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The game is 1/2 NL and effective stacks are $700. Villain is an average 1/2 player. I had no information on how he played flopped sets or straights and had seen him call on a couple of draws and then bet when he hit (no semi-bluffing). No other significant information.

UTG+2 calls. I pick up KQ UTG+3. I raise to $13. The villain calls on the button. SB calls. UTG+2 calls.

(Pot: 54) Flop is 394

SB checks, UTG+2 checks. I bet $36. Villain calls. SB fold. UTG+2 fold.

(Pot: 126) Turn is 2

I bet $83. Villain thinks for about ten to fifteen seconds and calls.

(Pot: 292) River is Q

What is the proper play here?

(Sorry if this is in the wrong format or anything. It's my first post.)

First of all, welcome. I'm decently new here as well, or at least I've recently started posting. My thoughts:

Pre-flop – Relevant question: What are his 3-bet tendencies like? If he’s a typical 1-2 player, his 3-bet range is likely QQ+, AK, maybe JJ, AQs. That will help us later on in the hand. I’m moving forward with this assumption for the rest of my thoughts in this hand. I think your raise is fine, personally I would have made it smaller like 9, but if everyone has $700 on the table, this is pretty much negligible.

Flop is so dry, even with 3 opponents, I’m ok with c-betting. I think you could have accomplished the same thing by betting 25-30, rather than betting 36, but again, nothing I can see that’s too out of the ordinary here. His range after this call is getting a bit more definied, in my opinion. A call is pretty strong here, imo, because he’s got two players left to act behind him, so I think that eliminates some of the air and underpairs that he’s calling you with.

Turn – What is your rationale for betting here? Nothing really changed the dynamic of the hand, except for the fact that you picked up a flush draw, so the hands that he’s calling you on the flop with, like A9 or T9 and obviously sets and weird 2 pairs are still calling here, you might get 77 or something of that nature to fold. I think I would bet as well, but checking here isn’t the worst option. I’m just curious as to the reason you chose to bet.

The range I’m assigning him after calling this bet (thoughts?): A9, Q9*, J9, T9, 89, 33, 44, 99, 56,34,

*Although combinatorically very unlikely

River – Even with this range, the way the hand plays out, I still think it’s a check/fold for this reason: The texture of the board is so dry, that calling two streets weights his hands towards his upper range. Not only that, but you’ve over repped your hand. By betting a 3rd time, it’s hard to get called by worse hands like A9. Think about having A9 (which is just about in the middle of his range here) and facing a third bet here, which would be, I’m assuming by your betting patterns, somewhere around $200. That’s going to be REALLY hard to call, and essentially you’re turning your hand into a bluff.

I changed my mind on what I would do about 3 times throughout this hand analysis, so I’m definitely on the edge. I’m interested in seeing what others think, but for me, I think it’s a check/fold

As played I bet 175. His range seems like a mid pocket pair. A lot of this type hand depends on how much of a station he is.

Betting around 100 and folding to a raise. Reason is that you're targeting thin value hands (9x type), a larger bet than this is considered really large at live 1/2 and will likely be value cutting against typical players. If he thinks you're bluffy, you can go larger hoping for the call, but I doubt you can get in 100bbs or something like that, nor should you want to.

Against any player capable of making a hero-ish call; I'm bombing 200+ here. Having the Q of hearts is so big it makes your a virtual lock.

Your best chance at getting paid is to represent missed hearts. The way I play that would mean bombing.

My image is probably pretty important to the hand and I forgot to include it. I had a winning image, but I had just recently shown down a hand where I raised with mid pair on the flop and then made trips on the turn and another hand where I had raised preflop, Cbet the flop (with a flush draw), barreled the turn when I made a pair, and then made trips on the river and bombed.

So, I was looking very bluffy (and lucky).

As far as the villain goes, he had not 3 bet preflop all night and I had only seen him showdown mostly top pairs which he called down 3 bets with. One time he checked top pair in position and then called a turn bet and made a semi-thin value bet on the river when checked to. That's all the information I have.

First of all, welcome. I'm decently new here as well, or at least I've recently started posting. My thoughts:

Pre-flop – Relevant question: What are his 3-bet tendencies like? If he’s a typical 1-2 player, his 3-bet range is likely QQ+, AK, maybe JJ, AQs. That will help us later on in the hand. I’m moving forward with this assumption for the rest of my thoughts in this hand. I think your raise is fine, personally I would have made it smaller like 9, but if everyone has $700 on the table, this is pretty much negligible.

Flop is so dry, even with 3 opponents, I’m ok with c-betting. I think you could have accomplished the same thing by betting 25-30, rather than betting 36, but again, nothing I can see that’s too out of the ordinary here. His range after this call is getting a bit more definied, in my opinion. A call is pretty strong here, imo, because he’s got two players left to act behind him, so I think that eliminates some of the air and underpairs that he’s calling you with.

Turn – What is your rationale for betting here? Nothing really changed the dynamic of the hand, except for the fact that you picked up a flush draw, so the hands that he’s calling you on the flop with, like A9 or T9 and obviously sets and weird 2 pairs are still calling here, you might get 77 or something of that nature to fold. I think I would bet as well, but checking here isn’t the worst option. I’m just curious as to the reason you chose to bet.[/b]

Thanks for the welcome and your input. To address some of your questions: You defined his 3bet range pretty well, although I don't think he 3bets AQs. At this point in the night, any raise under $10 gets called by the entire table (kind of a weird dynamic) and I'm not looking for that much action.

I don't think we can check the turn unless we're ready to just give up. Considering my image, the guy could have easily called me with 55-88 or a weak 9. Double barreling here is a must imo, because nothing really changed for his hand and I picked up a lot more equity. I also get to fold to a raise if he does have a set or a straight. Whereas if I check and he bets, I don't know if I have 15 outs or just 7.

I'd bet smaller on the flop for sure.
Turn as played is fine
River, I think I'd bet around $125 here and fold to a raise.

Thanks so much for the insight everybody!

What happened: I ended up checking and planning to evaluate his action. He bet $100. At this point, I re-thought through the hand and figured I'm probably good significantly more than 1 out of 5 times. I called, and he tabled A9.

Looking back, I think this is probably a bet/fold. Most of these players aren't going to bet the 9 if checked to, but are going to call a 1/3 to 2/3 bet with the 9.

If he had a set we would have heard about it on the turn 95% of the time and probably would have been raised by a straight as well considering how scared these people are of flush draws. He's not playing 94, 93, nor 92. 34s, 24s, or 23s would have raised the turn. So really, the only hands here that beat me are 56, A5 (which I think raises the turn), Q9, and QQ (which probably 3 bets PF or raises the flop and is VERY unlikely).

However, check/calling may be better here, considering I have seen him thin value bet the river before and three barrels do scare a lot of live players into folding anything worse.

At this point in the night, any raise under $10 gets called by the entire table (kind of a weird dynamic) and I'm not looking for that much action.

This makes no sense to me. The hands that you can "drive out" with a slightly larger raise size tend to be the junk like J 4, K 2, Q 8, 6 4, etc. that you absolutely want to come into the pot. I don't understand the logic of "other people are playing 70% VPIP right now, so I'm going to raise bigger and narrow their range down to the 20% VPIP which actually has decent equity and playability against my range."

PS - I agree with (most of) the others about betting about $120 on the river for value. Also, I think flop and turn bet sizing is too big.

Of course these spots are always played dependent, but I still like a bet fold river. As u said it's pretty rare for most lower stakes players to bet this river with a nine. But a lot, especially at 1/2 will call, especially if he had 10-10 or JJ.

How are you at assigning ranges? Let's do that a little bit here.

Preflop, villain is in position 350bb deep against you. So he's playing lots of speculative hands. All sorts of suited connectors, pocket pairs, suited gappers, and suited Ax. Also probably flatting broadways and only likely to raise AA/KK/QQ/AK (assuming he's as you described, an 'average' 1/2NL player, which means he's probably passive and bad).

Now the questions for you to answer:

On the flop, you cbet into 4 players and villain has to make a decision /w 2 people left to act. What range will call you here? What range will raise?

On the turn it's heads up and you double barrel (2/3 pot sized bet) a card that brings flush draws and completes a straight draw. What range will villain flat again here? What range will he raise?

On the river, what range can we assign villain at this point? Given our range analysis, can we bet and get called by worse? Can we bet and get better to fold?

Lay out your thoughts to these questions and we can think more critically about the hand beyond 'what do you do on this river'.

This makes no sense to me. The hands that you can "drive out" with a slightly larger raise size tend to be the junk like J 4, K 2, Q 8, 6 4, etc. that you absolutely want to come into the pot. I don't understand the logic of "other people are playing 70% VPIP right now, so I'm going to raise bigger and narrow their range down to the 20% VPIP which actually has decent equity and playability against my range."

PS - I agree with (most of) the others about betting about $120 on the river for value. Also, I think flop and turn bet sizing is too big.

Nice thoughts SJ3. I see bad players do this every day. KQhh is a perfect hand to play multi way since of course you want lots of baby flush draws and K5suited type hands calling you down.

I have absolutely no problem with how you played the hand

flop: bet-fold
turn: bet-fold
river: bet-fold

To be honest though I'm shocked that the villain made a thin value bet there on the river, I've seen a hand like that get checked back so frequently which is why I'm bet-folding all day there. Of course your read on the villain would be a lot better than mine. But I like the bet-fold as he's going to be calling there with A9 so frequently.

As far as sizing goes I like the recommended $125-175. Of course depending on the player.