Mid/High Stakes Limit Hold'em Poker Forums

Still trying to learn some heads up. Here is couple of hands from my latest session. It´s in swedish kronors so the limit translates to 6$/12$. The opponent was tough and I decided to quit him after 50 hands. He limped twice, once with K5s. Also he bluffbet river with KJ high after a turn check. Otherwise he seemed to play solid.

6/12 Limit Holdem
2 players

Hand 1: Should I have check/called turn instead? Seems like I would lose value against A high that way. As played I decided to call raise since he got be raising for a free showdown or something and it´s in the beginning of the session. Could perhaps fold river?

Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 2 players) Hero is BB T 4
BTN raises, Hero calls

Flop: T 2 7 (4.0 SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: J (2.0 BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, BTN raises, Hero calls

River: 6 (6.0 BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets, Hero calls

Hand 2: 3-Bet turn or just call?

Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 2 players) Hero is BTN 9 7
Hero raises, BB calls

Flop: 9 4 6 (4.0 SB, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB calls

Turn: 2 (3.0 BB, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero ?

Hand 3:

Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 2 players) Hero is BTN J 8
Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls

Flop: 7 T K (6.0 SB, 2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls

Turn: Q (4.0 BB, 2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls

River: J (8.0 BB, 2 players)
BB bets, Hero folds
B

Hand 1 seems fine without a read on opponent's checking-behind tendencies. Turn raise might be a free showdown raise or a semibluff by a picked up straight draw. And of course he might have you beat. But people are doing funny things in these spots. Like checking flop with KQ because they want to keep the pot small and induce bluffs, then deciding on the turn that their hand is worth putting in 3 BB because "ZOMG I have a draw".

Hand 2 I just call down. Villain might be bluffing, might have made two pairs or might have been slowplaying a good pair or better, maybe Q6+. No reason to go crazy with your poor kicker.

Hand 3 I don't think I like the turn semibluff, but It depends a lot on villain's 3betting range obv. If you think he's going crazy on you preflop then raising might be fine, if only to protect your equity against "trash" hands like 89 or 68. Against a typically aggressive opponent there's just very little chance you can make him fold on a board that crushes a typical 3betting range, and you will often be 3bet. Even against A high you have to fire twice, you don't have that many outs and people get incredibly stubborn with A high after 3betting preflop. In a vacuum I strongly prefer calling turn (and getting there on the river ). River fold is fine unless villain is very fond of bluffing in hopeless spots.

I think all 3 are well played. Doing anything besides betting turn in hand 1 is being results oriented imo. Oh just noticed you didn't complete the action in hand 2, call down and bet river if checked to. Hand 3 I like a lot.

Hand 3 I like a lot.

Really? That's interesting. Could you elaborate a bit further? What do you expect villain to fold? Pocket pairs < TT? Which rivers do you bet if villain calls turn and checks river?

Really? That's interesting. Could you elaborate a bit further? What do you expect villain to fold? Pocket pairs < TT? Which rivers do you bet if villain calls turn and checks river?

What hands do you bluff raise the turn with? If none then why should villain call except with his best hands? And if he does fold all but his best then aren´t we missing out on a lot of value by not bluffing. So yes, we almost always have to follow up on the river but our turn raise is seriously discounted because of outs and us raising at least some bluffs on this board gives us better value with our future value hands.

Anyway, that´s just rambling and I´m sure Death Donkey has a much better reason why this play was ok in this specific hand. Just wanted to share my thoughts.

darkhorse,
I don't think your rambling at all. In fact you're making some pretty good points here. If you want to keep your turn raising range balanced, by all means go ahead and bluff here, especially if you think villain is capable of folding a hand like AT by the river. I just feel from my experience that you don't have much folding equity here, except if you're image is very strong. I guess it boils down to the basic question of GTO vs. exploitable strategy.

then why should villain call except with his best hands?

Well, he shouldn't. But I'm fine with that if he does anyway.

us raising at least some bluffs on this board gives us better value with our future value hands.

Certainly, if he's a thinking player, which apparently is the case. But keep in mind that the metagame value of your play is severely diminished if you're going to quit him after some 50 hands.

Anyway, I feel like I'm the one rambling now

Really? That's interesting. Could you elaborate a bit further? What do you expect villain to fold? Pocket pairs < TT? Which rivers do you bet if villain calls turn and checks river?

I don't really like the turn raise on hand 3 unless he had been 3-betting somewhat light, though I think the river fold is good.

Really? That's interesting. Could you elaborate a bit further? What do you expect villain to fold? Pocket pairs < TT? Which rivers do you bet if villain calls turn and checks river?

Maybe a pair but more likely ace high, people will usually fire twice with ace high here and then not know what to do. Also don't forget that we can have the best hand but we aren't exactly going to call with jack high unimproved so this play sort of "saves" us the pot the times he just folds his trash to our turn raise. I would fire any river except probably a jack and I guess an 8 is sorta close (it would be a value bet and it would be thin).

DD i really don't think Ax is folding to a turn raise HUHU on a KQTx board.

No but he'll fold to the river bet usually. I am committed to the last barrel.

disagree-aments

hand 3,

I can see some merit in the turn raise.
we have,
1) some hand strength equity in our draw plus maybe even a J is good sometime.
2) we gain some FE vs some portion of villains range by raising, especially in a spot a semi-bluff is not obvious( no FD).
3) we balance the times we have the nuts or at least a decent hand.
4) negative side..we may get 3 bet
But it seems to me, I need to know how much of villains range he needs to fold in order to know if we should semi-bluff here.

if I can estimate that hero has 20% equity on the turn (which I think I can do)
how do I figure out(guesstimate) the amount of folds I need?

ex...villain might fold some small PP now on the turn(I realize thats debatable).
thats worth something...
on the river we are only targeting Ax and a hand like ours (both of which will see the river), because I believe any PP that made it to the river is not folding now, pot is too big.
I do believe a unpaired Ax will fold the river UI almost 100% of time.

ok, I think villain has a 25% range, and he will fold 1/4 of his hands to a semi-bluff.
some pairs fold turn, 1/3 of AX fold the river(cause the other part has pairs, this does seem the crux of the problem), a couple of Jx fold, and some garbage that we always throw in.
is that enough and why?
Oink or DD. I could really use your help here...

the 3 bet chance and the forced river bluff bet to get Ax to fold, make it a two bet bluff.
if he folds the turn we pick up 5 BB,
if he folds the river we pick up 6 BB.
if we hit and get called we pick up 7 BB.

it seems to me, when you add in the balance/image/metagame part...we should raise the turn.