Interesting hand from private 2/5/10 game-

Villain is young college student, has played some online. He takes some very odd, spewy lines but tries to play well. We have a bit of aggro history vs each other but not monkeying off stacks (although ive seen him do it vs others).

1250 eff stacks

He opens to 25 in mp, i make it 80 otb with black aces. He calls pretty quickly, since he never folds. 863hhh flop. he chks, i bet 120, he thinks for a bit and makes it 320. We have about 850 back. I cover, and that prob matters a bit to him. Didn't have any physical tells on him other than I was pretty sure he didn't have the nut flush. He's made some weirdo info raises vs me in the past and shown down garbage tp.

Game has been 6 handed for a while, there is one vietnamese whale at table 1k deep, super old fish about 800 deep, a random tourist, a 2+2er who is solid TAG, LAG 2/5 reg who covers table, and me. I don't have much history with the LAG but he's a young aussieasian guy. I had seen him 3bet ISO QTx vs the whale and he is quite aggro postflop. Also we are in a casino in Cambodia fwiw. I think he sees me as a solid player, I have a good winning image but we really haven't played too many hands against eachother.

Hand before I had bet->folded to 3bet. Next hand I open to 12 in MP with AQ have ~650 behind. Fish flats on btn, Young guy 3bets to 36, I call to play IP vs him and cause I know he can be light here, I think this is standard. Flop Q8Xr, one club. he bets 75, i call and plan on folding to two more barrels unless I improve, btn folds.

Turn: 7. Guy bets $175. I call with 350 or so behind.

River: offsuit 9, he quickly shoves. I show my cards and he doesn't seemed disturbed or anything. Couldn't get much of a read on him.

Am I good here the 20% of the time I need to make this call? Shouldn't he be checking the KQ/QJ hands I beat on either turn or river?

Do people really ever 3bet then triple barrel bluff in live 1/2 >300bb deep?

How's the preflop play? Is it nitty to think about folding there when I can just be playing pots vs. the fish?

is this in mexico?

i hate stacking off on these flops because so much of his range has tons of equity against us. so much that i'm inclined to check back monotone flops unless i'm bluffing or bet/getting it in.

his CR is small enough that i think we can call. idk if we can fold a brick turn, probably not. folding seems criminal from what you've described. i'd probably call his cr and put lots of $ in on brick turns.

did he really overbet the flop?

pre is fine, we know he can be squeezing light, we have a good suited hand IP and there's a fish in the pot.

flop is fine, we're not folding TPTK. i don't think he's going to spazz if we raise and shove with worse, and probably not going to ever call with worse.

turn seems like another easy call, i really don't think he's going to call a raise with worse ever, we'd probably be turning our hand into a bluff. at this point we need to decide what we're doing on a brick river vs a shove. it takes a special kind of maniac to bet/bet/shove this deep as a bluff.

flop and turn seemed like relatively easy/trivial calls given information thus far. knowing how he perceives you makes this a lot easier. given your description of him i would probably just say whatever he's aggro and call.

this

Bones,

I'll check back that flop a lot too, especially if I'm unsure what to do vs a c/r. I suppose we probably miss value though against his range, and he's still calling >> c/r, especially this deep.

I probably just fold to his c/r tbh. We can't really improve, and we are probably behind his c/r range.

djz,

what happened to the fish in the hand?

nah he bet ~70 into 100. i don't remember the exact amount but he definitely didn't overbet pot.

yea i agree that raising turn is horrible and i can't fold flop.

thanks. plan was to fold a brick river though i did tank when he instashipped. i just didn't think i was beating enough.

he folded on the flop

Bones I check back there pretty much always...unless I have strong live reads.

djz,

I think the hand is pretty standard if you folded the river. I think I fold turn if I don't pick up the fd.

I would bet 836hhh insta, it sucks to get raised but aren't you cbet a ton of your range on this flop and then he'll proceed to do dumb stuff? I would call and put money in on the turn barring any physical read

djz all we can really tell you is to make the safe play n fold and work on your live readaments! suggesting to call is a bit much with not too much info. Flop through turn are standard.

Fwiw given your decrip of villain he seems the type capable to bluff here and most people (even decent thinking ones like yourself) are super transparent live so he could just be going haha youve got 1pair im allin bitch . So I don't think call if out of the question we just can't suggest it w/o more

yea i mean just give the way i played its super likely i have 1pair and i'd usually 4bet my large pockets esp vs him and w the fish likely to call even a 4bet (he folded on flop btw)

villain was definitely capable of triple barelling as a bluff there. i did fold and he said after the hand

i dunno, it was a reallyyyyyyyyyy close spot an i would rather just get the money off the fish. also all the cash i had with me was on the table cause of the fish (rest was in hotel room 10minutes away and my card didnt work with the ATM).

i do think my live reads/acting abilities are pretty good though.

just not used to that level of aggression at live 1/2

I don't think you can slow down here given what you know about villain. I'd probably ship it here and just hope he folds all the pp's and XX's that we're beating but he has some equity with.

Any of you guys take shots/play regularly at 5/10 and up? How much tougher are those games? I feel like I could hold my own at 5/10 but the place I'm a reg at puts all the big 5/10 or higher games in a fenced off pit so I'm kind of intimidated to ever take shots at it. I play 2/5 and a gimped 30bb version of 5/10 there outside of the pit all the time with consistent success.

i'm down 3bi at 2/3/5 over ~100hrs

the 5/10 game here is 5/5/10 3k max buy and it can play pretty deep

don't be intimidated. get in there and play your game

What's the third number in your x/x/x? I see it on the forums from time to time but either I'm just misinterpreting something or that's not offered at the places I play in SFL.

I'm not really rolled for 5/10 as I'd like to be, but I'm pretty close. I'm def a BR nit though so it may be a while before I actually decide to get in there

i think it's a cali game? anyway there are 3 blinds in those so they can rake every pot.

I think the higher you go, the only real difference is people are less like just to call it off because it's only $xxx.

I think you can be more aggressive in more spots. You are slightly more likely to run into a thinking aggro player.

I ran a lot more "big bluffs" at 5/10 than I ever have at 1/2.

djd is right, three blinds. In 2/3/5 the 2 is posted on the BTN, 3 in SB, 5 in BB. Makes pots bigger and should also increase BR requirements but meh

CQ....I'd say if you do start playing 5/10, that you log a ton of hours at the start,
because it can be really discouraging to play the "higher" game, lose or win over
short sessions and still not really know if you are profitable or not. I think it's very important
to feel comfortable you are profitable in any game you play...many people
can lie to themselves about this.

My next trip to Vegas I'll be making the move from 2/5 to 5/10, but yeah I feel hella
nervous. I've had (live 5/10+) poker friend explain to me what he thinks the differences are. He plays a pretty successful low variance game, says that maintaining a
reasonably low pfr is important, getting paid off by fish etc., few elaborate bluffs.

From what i've heard SFL is amazing for cash games though. (..?)

Maybe villain feels the same way.

What's with people saying we are deep? We're only 125bb deep.

I don't really see why on earth we would check back this flop. Why freeroll him the turn? Just bet/get it in on the flop imo. He's going to have plenty of spazz in his c/r range as well as some hands that we are still 60/40 against.

If we were 250bb deep it's a lot more tricky imo.

this is a board we give up on a lot vs people that flat lots of 3bets. strengthening our check back range isn't a crime, neither is stacking off on this board in a 3bet pot. without knowing more about vill i'd say he's weighted to overpairs w/ a heart and AhXx than anything else.

I jammed and thought it was the best line in the moment. Not really sure what I like after thinking about it more. He folded and claimed to have 66, so who knows what random airball he really had. He tanked for quite a bit though and seemed legit upset.