Hi guys

Villain is far better player than me. He is 21/19 on 98 hands and cold calls on BTN 33%

He has been owning my soul for about 2 hours lol....usually i would think about c/c this (villain dependant) but i know this guy can apply pressure OTR by shoving so i thought better to let it go...too nitty?

how about x/c otf? we have mediocre value bdfd+bdsd+ace high that can improve ott.

I felt board was dry enough to take it down right now with the cbet ; also i didn't want to concede initiative to this better player as later he is IP and can play perfectly betting again or looking for a free card OTR

okay, I just think that if we bet with AJ then we include too much of our range in the c-bet sub-range. There are a lot of hands that should c-bet here and from the common sense stand-point - "we should check our mediocre value" - AJ is totally fine to check imho.

I don't think we wanna let someone owning our soul take initiative on the hand. I think I bet flop and c/c turn. If we were deeper we could c/r flop and bet a of potential turns like T/K/A/2/spades

that sounds like a plan, but as our stack is not deep enough and V "owns our soul" meaning that he is not gonna give up otf, x/call otf would allow to x/c OTT with all those hands you mentioned. It's basically cheap alternative to x/r.
And we plan to give up with J OTT, then c-bet OTF looks a bit like burning money.

AsJs is in my c-bet range. Frankly, with this board, I was hard pressed finding enough bluffs in my range to try to balance my value range even with the 1/3pot c-bet. AJ with a BDFD is definitely a candidate.

On the turn, AsJs is most likely in the top 1/2 of my bet flop/check turn range so I probably have to call the turn against most good players. However, if this player is weak or passive and his range is value heavy, I can fold this.

but if hero has 25BB and realizes that V has postflop skills advantage, shouldn't c-bet range consist of value hands only and include no bluffs at all?

Not sure how this is in the top half tbh. You can have a few combos of flushes, JJJ/QQQ/AQ/KQ/QJs too.

We always need to have some kind of bluffs in our range but can have more dackdoor type bluff stuff.

If villain is better, that is much more reason to try to remain balanced. If you unbalance your ranges, that makes it so much easier for him to play against you.

Yes they are in my bet flop range, but not my check turn range. They would most likely be in the bet/bet line.

What I was talking about is my range in my bet/check line. AsJs is a hand I would c-bet, but with this turn, check/call.

I guess randomly if this player is better, I should keep a nut hand in my bet/check range to protect my checking range.

If this player has a dynamic of calling c-bets in position and betting every turn when checked to, that might be an argument to check my entire range. Maybe?

"Sometimes" is better. Sometimes we should include some bluff hands in our c-bet range, but it depends on the specific situation.

Against good players - always. You have to have balance or they will play perfect against you.

i think that it's crucial to ask yourself several questions before bluffing against good players:
-- if I get raised which is often the case with good players - can I continue?
-- if i get called, would I be able to bet on the next street if the next card does not improve my hand?

In this specific hand, I think that answers to both of those questions is NO because hero has pretty alward stack size and it's much more reasonable to x/call and re-evaluate OTT.

balancing is BS as long as we play small stakes. Common sense is everything.

I mean we don't have to fold if we're bluffing ya know? But yes you're correct that the higher the stakes the closer to perfectly balanced we should be. Doesn't mean we shouldn't throw bluffs into our range.

I am not saying that we should avoid bluffing. I am saying that bluffing for the sake of being balanced in small stakes is really silly idea. esp with the small stack, esp versus good players. Also, the idea of ALWAYS doing something in poker is at least dubious.

For whose obsessed with balancing, I recommend to listen to Matt Berkey interview. This player has ~$4M live earnings and check that he thinks about GTO, balancing and stuff

villain has a pretty awkward stack size himself in terms of doing much flop raising (he risks having to raise-fold significant equity while a 2bet all in is a gross overbet), not to mention if he's legitimately good he doesn't have any nutted hands to raise with (no sets, no 2p).

Therefore there is little he can do to stop bluffing with high equity hands like flush draws and OESD being profitable so can't get behind the "no bluffing" take even if you wanted to play cautiously.

As for AJss. Some good cases in here for betting and checking. It's probably a mix at equilibrium so doesn't matter much if you bet or check vs a "good player". Think OP played the hand fine.

Really disagree. 31BB is pretty playable stack size. I think that V can profitable raise otf if he holds A and any other card because together with Q on the board it blocks sh*t load of fd's in hero's range. Also, if hero understands that V has skills advantage, then V realizes it as well and raising otf as the exploitative game - once again : f*ck balancing - could be really profitable for him.

OP c-bet otf without having any value and then gave up ott having the second pair. I am really not sure if this play can be called "fine".

How if raising leveraging his supposed skill advantage? OP can end action on the flop, negating positional and skill disadvantage. If he's good, vill should be itching to play later streets in position.

Heres what I mean by awkward; Hero can easily 3bet jam his top pairs and he won't be making much of a mistake if any, as opposed to say 200bb deep. Therefore villain risks being blown off his equity or being forced to make a marginal call if he raises less than all in with draws.

Anyway we're making too much of his skill advantage. Deck was probably hitting him in the face.

I am not sure either , that´s the reason i posted it here !

What worried me in the hand is not balancing but avoiding a complicated decision OTR.

Now a brick appears OTR. We check. Villain shoves. Ok. What do we do? i suppose you can say that i am over thinking the hand but this kind of player is betting (and betting exactly this amount) for a reason. He knows what he is doing so i was trying to "anticipate" (sorry for my english)

nh

Not much we can do ott with our stack and no heart in our hand imo, we can be drawing dead at a non 0%