T7s gets spicy

What are you representing on each street?

Fold pre, poker is ez

HH w/ V:

open ThTc UTG, V 3.5x SB, call, flop 8h-4d-2h bets half pot I call, turn 3h x x, river 3d V bets close pot I fold

HH2:

V cold opens 20 LJ, I call QcTc from BTN, 8c-6d-4d x x, Turn Qs V bets 30 into 40 I call, river 5s V bets 25 into 100 I scratch my head and call he has Q5hh

On the river, a flush hits, so are you representing a boat not concerned about the flush? You don't have JJ or 99, so J9/K9/A9?

could be tilted

I hope you pulled this off, because I can’t talk myself into lines like this. I’ve thought about just going off with any two cards, but I always resort to semi-bluffs or fall into bluffs when the board runs my way.

I guess you’re just saying I have a nine, you better get out of the way. But he wasn’t scared when he called your check-raise.

I don’t know what happens here, you do look triple barrel strong, but he might be the one with a nine.

Prob better just to 3b it. I think the barrel off is fine as the board ran out fairly well, but it's also live 1/3 so not sure how the pop plays.

PRE - is whatever.

FLOP - think we should mostly just check-call or check-fold.

I guess we can have some check raises with air. I suppose a TXhh combo makes some sense, blocking him from having T9hh. Think we might be better off doing this with TXdd, also blocking JTdd. Maybe T7/T8 combos are good, with the added equity of the gut shot. I guess it's good to have a BDFD.

The thing about doing this is that I'd think it would fall into the category of check-raise give-ups when we're called and don't improve, and we're just going to check fold on a future street. I don't really like doing this, but it might be okay at some low frequency.

TURN - think we're supposed to give up and check now. If we barrel, I'd think we'd want to size way up, to rep a very strong hand. Half pot isn't going to do it.

Just thinking that whatever he has that calls the flop check raise isn't likely to fold to a half pot turn bet.

RIVER - I don't know what you're doing here. If we want to rep a strong hand, I'd think we'd just jam for 2X pot.

I wouldn't be here to do it, but if I was magically teleported here, I wouldn't think a 60% pot bet is folding enough of his range.

Somewhat expecting the reveal to be V folded some trash hand. But trash would seem to be all we're getting to fold here.

Yea, I'm sorry say this but this line really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

There are just so many better boards to bluff. If bluffing here is good, I think it follows that bluffing is good on, idk, like most of the time with any two cards. Our having a gutshot here is pretty marginal, it's just a gutshot (on a paired board no less). Fold equity matters much more. So again, if bluffing here is +EV, it would have to be +EV on so many other spots, including many where you whiffed the board completely.

And this makes it even worse:

If someone is running good against you, it's generally a worse idea to bluff them.

Also preflop, idk don't want to be negative, but it's a 3.33 BB opening and you have a suited double-gapper. This is just never going to be a +EV call.

okay but let's ignore all that and take for granted that we called and now we've decided to bluff. At least then the sizing... but, ugh, no I don't think the sizing is good, either. You're mainly representing a 9, and if a 9 thinks it's good, it would go much bigger on this Turn with straight draws and flush draws. I'd bet like 40 on the Flop and then make a slight overbet on the Turn (and then give up on the River).

Edit: I guess you're repping QT with the small Turn bet. Which, yea okay I'd probably bet about this size with QT here (if I had raised the Flop, which I'd never do). But I do that because I think that's a size people won't fold to. Would only even consider this sizing as a bluff against really strong players.

Ya pre is bad with live rake. Post flop lines not great

So having spent some time discussing some of your hands I think the best advice anyone can give you is to study bet-sizing and board textures.

I mean this respectfully but it’s quite evident you’re just clicking buttons.

Result:

Villain should have raised the river.

Think maybe give up on the river. Once you get that far, he often either has trips or he had a backdoor flush draw and hit on the river. Plus you might not barrel again when the flush came if you had trips.

flop size too big i think the rest is fine tbh

sizing a little meh everywhere but is whatever

The 3-flush on the river is a bad barrel card, because what is villain calling with? He might have a draw and hit the flush. Plus you might slow down with trips on that card.

I actually think the biggest leak in this hand is not understanding your player type. This guy is basically unknown to me at this point and I shouldn't be trying to bluff unknowns at 1/3... I'm zoomed in on runouts and ranges and need to zoom out again.

I like your posts - people will hate but at least you're thinking outside the box. Can't really win much in poker these days playing ABC, especially as you go up in stakes. Breaking things down - I think the flop x/r is fine, although maybe we should go smaller. The turn barrel is fine - not sure if Jx folds but certainly hands like 88/77/etc fold. The river is the spot I think we give up thinking more about it - his range is now Jx+, AJ just made two pair, he could have some KJ, etc. I do like your thought process though - it's a flop no one improves on so x/r is fine esp with your backdoors.

I think your flop x/r is reasonable, with your specific combo, on this board, when he c-bets 1/2 pot after opening in the CO. But I have to think this specific combo is going to be in our x/r-give-up range when we don't improve on the turn.

idk the way to get good at poker and win money is not to decide im going to only valuebet. i believe that thinking and methodology is 10-15 years out of date. dc really what stakes u play at

Well he probably has two pair at this point, the question is if we can get him to fold that. Hard to know what villians are thinking in these spots. If we had a nitty or tag image (or against a weak player), I think it's a great bluff because he can only call with 9x, boats, Jcxc, and QT. An aggressive player probably gets hero called with AJ and possibly KJ/KQ. The turn sizing isn't great - you probably wouldn't bet 1/2 pot with a 9. River size is ok vs a good player as we represent more value hands than with an overbet. Vs a bad or average player, maybe an overbet clears out all of the non boats and flushes.

Preflop and flop could be folds.

1/3 players tend to be sticky, so there is a reason many go for value more than bluffing. They also tend to show weakness. Sometimes 4-ways everyone does by checking. So I would tend to bluff more when you see weakness or have a big range advantage, etc.

The line OP took was maximum in expense and minimum in getting information. The result is he put a lot in running into trips.

I would prefer other approaches if you are going to continue on the flop. You could call the flop and float OOP, with the option of making a play later on. You could also check after checkraising, with the option to check/call or double check/raise, depending on the turn card, sizing and reads. If you check/raise the flop and the turn goes check/check, then you could bluff the river. If you call the flop or check the turn, you get more information from what your opponent does, and you invest less money in your bluffs.

As played, I would give up on the river, because it is a bad river card for you. If you are going to bluff, I like OP's sizing. It represents a wider range. Also, a bad player will likely be intimidated by the absolute amount, rather than the percentage of pot.

I like the line, villain will have a lot Jx going to the river based on your turn sizing.

Ac is interesting river. I think $150 get its done against QJ/JT, might be better off over bet jamming, ensuring KJ/AJ also fold.