Hey guys,

Say were always up against unknowns, cos I have the hardest time vs them because of a lack of info.

Q1: We open frm CO with 98ss, and get called from BTN.
Flop comes: 952r (no spade). It seems obvious were betting for value first then protection, thats fine. Now lets say the turn is a J, we still have value, but are we barrelling this? Is it ok to give free cards to AX or KX?

Q2: Say we open with 87ss from the same positions, and flop comes J82r (no spade), our hand still have value, but if we X were giving free odds for any 2 over to hit. How would you play this spot?

Q1: check calling, if he checks behind and a A or K hits and he bets and you think a good part of his range is Ax, which will probably be you just fold, or you could make a smallish turn bet.

Q2:i think its stake dependent (population reads), i play at 2nl poker stars and i usually bet it for value and protection. first of all because people are just floatlicious and because they aren't agressive overall. But i get confused a lot of times in this situations too.

What's the point on Xing h1? If were so afraid of overs? Isn't protection more important in this spot.

Read baluga whale easy game, betting for protection alone isn't a reason for betting, but like i said, you can make a smallish bet, like half pot or less, but you are going to value cut yourself sometimes, and if you are playing against people who pay attention this can be exploited if not balanced

Well in H1 we are not only betting for protection, we have top pair so we can bet for value as well and get some juice from Ax, smaller pairs and other overs that will happily float rather than just give them a free card to realize their equity.

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Do you really think that Ax and pocket pair below 9 will call 2 streets, you must be playing in a site of calling stations

Yes thats why I said 'were betting for value first then protection'

In general checkin is probably better but in the micros vs a fish (calling station) I think you can get value yes. And yes, I play at the micros ;P

You said that on the flop, which i agree, then you asked about the turn, and sure with reads that he is a fish, calling station etc you can bet for value, but readless i dont think there is much value

H1: check-call turn, as we aren't getting called by worse often enough but will make money when BTN bets with their unimproved floats.

H2: bet flop because although we could be behind currently, it's by no means assured and betting will fold out some hands that have equity but aren't strong enough to call a cbet. We also can't check call because we will be left guessing on the turn.

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They aren't going to call two streets.

They're going to call/raise/fold the flop.

The board will change on the turn and we may no longer have 75% equity against our opponent's range.

So I think we value bet this flop and reevaluate the turn.

I don't like giving a free card here.


I get that you can be raised off of the hand and I'd adjust if that started to happen.

Maybe I'm missing something. I only play at NL10 so I'm thinking in those terms.

what are you talking about? H1 or H2, i think you missunderstood. we are talking about a J turn, c betting flop is standard

h1.

But if you're not recommending to check the flop mybad.

I was really trying to figure out the logic behind that....lol.

Sorry.

Bet sizing can help here.

I would generally c-bet flop #1 fairly wide with a third pot size bet. The smaller bet means people can call wider and you can bluff cheaper. Most turns you won't feel good about with 98s, so its good to keep the pot small, but I think you lose value when you don't bet the flop.

When thinking about the turn, what hands can you two barrel for value?

I would say 22, 55, 99, JJ, QQ+, AJ, J9 for 51 combos.

(J5,J2 maybe if you raise wide from cutoff c-bet with any pair)

IMO betting 98s on the turn is too thin of value. You're probably gonna get a lot of folds, but when you get called its predominately going to be by Jx hands.

So is it worth turning 98s into a bluff? I think the only better hands you might get to fold are T9, Q9, K9, A9 and TT (38 combos), and that's not always a given at the micros. Plus I am betting the flop pretty wide, so I have plenty of other combos with absolutely no showdown value that I'd prefer to bluff with over 98s. I'd check the turn.

So to protect this hand you should think about how aggressive your opponent is. If villain is known to attack weakness when in position, you can check some of the value hands I listed above so there is less value in attacking that range.

H1 c/c turn.

H2 I'd like to hear different opinions. As std I'm c/c