Looking at my hand history of the past couple of days and one spot in particular has cost me some money.

Playing 5NL 6-Max, a loose player before me raises to 3 BB and I call with a hand such a J10s. Everyone else fold.

The flop comes something like Q42 rainbow, with one suit matching mine. This guy C-Bets nearly every chance he gets. Here, he bets 2/3 the pot.

What is the correct line of thinking here? I don’t want to just give up the hand seeing as he has had a very wide PFR and C-Bet range. He could really have anything here. Do we raise him and try to take it down there? Or do we float hoping to improve? What if we improve and he still fires another bet?

Hopefully it’s not too complex of a question. Would love some insight as to how to maneuver such a situation.


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I would use TJs as a 3bet bluff in certain positions preflop. Other than that on a board like Q42 with a couple of backdoor draws strait/flush potential and 2 overs to hands like 88 99 it makes a good bluff raise on the flop. Flops like 842 942 and the board you gave where you have backdoor flush and strait potential along with overs to a good chunk of villains range make good bluffs.

They are also spots where we don't mind folding if villain reraises on us so we can use these spots as bluffs along with our value hands like sets. And we can call our stronger draws that have a'lot of equity which we don't want to turn into bluffs. It sounds like your on the right line of thought though.

You haven't told us the table positions but irrespective of that it's not even a remotely complex question. Fold pre. As played fold to the flop bet. There's spots to float and this isn't one of them. Sometimes folding to one bet otf is the best line.

I'm assuming you called on the button, as it's probably a mistake to call in any other seat except for the BB.
You could try to float the flop if villain usually check-folds the turn, but with a hand this weak I'd only recommend floating if the flop bet is smaller. When you're facing a 2/3 pot bet, it's usually best to just fold all your low equity hands. Indeed, against someone that is aggressive post-flop, you should be folding pre pretty often. If you only cold call with hands like AQ, TT-88, you can peel the flop with decent pairs instead of just draws or backdoors, and your decisions are a whole lot easier. There's really not a lot of money to be made by cold-calling 3x opens pre-flop with hands that rarely flop the best hand. Beginners think calling pre with QJs-76s and KQ/KJs/AJ, is "standard". It's not. It slowly loses money. You don't make money by pressing the CALL button.

@Arty Only position i wouldn't usually flat JTs is from the sb. Even a conservative 6% mp flatting range includes JTs. Playing in position with a range advantage shouldn't be a losing proposition for us surely. What sort of % do you flat vs utg ip from mp c/o and btn out of interest ?.

To the OP the flop is a snap fold vs the cbet.
Your hand equity is very low and calling is Easily minus Ev.

I don't think op is talking about a specific hand and flop. I think it's a much broader question about what spots to be looking for when turning hands into bluffs on the flop in general.

My cold calling frequencies for MP to BTN are something like 3.5%, 5%, 7%. JTs is one of the hands that usually does do better as a call instead of a 3-bet, but I would usually fold it if the open is 3bb more. Playing zoom in particular, there's no point in spending 2 minutes playing a break-even hand when I can fast-fold and move on to something that's more profitable.

Ive never played zoom/speed poker so maybe it makes a difference. My usual frequencies would be somewhere around mp 6.5% co 8% btn 9% and then id usually 3bet it from the blinds vs most positions. I don't think we are miles apart though by the looks of it. I would think flatting slightly wider ranges on reg tables is common although i'm unsure tbh.