The BB has been pretty tight and straightforward so far but small sample size. We had one bvb hand earlier and it went like this....I open SB and he calls. I bet J33 and he folds. On to the hand.

I open A8o in the SB and the BB calls.

Js3c2h...I bet, he calls.

Js3c2h3d....How should we proceed?

I don't know how light he may 3 bet pre flop here.

I don't know how he would play made hands on the flop.

I don't know if he can be induced into a bluff

I don't know how aggressively he might play a draw.

He clearly folded something on the J33 hand on a peel friendly board.

If I had AK, AQ or AT I would just bet. I'm thinking A8 might play better as a check/call on the turn. Would folding a 4,5 or 6 river make sense and call the rest?

This is a tough one for me given how you really don't know anything about villain. Theorists will have a better reply. I'll just say that because he folded once to a peel friendly board doesn't mean he's calling a different range. Alot of recs will peel or not peel depending on mood.

With the absence of other observed hands, I'd decide based on whatever criteria you're good with whether or not you have enough showdown value to try and showdown. If you think you do, I'd b/f turn and c/f river ui. We don't have enough info to check since we don't know what his betting the turn means. It could be automatic because you checked, or it could mean he has something he wants to showdown.

This is coming for a purely e/e perspective, which isnt worth much with nothing to go on. This type of spot is a good reminder of why I should spend more time with solvers.

I'll add as an addendum that this is why I observe hands I'm not part of. As a primarily e/e player, even seeing how villain plays a few orbits will the basis of how I play him in a hand like this. Without really studying solvers or having a decent understanding of what would be optimal here in a vacuum, observed tendencies are really all I have. I know this addendum is kinda silly because almost nobody rellies on my approach these days.

Im no expert in bvb play, but if you are ever to have a limping range, I love to put shitty AX in it.

It’s opponent dependent here. If he never bluff raises the turn, I think this is a fairly easy bet. You should me miles ahead of his call call range here and you don’t want to give a free card.

Why would you consider J33 to be a "peel friendly board"?

Any Broadways can peel. Many Kx, Qxs,, Any Ax of course. Also some random air with bdfr possibilities can peel with hope of taking it any of some runouts. You wouldn't peel that board BVB?

Limping in might be the answer with a hand like this against this opponent.

I saw a hand on an instructional video where the SB opened K6o and the BB called. He bet a 925r and the BB called. The turn was a T and he check/folded. I wondered what was the point of betting this flop knowing the BB was at least gonna call. I also thought that maybe limping in with this hand made more sense. It's not gonna hit many boards post flop. Why not keep the pot small and choose when to proceed? Also, would it be horrific to just fold this hand pre against an aggressive good player?

because it is cbet at a high percentage so oop pfr has more garbage in their range that will check fold turn unimproved. floating a board like this getting 5:1 makes a lot of sense to me.

id check/call turn/river until you bet a better feel for his play

if he checks turn id vb river

also i think it makes sense to open limp A9o and worse from sb unless bb overfolds.

Let's start on this great question by looking at each street.

Flop:
How does a board of J32r intersect with each player's ranges? Well, the BB should have a lot more 2's and 3's in their preflop calling range, so on balance, it's not a particularly good flop for us in the SB. Indeed, my iron friend checks this flop more than half the time. At the next level down in our thinking, our particular hand A8o is a good hand in our range, so a bet seems ok. The computer will mix this between checks and bets on the flop.

Turn:
The 3d turn doesn't change too much. The BB should have some middling 3's here, having raised the flop with his strong (value) and weak 3's (protection). Betting or check calling are both fine here as well. My emotionless friend again mixes it up here. When we bet we should be called by weaker aces, K high's and even some Q highs - in theory anyway.

River:
If we've decided to bet the turn and the opponent called, the worst cards for our range are a K or Q. This makes sense as our opponent should have called with these on the turn. On these cards we should check and give up on our worst aces. A8o is a $0 EV bluff catcher here with A6o being a clear fold. Rivers like 4, 5, or 6 are a clear check call. After we check, our opponent should bet most of those float Queens as a bluff here. It's interesting that the computer calls the turn with a hand like Q7o so that it has a natural bluff on these lower rivers. A queen high turn call seems crazy, but this is part of the point.

If we've decided to check and our opponent bet the turn, we check full range on just about every river card. Ironically, a K is now the best card for our range as we should have checked called the turn with our K / Q high hands this time, whereas our opponent should have checked back the turn with these cards. On a 4, 5, or 6 we're back in $0 EV bluff catching land - either calling or folding is theoretically approved, so go with your gut. Just try not to do the same thing every time.

If we've decided to check the turn and our opponent checks back, now our A high is a value hand on the river. We're betting rivers like 4, 5, or 6 for value. On a K or Q both bet / folding and check / calling are good lines here with our A8o. If we bet we are at the bottom of our value range, so if our opponent raises we should give up. If we checked, we are at the top of our value range so should call.

I've noticed a lot of hands posted where we've got a weaker ace on a board that has missed us. Perhaps this indicates it's a spot in our play that we are uncomfortable with (weak value). I also struggle with this as it can be unclear how to proceed when we miss. When to give up? When to value bet? When to bluff catch?

This first thing to think about when the dealer puts the cards up on the flop/turn/river is how does this card interact with my range and my opponent's range? This should consider actions on the previous streets of course. If you're able to simply say, this flop/turn/river is good for my range and bad for my opponent's, lean on the side of betting your weak value. If it's a bad card for your range and good for your opponent's, lean on the side of checking. If we are at the bottom of our value range, giving up is always a reasonable option.

J Lot

Is that with a non limping range ?
100% range is an open raise in SB ?

Hey MC, Yes on both counts.

Thanks J Lot. I really appreciate you taking the time to go through this. It's very informative.

My pleasure brother.