1-2: Would a triple barrel have worked?
I’ve been playing live 1/2 with a very loose Indian whale. Here are two hands I played against him:
⸻
Hand 1
Blinds: 1/2, $525 effective.
He opens $15 UTG (he opens super wide), UTG1 calls, I make it $65 UTG2 with AA. Only he calls.
Flop ($145): AK6 rainbow
He checks, I bet $40, he calls.
Turn ($225): 5x
He checks, I bet $100, he calls.
River ($425): 2x
He checks, I bet $175, he folds.
⸻
Hand 2
He straddles $10 UTG, I raise MP to $25 with A3ss, only he calls.
Flop ($50): 7s4c2s
He checks, I bet $30, he calls.
Turn ($110): Qd
He checks, I bet $80, he calls.
River ($270): 9d
He checks, I check back.
He shows 52o (bottom pair of twos) and wins.
⸻
My read: He’s crazy loose preflop, calls super wide, and seems willing to call down light on flop & turn with any piece — but might fold river depending on board/runout.
My question:
Would a triple barrel bluff on the river in Hand 2 have gotten him to fold bottom pair, given I have a tight image? Or would it be lighting money on fire vs a guy this sticky? Also, what adjustments should I make overall?
Also - how did I play both hands? I would’ve obv sized bigger in Hand 1 if I knew he’s this stationy.
⸻
Thanks in advance for any insights!
8 Replies
Think it's fine for both hands, though I've no idea what he was drawing to in H1. And I might've opened to 35 vs 25, but w/e. Given H2, V had to be drawing in order to fold to b40 on river, right? I mean, a K calls there doesn't it? Though I guess we don't know they wouldn't have folded to b40 again in H2.
Seems like the kind of V that will cling to any piece like Kate Winslet did to that door. Even when you've a ton of Qx that could be value betting huge, V doesn't care. Rereading, I probably do bet like 130-150 on river. Then berate myself for trying to bluff flypaper with Ace-high.
Think you've got it. Size up when you have it, V is fairly elastic to sizing if they have any piece, and if you're going to bluff/semi-bluff, realize you'll need to triple, and it still may not get through. There are worse villains to play.
One piece of information we're missing is what does he do when he hits? Does he lead out or try to trap? In Hand 2 I think you need to commit to either line OTF. We either take this for 3 streets IP bet bet bet or we slow down and try to hit our mega draw (bet flop (I go a little bigger like full pot), check back turn). Once you barrel turn I think river is a mandatory bet.
Hand 1 wp
Hand 2 pre and flop are good. On the turn I would bet 30. Never bluff a calling station, and a whale sees no bet-sizing tells.
against a whale you need to be at least potting flop and turn with your monster hands like hand 1. and then not bluffing them like on the turn in hand 2.
I was just commenting in another thread, about how so many posters here claim to have a tight image. I'm not sure if you do or you don't, but either way, I'm not sure how much it matters or even if it matters facing a low-stakes rec-fish.
As for the hands - if your read is that he hates folding, the adjustment is to bluff less and size up with value.
In hand 1, if you 3B to $90 pre, then went 1/3 to 1/2 pot on flop, you probably could have gotten stacks in by the river.
In hand 2, why raise pre when he hates folding? He's certainly not folding his $10 straddle to a dinky 2.5x open. Low suited aces are good hands to play as flat calls when we can cooler opponents by flush-over-flushing them, or just make a wheel with them.
If you want to take this pot down, you need to use bet sizing that leaves you a big, scary over-bet going to the river, and then follow through by making some sort of bet when his range is super-wide and fairly weak.
I'd just call pre, use 1/2 pot sizing on the flop, 1/2 pot on turn, and if he just goes check-call, check-call, then we can decide how big we need to bet to make him fold on the river, based on what part of his range we're trying to make him fold.
Like, I wouldn't necessarily go all-in here. We don't have to. He's probably not folding Qx, and maybe not even 9x. He's definitely not folding 2P+. But if he just flopped some pair that's been downgraded twice, he should fold to almost any size bet.
My preferred line here would be flat the $10 pre, bet $10 on the flop, bet 1/2 pot on the turn, and then bet like 2/3 pot on the river.
I was just commenting in another thread, about how so many posters here claim to have a tight image. I'm not sure if you do or you don't, but either way, I'm not sure how much it matters or even if it matters facing a low-stakes rec-fish.As for the hands - if your read is that he hates folding, the adjustment is to bluff less and size up with value. In hand 1, if you 3B to $90
I honestly hate open limping pre but I’m more likely to get squeezed pre then.
Generally against this guy makes hands, get paid. Wouldn’t bluff him. Would value bet light.
Brother, I get it. I hate open limping, too, at least under normal circumstances. If this was just straight 1/2 and action folded to you in MP, I could get on board with playing our entire range as raise-or-fold.
But this situation is different. He's straddled UTG for $10. That changes things a lot in a 1/2 game. I wouldn't worry so much about getting squeezed, or at least, I wouldn't worry too much about opponents at 1/2 squeezing light. I'd be more concerned that we're bloating the pot with a marginal hand facing a guy who is going to defend his straddle with any two cards.
Table reads come into play. If there are 2 or 3 players left to act who you think are capable of squeezing light over a $10 straddle if you open limp, then I'd go back to playing raise or fold. But in most low-stakes games, if the effective stacks are $100-$400, very few opponents are going to be popping it to $50 with BS hands that don't have A3s crushed.
And if you think they are capable, all the more reason to play your range as raise-or-fold, but then which way we go depends on the stack depths. I want opponents to have $600 or more behind before I start raising from MP with A3s, and if they do, I'm not raising to $25 over a $10 straddle, I'm making it at least $30, maybe more, so it will be more likely we'll have position post flop.
If the average stack of the opponents who are likely to 3B is $300 or less, we can pitch A3s from MP and not worry we're being too nitty. I don't want to raise to $25 or $30, get 3B to $100 by someone who only has $300 to start, and have to decide if I want to take A3s to the flop with a 1 SPR. We have to fold. so flatting the $10 is better than raising, unless we're starting pretty deep.
To play devil's advocate - what was your plan if someone 3B here? Call? Fold? If you just limped for $10, and someone popped it to $50, and he decided to defend his $10 straddle, that's not the worst scenario in the world. You could fold and only lose $10, or call, getting almost 3 to 1 with a hand that has some cooler potential, and probably decent enough implied odds to see a flop. If you call a $50 raise and go three ways, starting $300 eff, the SPR is a little more manageable.
Say we go to the flop and check to the PFR. We get to see what he does, and how V in UTG responds, before action comes back to us. We've got decent relative position post-flop. If the flop is ace-high, and action checks through, we should have the best hand a lot, and can start betting for value on the turn.
Bottom line - I think you're worried about the wrong things here.
