The early morning hours are upon is in East Coast slippery blue chip land and the herd is starting to thin. The stuck and steamin' have moved on to sleep off their emotional pain which has left us six handed. We pick up 9 9 a couple off the button and raise. Button three bets and we are the only caller.

Button Read:
Ex-online crusher who has converted to a live game crusher. We'll call him YY. For practical purposes, I consider him to be like playing an exploitative bot that hand reads well. He's the best I've come across at identifying leaks and exploiting those tendencies. Against me he's probably a little value heavy as I tend to err on the side of calling instead of folding in decisions I consider to be close.

The flop comes good for us 8 7 5. We check and call.
FPS Decision Point #1 - My standard against weaker players would be to check raise, however I intentionally decided to delay until the turn on this relatively low board. Bad idea? If so, what range of hands would you check raise in this spot with our positions to stay balanced?

The turn comes a 10. We check and raise.
FPS Decision Point #2 - So we follow through with our plan on this relatively safe card. Good decision or bad decision?

Open to all feedback - thanks for your help guys.

J Lot

I always check raise flop against strong players here. A lot of good players check with that board on the turn and you miss a big bet opportunity and give a free card. If villain always bets turn I like your line.

Against weaker players I like your line.

Vs expert online LAGTAG expert I think it is correct to have portion of delay C/R turn

However, I dont think 99 should be one to do it with based on board texture unless goal is to diversify the delay C/R to include 99 in a small frequency.

My default would be to C/R flop vs expert LAGTAG with online crusher records in past.

One thing I may consider is to chk/call FLOP, Turn, River to reduce potential exploitation in SMALL frequency to create stronger C/R range

AND/OR

To forcibly make it harder for expert LAGTAG to value bet light vs HERO.

Taking that into account, my default would still be to Chk/Raise flop as played.

May also consider 4 betting Preflop in small frequency depending on how wide of hand range Expert LAGTAG is 3 betting short handed game condition.

I think this is fine on all decision points.

What does opponent do with unimproved overs on turn vs. if you raised flip?

+1

If you don't have any reasonably strong value hands to flop x/c oop in 3 bet HU pots, then every time you x/c villains like this will know you are weak and can bet turn w impunity.

This hand is not strong enough to x/r flop b/3b turn with. But it is strong enough to x/c flop x/r turn.

Probably call and fold turn unimproved, maybe raise turned draws like QJ (def raise turned top pair).

Like this hand by OP is almost like a HUHU hand in a way in which you should have multiple option all as potential option depending on how much you are trying to impact villain"s plays LATER in a similar spot.

I haven't played HUHU in awhile but both your posts reminded me why HUHU is so profitable

If you had 9T would you delay semibluff here?

If the board had a flush draw would you still delay 99's?

X/r flop and b/c turn. I play with him all the time at Parx and the x/c, x/r turn line in spew. We are getting value against exactly A9, AJ and all sets and overpairs he has are 3betting your face OTT.

Vs an expert, no I would not delay semi-bluff T9.

Vs an expert, no I would not delay 99's even if the board had a flush draw.

I play bad though and am a TAG fish whose bad at having a correct distribution of delay c/r range like certain experts who probably are familiar and have utilized the GTO calculators often enough to know.

Hi LHUCKS:

I think this is correct, but let me add a little more to it. If you’re sure that your opponent will almost always bet the turn, then by using a flop strategy of never check raising, but always calling or folding, you stay balanced and have successfully hidden valueable information from your opponent.

Best wishes,
Mason

For whatever reason I probably xr flop 80% and xr most turns 20% in this spot. Also a lot of players who showdown AK/AQ type hands here on certain board run outs from flop xr will often think and fold to turn check raises. By checking raising flop you run the risk of getting rivered but can win $280 overall, while check raising turn you often win $120 immediately. Winning $280 and allowing your opponent to see a river is > winning $120 immediately but winning $200 and having your opponent correctly fold rivers if he thinks you underbluff in this spot is close to winning the $120 immediately.