Common spot I've seen
1/3 NLHE 9 handed
This is a hand I wasn't in but I watched play out and thought about what would I do in this situation. I've been in it before and it seems very common so wondering how you would handle this?
V - typical loose passive but isn't afraid to put money in the pot. 500$. LJ.
"Hero" - He's a good player but a bit on the nitty side, plays TAG overall. Probably wins at a small rate but I would say he's just too ABC and not very creative. VPIP about 16% (Q9s ATo 55 bottom of range depending on position). Covers. HJ.
---
Couple limps and V opens 15, Hero to 55 with KK, folds back and V calls. HU IP.
Flop 110 - T♥ 8♦ 2♣
V checks, H lays down the wollop with 85, V calls
Turn 280 - A♠
V checks, H checks
River 280 - 5♥
V leads 200... "Hero" tank folds.
----
I see this so often at my game, check back turn to bluff catch river but with the nuts changing OTT...how to mitigate this? I guess we have to have some AK AQ AJ that play it this way?
7 Replies
Villain's line can def be bluffed a lot, but that's moreso when we bet small on the flop.
Here once we bet big he'll have less missed draws or random low pairs that might want to bluff.
Also our hand looks a lot like JJ-KK and I wouldn't expect too many loose passives to try to bluff us off here.
It's probably fairly close imo, but we can still fold. And we don't really need to worry about not having enough calls there. We're not playing vs a good player, we're not going to get exploited.
We can also still have some Ax, and even Tx is a better call that KK there.
I see this so often at my game.
I hope you're not routinely overbetting the flop like this.
The big flop bet is fine. I guess you risk folding 99 here, but with backdoors it might call.
I wouldn't really mind following it up with a small bet on the turn. Like maybe the same sized bet. Having bet the flop large, I wouldn't expect AK or AQ to call much.
We can probably just fold the river vs most Vs at this level. Is he in for 3 bets with79? Does he try to bluff with JJ or JTs or something? Most likely the answer to both is no.
Not much you can do except bet the turn when checked to, but depends on V. Turn is just a bad card for us.
It's a 3! Pot, so he can have a lot of good but worse hands that will call almost any bet here.
You could try to milk something like aj or 66 for one small bet too, but our hand isn't invulnerable. If you want to just always bet small that's ok, but this is an ok spot to size up and target jj,qq or a ten.
I don't understand the river fold. This is a straightforward checkback turn to bluffcatch river hand. River bricked, 70% pot is a common enough river size, snap call IMO.
What Ax can V have given 3! call preflop followed by large flop bet? AQ, A J and weaker Ax probably fold most of the time. So V has AT, maybe some A2? Maybe AK, but that's blocked and is at least sometimes 4 bet pre.
The A is mostly a brick for all practical purposes. Vs range is mostly Tx to call the flop, JJ/QQ sometimes slow playing flop. Maybe a few random bluffs like J9, 56, QJ that floated to try to get cute. I would value bet river as V with JJ, QQ and maybe KT, trying to get paid by Tx that is definitely checking back river. I think sometimes you run into AT, but only two combos of AT suited. The call wins often enough and the turn ck controls the pot size while inducing bluffs/too thin value.
I'd be more worried about the A if H bet $40 on the flop. Then the river might be a fold. AP, call is only option absent a strong read IMO.
