Bloofed thinking TAG with 88

PRE - I'd prefer to 3B to get this HU and IP vs the EP fish.

Flatting just invites players behind us to come along, or squeeze, leaving us to wonder what to do with a big chunk of our range. We're not quite deep enough to set-mine for another $40, and I'm not sure we want to play 88 as a bluff catcher. We should probably fold to this 3B from an uncreative TAG.

Also - double-flatting pre really condenses our range. If V is an aware player, he should realize we never have top or bottom of range here, and are going to have a lot of middling pairs or suited Broadway combos, and not a whole lot of anything else.

But, if we want to get stubborn and call, alright, let's see three...

FLOP - The best thing about this flop is we almost flopped bottom boat. Maybe if we're lucky, V will worry that we have 99, and we can take advantage of that.

I'm hoping that's what you were thinking when you check-called. We're planning to rep 99 at some point? Does V think we're showing up with J9? What else can we rep that wants to continue? Maybe KQdd, or QTdd, if we're really sloppy pre?

TURN - Yeah, check. That's what we'd do with J9 and 99. We wouldn't bet...anything here. Yeah, no. We don't have anything that wants to donk the turn.

RIVER - Okay, all kidding aside, if you're trying to rep 99 or J9 here, or the nut flush, wouldn't you bet larger?

This line from V - 3B pre, c-bet flop, and check-back turn - that's a line opponents take when they like their hand enough but not too much, and want to pot control. He's checking back the turn so he can call a small bet on the river. He's not folding river to $150 if he's got KK or QQ, especially not if he has a diamond in his hand. He may not fold TT for that price.

If you want him to fold, and you're only showing an aggressive action once throughout the entire hand, the only size you can take here is all-in. Otherwise, just check-fold.

ETA - before you jam here, we want to be sure of our read on V, and know that he's going to over-fold when we go check-call, check, donk jam. It would be more credible if we check-called the turn, but we can't check-call when he just checks back. It helps if he thinks we're not capable of bluffing in spots like this, so he can make a disrespectful fold.

Like, he has to think we're the right kind of bad. If we're only sort of bad, he might make an entitlement-tilt call, and we'll have to call an ambulance when he breaks his arm patting himself on the back, claiming he knew we were bluffing.

He has to think we're too sticky pre, so we can show up here with every combo of 99, J9, KQdd, KTdd, and QTdd, but we'll never jam without a fairly nutted hand.

I've only read as far as preflop at the moment (I've never said "grunch" in my life and won't start now...ah feck). This fish is important. What sort of fish? The splashy spewy kind that you want to get heads up with, or the lame passive kind who only opens from EP with a big hand and won't fold to a 3bet? If the latter (which is my guess as you didn't 3bet yourself from MP), and if HJ knows this, then I'd strongly consider just folding to the 3bet, particularly 5x. Anyhow, as you were, time to read the rest of the hand.

Have now read the rest. I broadly agree with social, you have an awful lot of strong hands here, I'd go larger on the river, the sort of size you'd want to put AK to the rest with.

Flop decision is interesting, I don't mind the check-call on a board that favours you and with some remote backdoor possibilities. A check-raise might work as well, or are you check-raising too much if you throw this hand in there?

I would love it if HJ bluff raised the river with KK now.

When a not overly creative TAG 3 bets pre, what range do you put him on? And do you really want to play against that range oop?

As played, what hands do you beat after the turn? Answer - none. And how many of those hands will fold to a 70% pot river bet? Answer - none should but when dealing with humans you never know.

he has AK a lot here. if you want to bluff, CR shove the river, but only do it when you are deeper than this. im talking like a river CR bluff of $500-600 or more.

when tags take this line its always some medium strength hand they know is not getting called by worse if they bet the turn, so their range is capped. the best play OTR vs a capped range is to CR bluff huge because you get their river "thin VB" money + huge FE. it takes a lot of guts to do this though.

this play works better if you have a nit image too. if you he thinks youre nuts i would probably just give up.

I don't think we have enough SD value to CR bluff the river

Result:

Totally agree. He's going to check back a lot of hands we lose to.

Nice hand. Well played.