same villian as my other posts of 2/4 PLO here.

Villain folds to c-bet 45% in 3 bet pots...he almost always bet the flop if I did not c-bet when I 3bet pre. I just felt totally lost playing this player...b/c I felt like the only way I could win was to make big hands...post flop he was very aggressive.

thoughts on how to play flop + turn ?

First, I don't think these are great kings to be 3betting against described opponent, but doing it occasionally isn't bad.


On turn, I think checking vs this type of opponent is going to cause too many headaches. He will be bluffing/semibluffing a good percentage and can play rivers very well versus our face up hand. On board pairing turns that often are good for our equity against his flop peeling range, I like a bet of .55-.65 pot. Depending on how villain responds we can end up betting to induce on some rivers or x/f'ing if we think he is boat heavy when he calls twice.

I think most KK are worth 3bing heads up.

Is it really that headachey if we check the turn? We're OOP, often good, and can pot control now. He's still going to call with live draws if we bet, and may bluff being way behind.

I don't think we can ever make a read he is 'boat heavy' if he calls flop and turn. I don't know villain reads, but mostly check against aggressive villains, and bet against passive ones, looks right.

would bet bigger with whole range otf!
regarding 3betting pre, i also think ull have to much ugly spots 3betting this weak kings if 150bbs deep vs discribed villain.
but as played pre, post looks fine so far.

given villains tendencies i think this is a pretty poor hand to include in your 3b range. youre going to flop marginally quite often and by the sounds of it he isnt going to make your life easy when you do. given texture and oop i think bigger sizing or checking are both better flop options. on the turn i think betting is a fair amount better than checking both for our range and in this specific situation.

3betting bad Kings against all opponents makes no sense. You are going to be in too many marginal spots like this.

How does the fact that we are 'often good' make this hand any easier to play by checking? We are basically asking our opponent to control the pot for us. Most people realize this and will pot turn pot river with some frequency, getting max value from a hand like trips (way more value than if we had bet and determined the pot size) or turning a hand like 8+gs into a profitable bluff. Not to mention all the free rivers we give flush draws and Q+gs hands by checking.

tbf since most of his stronger semibluff hands are raising flop given reads, chking prob works out ok as a vacuum play. i just think that even overagg players are disinclined to bluff in the specific scenario 3bpf+cbet flop+chk low pairup turn, since it just looks like you shouldnt be giving up particularly often. given that, you can barrel these turns with your AJT7cc type stuff and expect to win the pot fairly often. given that youre barreling those hands, and given that youre getting semibluffed rarely given a) turn looks semi safe for our range and b) the semibluffs in his range are usually quite weak and thus require more fold eq for him to show a profit raising a turn bet, i think betting is a better option than chking without much of an idea of how to proceed.

I bet/decide

think its fine to 3b this stack depth, esp if hes going to call your 3b very wide.....I think b/deciding is infinitely better then c/cing.....as played call turn decide river.....btw, if your lost against this player why are you playing him?

I guess to get better (or maybe sheer boredeom?)...he is def one of the toughest players ive ever played HU against in PLO

then rly plz never 3bet this hand vs him unless its on a short-table!

Why are we not betting the turn? Isn't this a std double barrel with air/semi bluffs/value? I bet/decide.

Disagree with everyone saying bet the turn. Think betting puts us in a lot more awkward spots than checking, as it's pretty easy for villain to put us on a simple barrel and bluff-raise or float the turn, but he's still not doing that as often as he bets when we check so it's going to be even tougher to call.

As for whether he'll bluff in this spot, I think the fact that the board's so dry can make hero think villain doesn't have a lot of draws in his range and will likely have at least a queen on the turn meaning that it's not an auto-barrel at all and hero could easily be check/folding. I'd definitely call this turn against the described player. River's going to be a kind of difficult check/reevaluate, you'll have to work off your history with him, but most players will tend to give up once you show you have a legit hand by calling the turn.

I think both bet and c/c are fine.

What is your opinion on CRAI?

Idea is obviously that a lot of villains range has ~30% against our hand and a lot of rivers are bad for us. Besides our hand is face up so this villain will own us on the river. In my opinion we're slightly too deep to consider a CRAI here, but <110 bbs deep I'd prefer a CRAI over a c/c.

I know we're dead when called, but I think it makes it a lot harder to play against you and the pot is already big too. And it's obviously pretty hard for villain to have us beat on this turn already. Besides the river is very akward on any card when he ships.

Very interested in your opinions on this. I've been experimenting on this lately although I'm not sure if it's sound from a strategical point of view.

VS described villain I think betting is better because river will be incredibly tough to play on Q855 with clubs. I think the history isn't much of a factor.

And I do agree that most players will tend to give up on a blank river but if the villain is any kind of a competent player he will feel obligated to bluff clubs 9,T,J,4 and 6,7.

3 betting this hand vs a competent player hu 150bbs deep is a mistake.
Betting 92-112 and folding the turn is a clear play, you will have plenty of hands in your range you are bet calling in this spot making it a pretty bad spot for your opponent to raise with anything but a 5. I also don't see him having too many hands with good enough equity to semi bluff bc they probably would have been raised on the flop, so this gets through very often IMO and you avoid all the guessing games caused by check calling.
You will also fold out hands with some equity that won't peel again bc of the board paired

Check calling:
Defines your hand
allows them to realize all their equity
Bluff you on some easy to rep rivers
Value bet all blanks with a 5
Showdown their weaker hands and gain more information on your ranges and betting patterns

i bet the turn most of the time checking getts you in supe tough spots

Check calling turn seems horrendous here, just bet and assess. I'm bet folding turn and check/folding nearly all river as if he flats turn he simply won't be bluffing rivers. We can still try and extract value from Qxxx and draws on the turn.