Just a hand i payed at 100 NL that I wanted to get everyone's views on. I just sat down at the table and I have no history with the villain. I have 100 big blinds and villain has 44 bigs.

Villain UTG raises to 3 BB. Button calls, I call in the BB with 99. I normally like to keep 10s and 9s in my flatting range from the big blind but I am open to suggestions about whether it is better to 3 bet to about 10-12 BBs from the big blind instead.

Anyway flop comes 9q4 with two spades. I check in flow and it checks through.

Turn comes offsuit K. I bet 6.5 BB into the 10 BB pot. UTG Villain raises to 13 BB.

Villain has 28 BB behind and the pot is now 29 BB. What should I do? Any comments positive/negative would be appreciated. I'll update you all with the results of the hand once I can get your ideas about the hand in a vacuum.

Probably shouldn't play $100NL as a beginner, no reason to pay more for education than necessary.

If UTG is only 44bb 3betting and getting it in can't be too bad, but flatting is fine. I don't understand what you're doing on the turn. Are you trying to get called by a 9 or worse or actually trying to fold out better? The decision point isn't facing the raise, it's the bet.

I mean knowing you probably have surprising results my guess is you didn't fold.

Unless you misread his actual hand, we have a very different understanding of hand strength. OP flopped middle set and probably should try to build a pot somewhere with the relative nuts 44BB deep.

I’ll get it in on the turn and see him snap call AK.

Oh, yeah.

This part threw me off. In that case try to get it in vs a minraise that is never a bluff and punch your monitor when he has QQ instead of AK or AA.

Also might be JT for the turned straight, but that doesn’t change the grand picture. Especially not if he doesn’t raise JTo from UTG.

Hey thanks for the replies everyone.
Kelvis I used to play 100-150 dollar hypers but I want to learn cash games better hence I am playing at 100 NL i would like to imagine that I’m not quite as bad as the average cash game fish but ofcourse I could be completely wrong.
With the turn bet I was trying to get called by AQ, AK or KQ which I think all make sense for him to have.
Anyway once he raised I jammed again hoping to get called by those hands. But unfortunately he had 10j off for the turned straight but from this forum it would seem that I played the hand correctly. Again thanks a lot for the comments everyone.

Am I the only one who is considering a fold pre? Vs stack is just barely big enough to set mine against, s/he has a super strong range and there is another caller putting us oop to two players. I'm not saying for sure fold it, but its at least a consideration here. No?

Yes.

Live guy here so please forgive ...
1) How deep is B? Yes, barely 16-1 on a set mine (with dead chips) against shorty, but B can add to it and we hardly ever gets folds from short stacks in a zero history spot.

2) Due to short stack and OOP I'm donking this Flop. Screw flow, we hit a set and this Board can get worse in a hurry. Make flushes pay and we get insta-called by AA/KK.

3) I'm not leading this Turn much. Sure the urge to recover the lost Flop value is there, but any strong hand will bet into us and we can shove or lead River. All betting does is make us call off from behind 'most of the time' if we get shoved into. If we are only getting one street here I can wait until the River to get. GL

Would you consider JTo part of a super strong range? Hero gets 3.75:1 on a call, folding seems incredibly nitty to me. To an extend where button could theoretically exploit it by using the knowledge of 1.5BB dead money in the pot. (If SB is super nitty too)

BU stacksize obviously matters too, but I have trouble coming up with one that would make me consider a fold.

I'm not arguing that it should gave been a fold. I'm just saying it MAY have been worth consideration. Kind of a "64 squares" approach. My thought was that one Vs stack is bottom threshold for set mining and we have an uphill battle playing OOP against two opponents with a hand that doesn't retain equity particularly well when it doesn't flop a set.

No JTo should not be part of UTGs range. BU's range? Sure. But not UTGs

But it is?

Without results its hard to know. If it is, its definitely not a winning part of Vs strategy. I would think CO would be the earliest position JTo would enter a winning range.

I'm not sure your hang up with JTo or its place in Vs range.

Hey answer20 your answer is interesting. I have been trying to think about building a donking range but the problem I always face is that I believe it makes my range really face up. It feels like a middle-good hand that wants to protect. Do you have a balanced donking range or do you do it more exploitatively. If you do balance how do you do so?

You wont find a lot of Donking fans in this forum, even from the 'live' guys. In live play I'm constantly looking at the dynamic of the hand. Poker is about value ... what do I need to do to get the remaining Players in the hand to do what I want them to do? This can include folding at times from Players who will 'most likely' check things through if they miss ... and aren't very sticky, which means no value if they miss on the Turn anyway.

I'm only looking to 'balance' if I'm up against a reg who I have history with (and I think they even 'track' such stuff). I don't think very many live Players try to balance their play, which makes it harder for them to figure out, or even consider, how an opponent might be protecting/balancing/valuing an early position hand.

Most Donk play is viewed as polarizing, and yet you see it as 'middle'. If I think I know how you will view/react then I play accordingly, but I might do the exact opposite for different opponents in basically the same spot.

I get plenty of "Well, you must have it." folds but probably just as many Players who insist 'BS' and call/over play their holdings. So my balance is 'natural' only to the point of who is sitting at the table. This is perhaps not a luxury that online Players have in the math driven world.

In this spot here I'm willing to GII with shorty AND I want to make sure the deeper stack is paying to continue on my terms. Sure there are times when they both fold out but that happens ... just like getting sucked out on here 'happens'.

I'm going to assume that Players at 100NL are pretty decent, so they will be 'curious' of a Player who Donks out (which probably means more calls/shoves into), but If you look at the raising range a UTG shorty is 'supposed' to have here it will be one that a Player 'should' be ready to GII with .. not JTo ... or is one that you want to charge to continue .. AA-JJ,AK/AQ/KQ.

Are you any less willing to GII with a super draw here as you would be with a set? AQs/JTs?

Poker is about aggression and getting what you want out of the hand. GL

Thanks for the advice man. I think I might start donking against players who are playing sub 45 B.B. stacks because they don’t have enough fold equity to fold to my strong donking hands. Though I think I’ll try not to do that if I have any history with the players. Anyway thanks a lot that was a well thought out comment and an interesting view on the play.
Best,
Ishamael