KQo, heads-up, Q-high flop, OOP

Why are you checking the flop?

Any reads? Seems ok if villain is capable of bluffing here and you can range him to include bluffs. Better if he 3bets AQ. But some people just don't bluff and we should just fold.

We have one of the better hands we check call flop and turn with. And this is a board where we don't need to always bet the flop.

I don't understand the flop check? Also don't understand turn? River is ugly. I'm just confused on your thought process unless V is a compulsive bettor when checked to?

Dont like it. Why give up the betting lead? AP I'm leading river for 40-50 and folding to a 100$ raise.

Why? Because we have a somewhat invulnerable hand? My eyes always buldge at the FDFD and think 'pile in now'.

Bet flop. As played - a read would be helpful to determine if calling is worth it on the river. He has a lot of AdXd hands in his range that are sizing to look like a missed draw but actually want value from your Kx

Small bet and check should be similar EV. What's the argument for betting? Villain will check back some hands on the flop that aren't going to call 3 streets anyways, but he can also bet hands that we have beat, putting more money in the pot than he normally would. It should even out. We may be getting the max if v is bluffing the river. Otherwise, maybe we were behind the whole way. Still, maybe he rivered us, in which case we got him to put the max amount in on two streets with a worse hand.

If you not going to check this hand sometimes on the flop, you're not going to have enough strong hands to call turns and rivers. And if you're betting range on this flop, your betting too much and you're going to have a hard time facing flop raises and turn bets with your weak range on the flop.

We should be cbetting less often when out of position, less often on two tone boards. Especially on these disconnected Q low low boards. We can develop polarized check raise strategy with our strongest hands and bluffs, although KQ isn't quite there.

There's no way you can know this without context of the villain tendencies.

As a generality this is just not going to be true.

I had never seen this V before, and I play here 20 hours a week. Noon on a bitterly cold Tuesday in Minnesota (only table running!), older Asian guy with a stack of about $300.

What's up with everyone saying bet flop? Ever look at a sim in this configuration in your life? Lots of checking in this configuration on flops. OP played this perfect. River could go either way

Only criticism I have is if you're going to use a 5bb open size this is probably a fold pre

Your overall range should be checking often yes, but KQ specifically and especially in this format vs most villains playing these games should be bet almost pure.

Why?

I would be doing a lot of betting for the oldest reason in the book - you'll see far more calling mistakes than betting mistakes. People are going to call multiple streets with weak Queens and underpairs far more than they're going to build 3 street bluffs with backdoor equity etc. Don't expect anyone to build a pot for you.

At 1/2 live, absolutely this.

I do like the check given how dry this board is so it's hard for the villain to have a hand. People need to remember this is live 1/2 so ranges, balancing is all out the window. In theory its a good board for you that you should cbet, but exploitatively hard for them to call and people at these limits play very straightforward. The river is the only street to be concerned with - his value range being sets and AQ, and potential bluffs being diamonds. Keep in mind some of those diamonds got there with the ace - I would just fold this at these stakes. Not enough diamond combos combined with the lower frequency of bluffing in a live 1/2 game

This

It's important to know why you decided to check the flop to an unknown and what your thought process was. Are you slow playing him trying to disguise your hand and trap so he bluffs? Or are you afraid he has hands that beat you?

When you go into c/c mode your basically handing him the keys to drive the car which lets your opponent decide and dictate how much more money goes into the pot.

For example in this hand you're hand isn't a monster so I wouldn't wanna c/c pot otf, c/c pot ott then c/c a big river bet. I would rather keep the pot more under control so it coincides with the strength of my hand by betting hp to 3/4 pot instead of c/c'ing whatever he decides to bet (if he even bets anything at all) but tjm.

I am not sure about this. People bluff more than people think, and when checked to, players often bet any pair for protection, thin value, or because they don't know what they are doing.

The reality is if you are going 3 streets with this hand it may be too thin. If you get raised you are going to be bluff catching at best. If you check and villain checks you can still get two streets of value. If villain tripple barrels you are bluff catching, but not as bad as when you get raised. You end up playing a right sized pot whether you check or bet.

If we are in position, we often end up with a 2 street hand also, but being in position and vs a wider BB range we can elect to check a later street. OOP we don't get that luxury.

Yeah hard to say for me I've seen the exact opposite just as often.

A lot of rec villains I've come across just bet pure equity of their hand, but will call bets super wide.

RESULT: He had AhQc.

I think the question of whether I should call the River really hinges on whether he’s ever betting $100 with like Ad5d. If he is, it’s a really bad call.

Yeah, the river call was the worst part of the hand. The rest was ok but I prefer betting the flop in a 100 spread limit game where stacks don't even matter.

If we bet the flop and he called, we can also get reads on him regarding his hand strength. Also if he calls a cbet and a turn bet without thinking twice, we can check the river and if he throws out a psb or nearly one I wouldn't hesitate to even fold vs some players btjm.

If we knew the villain and we already know he would be auto betting the flop with his whole range if we check it then yeah we can check, but against an unknown I'm betting the flop for value. I also disagree that people fold too much on flops. No one folds flops in my games too easily and they call cbets much lighter than they used to 10 years ago so we should be betting for value (I know players who call their whole range otf, then fold to a turn bet or a river over bet if need be).

Older Asian guy usually means river is a snappity snap fold.