PF, this isn't a hand I'm opening 100% of the time. Decided to range check this flop 3 way. It's not terrible for me, but not great. Ott, I feel like there are some hands I will want to raise with, probably any T, and 22+QQ+TT. Balancing this out with KJ and J9s, as well as some low FD.

On the river, this hand does have the advantage of having no showdown value. I would rather villain had a couple of hearts, but I think the 5 and 6 are some of the least likely for villain to have.

In hindsight, I think KJ (no heart) is the best choice to bluff with, even though it has some very mild showdown value, it blocks the J9 straight (and villain could possibly have J9o in his range), as well as KT and JT. However, as J9 has got there, I'm not sure whether that is quite enough bluffs, bearing in mind KJo would be a low frequency open for me UTG.

Are you bluffing river, and if so, for how much? Also, would you play the hand differently before the river?

PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 106.06 BB
SB: 65.81 BB
BB: 106.19 BB
Hero (UTG): 138.56 BB
MP: 63.25 BB
CO: 268.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 6

Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, CO calls 3 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (9.5 BB, 3 players) T 2 Q
BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (9.5 BB, 3 players) T
BB bets 6.81 BB, Hero raises to 19 BB, fold, BB calls 12.19 BB

River: (47.5 BB, 2 players) 8
BB checks, [color=red]Hero ???

i don't see this ever being a raise OTT

AP on turn i think we dont have a monopoly on Tx that our range wants to be doing this.
without thinking about ranges and the like however, theres something inherently bad about starting a bluff with a FD on a paired board.

I agree that we don't have a monopoly on Tx, in general this middle card pairing is not a good turn for us. Pre-flop I think our range is likely the least weighted towards T's. Also I don't understand the decision to check range on flop. Even 3-ways I think UTG on a two-tone HHL board we have lots of hands that want to bet for value and protection. I think 65hh is a nice semi-bluff here (on flop) where we can clearly keep barreling on any heart, or a 3 or 4 where we pick up a gutter. Also 65hh blocks some of BB's continue range on this board, K5hh, 75hh, 64hh etc

With hindsight, I'm not too sure the turn is a great opportunity for a raise. And I do agree that a FD isn't an ideal bluffing candidate on a paired board. Ideally, I'd use counterfeit 2pairs on those.

Basically, I've been experimenting with reducing my CNET frequencies multi way when oop. Effectively, that has meant not cbetting unless the board is extremely favourable (eg AKx). Not sure this experiment will go on too much longer.

I think I decided to go for the raise in part because I agree with your flop assessment that this was a great semi-bluff, so I didn't want to let it go to waste. But, as pointed out by all posters, on the turn it is probably a poor spot to be raising.

I like that you're being aggressive (I'm also having success with aggression in stars microzoom pools) but I think this is misplayed.

OTT, you're raising a weak flush draw on a paired board into 2 people. Maybe CO is a weaker player who flats 22 pre and he could come over the top.

I range check OOP vs IP cold caller in SRPs. So if I'm UTG-CO and MP-BU flats, I range check flop. I compensate by x/ring here at a high freq. This is just a simplification for me, but I know theory checks a lot on many boards here. But I simplify and do it on them all.

I also almost range check multiway, but not entirely, probably like 25% cbet.

This makes absolutely no sense. You just let people realize infinite equity even though you as the PFR should be punishing their lack of nutty hands on a lot of hands. You can sim it if you would like. EV of mix strat OOP is a good amount higher than range check. There are some boards where it's GTO, some boards where it's a good simplification, but it's not a good idea as a rule.

Interesting. Do you have any heuristics as to what boards it is bad on?

Vs specifically BBs overcall range your hand has quite a bit of interaction with his flushes, I mean, he will call suited high cards and suited cards with any connectivity pre. I also think bluff raising turn is weird with this hand for the reasons listed above. Your hand has so little value vs his draws and is pretty reversed

maybe this is a bit bad spot to (semi-)bluff on the turn.

Your decision not to cbet goes nicely with the T on the turn, where you decided to check middling hand on the flop. bb could be claiming the pot with number of different hands, so in that sense raise could work.

in my opinion main problem is with the board. so much going on, that your raise can only pretend to be trips T at this point. or then any of the potential draws, but then again it's pretty obvious so he probably doesn't fold tp and definitely not ten for the raise. for the same reason i don't think you should go for a river bluff here. i also don't think you were called with a draw on the turn or if yes, then something like a pair + draw.

one more problem with the turn semi-bluff was that there is player behind you yet to act, that could have push you out. thinking about it, i think you could probably even fold on the turn and that would be most profitable play in the long run.

Preflop this should be a pure fold. With what % are you opening 65s utg?

On this flop i would be rangebetting. We have range+nutadvantage and many good turn cards in the deck.
Turn is probably just a call as played. The 2nd card pairing is usually rather good for BB defending range.
River i would just give up. Very unlikely to see a lot of folds if villain can call raise ott + we block FD.

Thanks for all the feedback. PF is a 25% open (I only do 25/50/75 for mixed frequencies pre, trying to not overcomplicate things). I think we can agree that it isn't the greatest bluffing hand. I think Ott, I don't mind having some raises, as I'll have some Tx, but it would probably be better with a hand that blocks some Tx, like KJ or J9. If I'm going to include any FD, I feel this is the best one, but it still probably plays best as a fold or call. Otr, as much as I hate checking back hands with no showdown, it's probably best to just give up.

Unfortunately, I didn't. I went for a very misplaced overbet, and lost to 22. It made me feel a little better that I didn't get snap called, and villain would have been in a tough spot if he had a T. Tbh, with the amount of time it took him to call (wasn't so long as to have been a slowroll), I feel like he'd have folded all Qx, and maybe the weakest Tx. Doesn't excuse the poor choice of bluffing hands, as the value range I was repping was basically full houses.

The strategy you described is missing out on a lot of EV. There are so many boards that you have a range advantage on as microstakes players are just flatting too wide in general. Not cbetting Kxx for example ist just criminal.
Against very strong flatting ranges this might change as villains range is so condensed so a larger percentage of their range will be sets & TPs yet they still lack all the overpairs and a large portion of their range is middling PPs

Just to chime in on the whole range checking OOP vs cold caller debate, I believe we're mainly going to want to do that on mid-low flops. It's certainly not something we should do universally across all board textures.

There's a pretty good free video about this topic on Jonathan Little's Youtube channel for anyone who's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irzx...-PokerCoaching