NL1/2: Reraise vs LAG on monotone flop as semi-bluff?

NL1/2: Reraise vs LAG on monotone flop as semi-bluff?

[hand_history]
NL1/2 - 9 players, effective stacks ~200

Villain (BB), Hero (BTN)

Pre Flop: Hero has A 6
LJ, CO limp, Hero raises to 10, villain (BB) and CO call, LJ folds

Flop: (pot 33, 3 players, eff. stack~190) J 5 3
Villain and CO check, Hero bets 20, Villain raises 45, CO folds, Hero?
[/hand_history]
Had been playing playing for around 30-45 minutes and seen villain in many hands, often stealing the pot betting and raising - at least once as a bluff. Classify him as LAG but not sure if competent. He's not a maniac, though. He probably sees me as weak tight.

How do you continue here? Is reraising big as semi-bluff an option? I block some flushes and he might fold mediocre hands lacking A . If I go for a passive line chasing a draw against a potential turn bet I won't have much implied odds if I get there.

14 April 2024 at 07:10 PM
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8 Replies



Robots don't even open this hand from CO, for robot sizings. You have two limpers and you pretty much know BB is calling to entice them in.
Just fold pre.

As played you have to raise again, probably better to just 3bet shove flop and pray for a fold at 100bb as making it even 70 gives us like 0.5 SPR on turn.


Yea we should not be playing this hand at all.

Having got here this way, his raise is nonsense meant to slow you down. Probably some weakish top pair. Jam over the top since we dont have enough behind to raise smaller.


As has been said, raising A6o pre is too ambitious. But other than A66tt, we couldn't ask for a much better flop.

I'd probably just check back flop and bet turn if it checks to us again. I wouldn't expect it to check to us twice, but it might happen occasionally. Even if someone bets, they may bet small enough for us to peel one off, praying we make our hand on the river, or that it checks to us again, so we can bluff at it.

At higher stakes or against better competition, and with more stack depth, I'd feel better 3B'ing with the nut flush blocker, but at 1/2, against rec-fish prone to over-playing made hands, I think I'd prefer to just fold flop, rather than jamming and hoping V will fold.

As a general rule, most 1/2 or 1/3 players are not going to check-raise monotone boards as a bluff, and very very few 1/2 or 1/3 players have a check-raise-fold button when they're check-raising for value. I wouldn't expect many top pair hands to fold, if someone was wild enough to check-raise with them.

The problem with betting or jamming flop is that the flop is over-bluffed, especially at lower stakes. The value in betting turn is that it's under-bluffed, especially at lower stakes.


Yeah i dont love preflop, but im probably calling flop jamming any turn. Jam flop is fine though. Ace high might be good too.


I think you have more fold equity against 88 if you shove the flop, maybe even some against JxTs. Calling will often have him betting turn bricks into you and then sigh calling because there's too much in.
Much prefer call with AsQ/AsK where you can hit top pair on the turn.

Also sometimes people can find the fold if a 2 hits the turn and they have 8s7s.


by illiterat k

I think you have more fold equity against 88 if you shove the flop, maybe even some against JxTs. Calling will often have him betting turn bricks into you and then sigh calling because there's too much in.
Much prefer call with AsQ/AsK where you can hit top pair on the turn.

Also sometimes people can find the fold if a 2 hits the turn and they have 8s7s.

Honestly, how often do you think people playing 1/2 or 1/3 are limping in pre, and then check-raising monotone flops as a bluff with hands like 88, one spade? It doesn't seem to be very often.

If someone is creative enough to do it, they may be good enough to fold to a 3B jam. But they may also be crazy enough to YOLO call the jam, or level themselves into calling because they don't think we'd 3B jam with the nuts.

They wouldn't be entirely wrong. At low stakes, a lot of players are going to slow-play the nuts at least as often, if not more often than they'll fast play, when a 3B jam for 4x the last bet (also a 1.5x pot over-bet) is going to mostly get folds, because it looks so nutted.

Likewise, how often is there going to be another flush card, and how often are 1/2 and 1/3 players folding their flopped flushes when that happens? Again, it doesn't seem to happen all that often.

Jamming flop with A6o just seems a little too spewy against the population at 1/2 and 1/3.


I believe that A6o has the worst EV of any hand when they've done broad analyses.

As played, I'm probably checking behind on flop. Now we're raised, I'm probably just shoving, and letting the LAG make the hard decision. Even if he has the made flush, you have some outs. Add in some fold equity, and him doing this with KsX and complete air, and jam looks good.


Thanks guys for the helpful advice.

Preflop: While charts recommend to raise A6o from BTN when first-in, I now see we need to tighten up if there're limpers because it's a marginal hand profitable if there's good fold equity. Which ranges are you using here? Most charts I can find online only consider RFI scenario.

Flop: Which value hands would you shove here or would it be a purely exploitative semi-bluff?

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In play, I called OTF. Villain bet big OTT and I folded. I figured implied odds would be too low if a fourth spade came in OTR hypothetically.

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