Quote:
Originally Posted by FeelMyrash
So say we had AsKh, with the back door equity is that more of a spot to cbet this particular board? Does having a spade in our hand here change our ch back? I know I cbet way too often it's a leak I'm trying to figure out, it's way too automatic and I'm trying to put together a ch back range that's more logical...thanks for the feedback!
Without looking at a solver I can't tell you exactly how to play the various combos of AK on this board. (I would probably check behind with all of them, because I tend to be more polarized and put my hands into obvious "value bet" or "bluff" buckets, but a solver's strategy is more nuanced/mixed).
Clearly AK with the As has more equity than AK without the backdoor, but ranges are very complex. Sometimes a solver will suggest betting with the backdoor because your hand has "value" vs the range that calls and it will be playable on many turns, and sometimes it will say to bet the combos
without the backdoor for "protection", because you
don't want to see a turn, and more of your EV comes from denying free equity.
Choosing whether to bet or check back partly depends on whether villain will check-raise if you c-bet. i.e. If you bet all combos of AK on this flop and got check-raised, you can continue with AsKx (although you're not loving it), but you'd hate to continue vs a check-raise with a red AK. But bet-folding red AK sucks, because it is considerably ahead of villain's check-raise bluffs.
A heuristic you can use when trying to decide whether to c-bet or not with unpaired hands is to ask "How would I feel if villain check-raised?" and compare it with how you feel about taking/giving a free card. If getting check-raised would make you sad (because you'd definitely have to fold, but there's a decent chance you'd be folding the best hand), and taking/giving a free card is less painful, do the latter.
I don't do a lot of c-betting on this 763tt board UTGvBB, because it's not a great flop for my range, but I'd rather bet-fold hands like KJ or JT than AK. KJ and JT can make villain fold some ace-highs, which is a good result for me (and they are easy to fold if villain raises). AK is crushing the ace highs in villain's check-folding range, and is put in a really horrible spot if villain raises, so it makes much less sense as a bet. If villain was going to check-CALL with ace high, then you could c-bet AK for
value, but I don't think that's the case here. I would check back my weak made hands and the best ace highs (as they have some SDV/equity vs entire range), and bet my lower ranked hands as bluffs. Solvers
might mix in some bets with AK with the As (or even without it), but the overall GTO strategy is way too complex for me to work it out. I think if you're auto-betting all your AK-type hands, you'd be c-betting way more than is theoretically optimally.