1-3 NL KdTd with two pair for hero on turn and flush on river

Without stack sizes or even reads, how are any of us supposed to know how Villain's range is constructed?

good point. Forgot to add details. Went back and added them 😀

It would help to know V's position, at least. In the absence of any reads, even a demographic description might help a bit.

PRE - raising KTs seems fine. I'd probably open to $15 rather than $12, depending on the table dynamics, but $12 is probably fine.

FLOP - I'd probably c-bet 1/2 pot, just $12, not $20. That size is going to narrow his continuing range too much, funneling him into stronger value hands and draws to the nuts.

TURN - With top 2P on a fairly connected board, after V calls a large flop c-bet, I'd over-bet here. Your turn bet is too small.

RIVER - Just fold. It's very unlikely V is bluffing or betting worse for value here. He probably has a flush, but could conceivably have some straights, or occasionally just better 2P.

No, if he's remotely competent, he's not doing this with QT.

Added positions and demographic info based on memory. Again, appreciate your feedback and will certainly have more info going forward.

FLOP - makes sense to c-bet smaller to keep a wider range in the pot. I've made note of this as it's a common mistake you've pointed out in my gameplay.

@docvail - Overall, I feel like I'm okay preflop with my hand selection but really would like to learn post-flop play since you pointed out I have a lot of places where I feel lost on what to do with different hand types on various board textures. Please continue having patience as you have been and I'll improve with time as any new student of the game. I'm based out of CA so not sure if I can play online to get more reps in... Appreciate any recommendations you have to improve faster. I'm currently working through "Poker Workbook: Math & Preflop" as well as "The Post flop Poker Workbook" by SplitSuit. Any other recommendations you have for different content to get better at flop and betting scenarios would be great (videos, books, training websites, coaching, etc.)!

It's all good. We're all here to learn, and I ain't mad atcha. Just try to remember that getting advice from this forum is somewhat garbage-in / garbage-out, in that it helps to have good info in the first post.

Personal admission - I had a lot of problems with my post-flop play, for years, even up until a year or two ago. In particular, I had a big problem with my bet sizing. I learned a ton watching videos from Crush Live Poker, and Doug Polk, and then really started to solidify what I was doing watching the Hungry Horse Poker videos.

It's key to remember that poker is a game of incomplete information, so we need to pay close attention to what our opponents are doing, and be mindful about what we're doing, and why. Aside from paying attention to our opponent's mannerisms at the table, the biggest source of info we'll have is their actions when they're involved in a pot.

These are VERY rough guidelines, but may help you start to develop a basic framework that use logic to connect actions in such a way that it helps us hand-read (or perhaps more accurately described, "range-read") our opponents:

PRE - aside from being deliberate in our hand selection, we should use our bet/raise sizes to help rule out certain hands from our V's range. For instance, if V flat calls our EP open from LP in a loose-splashy game, that may not mean much, but if V seems tight, and he calls a 3B, that tells us a lot.

FLOP - checking our entire range from OOP as a default setting is rarely going to be a huge mistake (albeit, there are exceptions). When IP, we can use small bet sizes to cap our opponents, who are likely to want to raise with their strong hands, for value and protection. When we use larger sizes, they're less capped, and are going to need to have stronger hands to continue to the turn.

For instance, on a wet and dynamic board, if they flat call, they more than likely have a weak value hand or a draw when they call a small bet, but a strong hand or a very good draw if they raise, or call a big bet.

TURN - if we did our job well on the flop, we should have some idea of what sort of hand they have. Now we can size up when they're capped and the turn is a disconnected brick, or size down when the turn is a nut-changing card, to re-cap them. Here again, they're going to want to raise their strong hands on nut-changing cards, but will continue with their weaker value and draws when we bet small, or bet large on brick turns.

RIVER - on prior streets, we should be playing more balanced, taking the same lines with our bluffs and our value, but on the river, we can split our range to target specific parts of V's range. So depending on what V's range is, we can size up or down, depending on if we want calls or folds.

For instance, if V gets to the river with a lot of weak value and bricked draws, we can size down for value (to get called), or size up with our bluffs (to get folds). If V gets to the river with some really strong hands, we can size up for value (to target their strong hands to call), or size down with our bluffs (to target the weaker parts of their range to fold).

Notice that in all of that, the emphasis is on what our opponents have much more than our actual hand. This is because we're playing our range the same way on early streets, according to the board texture, using our actions to define our opponent's range, so that on the river, we can decide what our actual hand wants to do against that range.

Hope that all makes sense.

So, going back to my earlier post:

PRE - raising KTs seems fine. I'd probably open to $15 rather than $12, depending on the table dynamics, but $12 is probably fine.

I like raising to $15 at 1/3, because of the rake, and because our opponents are generally going to be fairly inelastic pre-flop. They either like their hand enough to call and see a flop, or they don't, and the difference between $12 and $15 doesn't mean much.

FLOP - I'd probably c-bet 1/2 pot, just $12, not $20. That size is going to narrow his continuing range too much, funneling him into stronger value hands and draws to the nuts.

I'd bet 1/2 pot as a default in SRP's when we're HU and IP. 1/3 as a default in 3BP or multi-way pots. Less than 1/3 in 4BP's, 3BP's that are multi-way, on monotone, trips, or paired boards that favor our opponents range. The goal is to induce V to tip his hand strength by raising with his strong hands and calling with his weak hands.

TURN - With top 2P on a fairly connected board, after V calls a large flop c-bet, I'd over-bet here. Your turn bet is too small.

When we bet big on the flop, and V calls, he has a hand he likes. Since we improved, it's time to drop the hammer and bet big, to target V's inelastic holdings. We've significantly narrowed his range on the flop with our big c-bet, making it more likely he has a pretty strong hand we can target for value with a big turn barrel.

RIVER - Just fold. It's very unlikely V is bluffing or betting worse for value here. He probably has a flush, but could conceivably have some straights, or occasionally just better 2P.

When we bet big on the flop, but small on the turn, we allow V to get to the river with a lot of hands that we were beating on the turn, but that we're not beating now (flushes, straights, or just better 2P).

Thanks for the YouTube channels as well as the framework to start thinking of poker in terms of opponents' ranges based on how they react to our bet sizes. Here is my summary of key next steps I'm going to apply in my next session. Please let me know if I've interpreted your framework and adjust my gameplay correctly:

1. Preflop: Raise to $15+ preflop if you get more than 2 callers
2. Flop:
-C-bet 1/3 to 1/2 pot on flop to cap our opponents' ranges and let wider set of hands continue while forcing stronger hands to re-raise, which I can 3B with my stronger range
-Check flop OOP to see what happens
3. Turn:
-size up if turn is brick and opponents range in capped
-size down if it is nut changing card to recap them
4. River:
- villain gets to river with weak hands (small pairs and bricked draws) -> size up to get them to fold if you missed, size down to get them to call if you want value
- villain gets to the river with strong hands (2P, sets, straight) -> bet big to get value if you have stronger hand, size down if you have bluff to get weaker part of their range to fold

There is so much good info in what you just shared I feel like I can take the next couple of months at least implementing it in my game to see how it changes my gameplay and winrate. It's suuuuper interesting that my hand doesn't even come into play until maybe the river or the opponent starts to display strength. I pretty much take the same line till the river, which means they have no clue. I feel like I've been betting big and playing my hands very face up. Your feedback is gold!