Passive Asian guy who has not done much for the last two hours is the villian. He is literally reading the "Korean Times" or something like that and doesn't seem to be watching the game. He's scooped a few pots by betting the hell out of TPTK... and one time I saw him get out of line heads up with a draw.

20-40 Commerce game. KK UTG... I raise.

He 3-bets on the button, blinds clear out. I decide to get fancy and just call. Heads up to the flop.

Flop A 6 4 Rainbow.

I bet, he calls.

Turn 2 still rainbow.

I check, he bets, I call

River 7

I check, he bets, I call.

Did I bleed money here and/or play like a total biatch on the turn?

I couldn't imagine he had AK or AQ as he would have raised the flop...

I'd 4-bet preflop about 100% of the time. I think you'd have a clearer picture of where you're at if you had. What's the cap at Commerce?

I like it. And then you adjust next time you play a hand against him depending on what he shows you on the river.

Multiway it is a 4 bet cap but when HU you can go to the felt.

This line is fine. I don't like put in a raise on the turn or the river b/c he might very well fold QQ or JJ.

Someone please tell me why you all don't think the flop donk bet isn't awful. If I didn't 4 bet preflop I'd more or less check the flop in the dark.

-DeathDonkey

Yeah, just calling and then donking on an A high flop seems like it can only cause us to lose the most to a better hand and get the least from a worse one.

However, I could see an argument for donking on a low board, hoping to bet-3-bet against a smaller PP.

Meh. Once the Ace hits we are in a WA/WB situation. We ar elosing to Ak-Aj or whatever he may 3 bet. We are beating QQ-1010 etc. The flop donk lets us off cheap if he has an ace because he is likely to raise. No?

I don't like the flop donk as he may easily raise a worse hand and get us to fold or may just give up his PP. Although I think check calling 3 streets would be spew as most people don't value bet QQ on the river given the action. I like the turn and river as played though.

Against an aggressive player I think I would have check called the flop and then re-evaluated.... against this guy I felt like he would raise any ace on that flop and I could easily get away from my two outer.

However, once he only calls on the flop... I'm pretty committed to seeing the river.

I cannot bring myself to check dark... I feel like it's such a "TV" move. That being said... maybe I just understand the value in the dark check????

check/raise the river.

Here is the funny thing... you would have been totally correct...

Except, he took the betting lead and accidently rivered a set of 7's (which was kind of my goal)

I'm pretty excited that by not capping preflop... I got what I believe is an extra couple bets out of him post flop which I don't believe I would have gotten had I capped it.

After thinking more about this hand, I think that if we want to be consistent with our preflop and flop action, we should c/r the turn.

Well, a passive player really shouldn't be 3-betting an UTG raise with AJ or AQ. If we put his range on TT-AA, and AK, then we are about a 2:1 favorite to have him crushed (based on combinations). So, I'm more worried about not letting a PP off the hook cheaply than I am about saving bets versus an A.

I'm also not convinced that he will raise the flop with AK every time. On a board this dry, even a straightforward player may wait to raise the turn to try and get more value heads-up. If he does somehow have AJ or AQ here, he may just call down fearing AK.

Well I rarely actually check in the dark, its just that I pretend to care what's on the flop and then check 100% of the time. My reasoning is part of the value in your deception by just calling the 3 bet preflop is to get him to overplay his hand after the flop - an easy way to start doing this is to let him bet every flop which he will do probably 99% of the time if you check after being the preflop 3 bettor. If you 4 bet preflop and announce huge strength and he just whiffs on the flop and folds, you got him to put 4 SB's in. If you call the 3 bet and dark check and he bets every flop, he's still put in 4 SB's and your options haven't really changed. Seems to me you are giving up a guaranteed SB on the flop in the hopes of making your life easier by finding out "where he's at" on the ace high flop. It may make your life easier but I submit a tougher life in this hand will be more profitable

Since you believe he'd raise an ace on the flop I agree with Pokerbob that you should put in a raise somewhere but realize how easily exploitable it is for an otherwise not-great opponent to raise you on the flop here (perhaps thinking "he'd never donk an ace here") and get you to fold a winner.

-DeathDonkey