10NL 100BB Effective Stacks

Folds to me OTB - I have A9 I open to 2.5xBB

SB folds, BB calls.

5.5BB pot: Flop is T87

BB checks - I bet 3BB (sometimes I check and I probably would against an SB calling range but BB range is much wider so I feel like I can win the pot a decent amount on the flop.

BB calls.

Pot is now 11.5BB - Turn is T

BB check, I check. (Turn doesn't change anything except making ranges more narrow so I opt to check)

River is A

BB checks, I bet 6BB into 11.5BB pot - BB x/r to 30BB - Hero?

If I'm not calling an Ace then what is your calling range?

Check behind on the river. What worse hands are going to call, A7 or A8? I think we can discount JJ-KK because of the action up to this point.

As played, I think the weakest hand I would wish to call here would be a hand like JT or T9 (which I might not have checked back on the turn, because of the redraw if we got raised). Probably QT.

ETA: Come to think of it, because our 9 blocks the straight, our hand might be a good candidate for a 3-bet bluff to fold out checkraise bluffs and bare tens.

+1

I would've also double-barreled on the turn. You have a bunch of Tx, straights and boats that are going to barrel this turn so you should have a decent amount of bluffs as well. I see no reason why A9 shouldn't be apart of your bluffing range.

This is a good draw to check back flop, as a bet doesn't get him to fold much equity. Like we don't gain much when he folds K5s here - A9 is crushing that hand. If we had Q9, that would be a much better bet. Then any time he folds Ax. Kx, we gain a lot. Betting flop isn't terrible, but just something to consider if you want to get better at this game.

As played, bet/fold river is totally standard.

Can we really be said to be crushing a hand that has six live outs to beat us, plus possible backdoor flush outs?

We definitely want a hand like 44 to fold. We have straight outs as well as pair outs to beat them, so it isn't as bad as A9 vs K5, but we would like to put pressure on hands that beat us but that are difficult to play.

K5s still has 22% equity against us so I wouldn't say we have that hand crushed. Getting V to fold that much equity on the flop is still a huge win for us.

As we have to consider our entire range this flop. We have tons of value hands here and usually, we want a ratio of 2 bluffs for every 1 value hand. If we start checking back good bluffing hands like straight draws, we're going to be way too weighted towards value on later streets, and we won't have enough bluffs. A hand like AK makes a lot more sense to check back, since that hand has a lot more showdown value and a lot less equity, and will have a tough time barrelling on a lot of turns.

I'm barrelling the turn. Perfect card IMO as villain will almost expect you to bet if you have hit the flop, this 10 changes nothing. We have a bunch of hands in our range that is strong. We still have outs if called and if raised then safely fold.

As played check behind the river. What do we expect villain to be calling with for value here?

I mean I’m bluffing this Ace almost every time so I’m not going to check it behind when I do have it. That seems unbalanced. I do like the idea of calling since I do block straights.

Also I think the flop is a clear bet since we fold out weaker hands that still have a ton of equity vs. us

Thanks for the responses!

Think river is a fine bet fold , in these positions BB will be expecting us to bet that river at a very high frequency with a lot of bluffs so will be bluff catchin a lot. I expect some 8x to certainly call.

Fwiw from experience river check raises at theses levels are incredibly nutted and not lines people take . Especially on cards what improve our range. So I'm fine with overfolding

I definitely agree with the first part. 8x will certainly Hero call some of the time people love to be Hero’s especially in Button vs BB situations.

Our hand is face up in this situation and I think Villain can profitably bluff us. If we are bluffing we just fold to the x/r and if we have an Ace we probably just fold anyways. That’s why I don’t mind calling with A9/AJ since they both block straights

C-betting is not free of risk. We get called by better hands a lot. They can raise the flop, potentially pushing us out before we realize our equity. It's silly to take this risk when the reward is so low. They might even stab turn with those very low equity hands when we check back, in which case we have an easy call in a tiny pot.

Hands like A9 and 97 are medium strength hands here. They realize their equity well after a check back, and protect our range against random turn aggression. Betting too much of your 9x here leaves your check back range very weak on a 6 or J. Might as well check back the ones that gain the least from betting

I agree that 97 is a medium strength hand here, but A9 is not a medium strength hand, A9 is a high equity draw that has little to no SDV. A9 can't even beat a bluff like AJ. Also if the BB raises we have an easy call with A9 IP, so that's not too big of a worry. We're not c-betting this for value, so I don't know why we would worry about getting called by better hands. As well, our range won't be weak on a 6 or a J because I'm checking back hands like 97s, 98s, T9s, and 99 on this board, so I'll have plenty of straights when I check.

By checking back A9, we also allow V to realize their equity for free. Why would we want to let a hand like QJ or KJ see a free turn card? A hand like AK makes sense as a check back here because that hand has more SDV, needs less protection, and can't barrel effectively on most runouts. A hand like A9, on the other hand, would make a very good triple barrel in this spot.

Lol yeah not sure what that is about