What's up everyone, this is my first strategy question that I have posted on here although I have been reading for quite some time. I am primarily a live $200 NL player out in Las Vegas so most of my questions will be on live play.

This situation came up just a few days ago. My opponent is a young European player who has only sat in for one full orbit so far and hasn't really gotten involved. My initial read on him was that he might have been a tight solid player, although he has that kind of "I'm so cool" European swag about him that I see a lot in Vegas. These guys tend to bluff quite a bit, especially from the country he is from as I've seen it a lot lately in the past few weeks, although I don't have any hands to base him off of.

After he sits in for one full orbit this hand comes up in a full 10-handed game.

Villain UTG+1: $197
Hero BB: $420ish

Pre-flop: K J
UTG+1 raises to $8 ... folded around to BB, Hero calls $6

Flop: K 7 4
Hero checks, Villain bets $10, Hero raises to $30, Villain re-raises to $60, Hero...

I don't know if a CR line was the best line to take versus CC or just leading out ... I will post the results after if wanted

fold preflop?

Normally in a raised pot with at least another caller I would fold this hand in this spot, however this time I thought his raise to $8 seemed kind of weak to me considering that the standard raise was between $10-$12.

Preflop I thought if he did have a big hand like QQ-AA, AK or something like that he would have raised bigger to try and limit the field considering that most of the time a raise to $10-$12 got at least one and sometimes a lot more than one caller.

after call pre, c/c is the only good option on this board vs. the player you describe.

Brian, can you expand on your line of reasoning for recommending cc on the flop?

If this type of a player tends to be a bluff expert, why not let him hang himself on three streets, rather than putting yourself to a difficult decision by check raising? Even if he flat calls the check-raise, you're in an awkward spot, so I really don't see what you were trying to accomplish. With KQ/AK this would be a lot better because we can feel more confident that he calls/raises with a range that we beat, but KJ is too marginal for this line imo.

In hindsight I thought right away that a c/c line would have been better..

Does anyone think that my PF call was ok given my current read of the situation at the time?

I'm 2/2 on agreeing with you today. Keep posting.

Fold when he makes it $60. We have a weak one pair hand, that just got three-bet after we have check raised. We will end up playing for stacks if we call here, which we don't want.

Sure Jax,

This flop is very dry in terms of draws, except for the unlikely 56. This means that our opponents range is very polarized, he has things that beat us, e.g. AA, KK, KQ, 77, 44, and many hands that we beat, like other PPs and air like AQ. Lets assume he wouldn't raise KT UTG.

When we check raise this player with a mediocre hand, we turn our hand into a bluff, since he can easily fold all of the hands we beat, and he is getting extra value out of the hands that beat us. He can also reraise as a bluff and we can never call.

That being said, folding is out of the question since TPGK is definitely ahead of his range, however tight it is.

Leading is not good, but probably ranks second. Villian can raise air, and also safely fold everything we beat.

This leaves C/C as the option with the most +EV on the flop. HOWEVER, this hand will become difficult to play on later streets, requiring reading and tough decisions, and that is why folding preflop is usually the best option of all.

3/3 this again.

Usually donking the turn isn't a bad play even though it's pretty readable if villain doesn't suck and as this guy mentioned, it kind turns our hand into a bluff (although live it wouldn't shock me to see a turn donkbet called by ~JJ). In general if they raise a turn bet they mean business and TP3K is no good.

Thanks for the input .. in the end I folded to his 3-bet with my K face up and he tabled A 9 ... we actually became kind of friends as the night went on and he never entered a pot with me again and even apologized for the bluff

Guys, thanks for the detail, I appreciate the extra insight and follow the reasoning. The more I think about it, the more the c/r on the flop vs. an utg raiser would actually seem to suggest semi-bluff and invite a big re-raise, certainly if villain holds TPGK or AA/QQ and even if villain hit air on the flop. If Hero held something like AA, AK, KQ he would probably lead the flop, and if Hero held QQ or JJ and he might still lead big b/c the villain could have a range that he'd fold to a lead out to a King board from a pre-flop overcaller, such as TP-marginal-kicker or Ax and a missed flop. As I believe another posted noted, it now seems to me the more powerful play if trying to represent big and take the pot down would be to cc the flop and then fire a big barrel on the turn if it comes a blank.

What do you guys think of my line of reasoning above?