take advantage of it by checking river with medium to good strength hands on the river to open up his bluffing range (most often if you percieve villian to be on a draw that misses on the river or if you think villian has a weak holding and a scare card come on the river).

However, this is just one hand villian played - though not totally bad - so you must factor in game flow and his ability to adjust. I can't really comment if villians play here if poor as I dont know game dynamics, your opening %, flow, and reads/past hands/meta.

So - calling with A8o oop seems standard, as does floating the flop with back door nut flush draw, 2 overs and a back door st8 draw. Turn you ck and villian checks behind with nut flush draw aand an over (personally I would stab here if I had some reads) and on the river villian takes a stab as you've been weak, he can't expect to many 5's in your range (or flushes - cause they would prob bet the turn). Maybe he thinks you have marginal show down value (after you check behind the turn) with a weak pair (or better Ax) so he turns his A high into a bluff expecting you to fold all your 3x, 4x, 6x, AT+ and some 7 and 9x. I mean it's not a totally horrible river to bluff and I think he's unlucky that he ran into a straight here as I would expect you to fold a lot unless you have 2 pair+ on this river.

I don't think betting a river scare card when your opponent seems weak is too big of a leak personally. Additionally this is just one hand - I like to find patterns - like if villian auto stabs pot in limped pots when I check oop, or if he seems to flaot wide and stabs turn after I cbet and check the turn, or bet sizing patterns. I think repatition is a better read than basing my desicions on one hand.

gl at the tables!

i dont think villain played this too bad but you can def take note that villain can float flops light and bluff scary boards/cards when shown weakness. you are going to fold the best hand a ton on this river imo so villains bluff looks ok to me

disagree
kind of agree but dont absolutly hate it if hero doesnt barrel light
disagree
disgree

k, A8o is a meh hand to defend with pf with no reads.

flop, i don't mind his call so much, but it's almost to be expected that you're gonna fire again, so kinda hard to continue even if he does have the best hand.

turn, if he leads, you're in a tough spot with any non-strong hand you have here (i.e. 2pair+), because if you call, he can just fire the river big and you'd fold 1 pair hands like 90+% of the time.

river, he has only A high and you're not betting air here.

what hand history are you reading...

hero is one with a straight..

yeah and he has 5x here 100% of the time obv

wow, i must be high, i've read the hh like 10 times and thought bb c/c the river. wow.

um, but yeah, idk how you can say villain is floating light, he does have A high and running hearts makes him a flush.. and he has 2 overs to the board..

villain's river bet is bad, not only because of the sizing, but because his river bet range is super polarized to 5/flush or air. (i.e. villain would never bet the river with a pair or 2 pair).


also, i think leading turn definitely has merit

i do that all the time. fwiw i think A8 is a pretty mandatory defend against most players and the river bluff seems good to me

i d k

flatting pf is meh, especially in a non turbo where u can just wait on hands. it's definitely on my border of defend range 75bb deep.

river bluff is super polar. also the bet sizing is terrible.

what size would u bet for value? sizing looks fine :S

he can have sets straights flushes 2 pairs A LOT more often than we can

idk, villains are usually awful with betting less than a straight here (for value).

I like a 150 bet more than a 200.

Honestly, if I had a value hand here, I'd like a 400 bet, just because villain can have flushs and OP can never have flushes.

The problem with identifying a leak in a hand like this is that you didn't ask your opponent to make a mistake to see how he would respond. You had the chance on the turn, but you checked instead. If you had bet, and then checked the river (most rivers, not advocating a check on this river), you would have had some really good information on how he plays turns (vital info).

this is wish wash.

we got a lot of info in this hand and op played it fine.

op is just being results orientated and not extracting the info he has been given