Heads Up NL Poker Forums

Hey guys, I'm a total heads up novice. I've played maybe a thousand or so hands in the past but not for a few months and this is literally the first guy I've played since I decided I want to try to learn some HU.

This guy bought in with 70bbs, seems pretty bad from the outset and over maybe 20 or so hands I've made these notes:

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call 3 bet - pots wet flop IP when PFR checks
check back 636tt as PFR, min raise lead on turn 5
limp BTN w/ Q8o - check down unimproved
doesn't like to fold to 3 bets???
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I've 3 bet him a few times already and he's called all of them pretty quickly, so I decide to not 3 bet him with bluffs at all but to 3 bet a wider value range. I'm not really comfortable playing heads up, or in 3 bet pots with a hand like 99, but I feel like he's going to be putting in money so often with worse hands that I kind of have to 3 bet here. Right or wrong?

Anyway, the hand...

Hero (BB): $50.00
BTN/SB: $50.90

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 9 9
BTN/SB raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, BTN/SB calls $3

Flop: ($9.00) K 4 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $4.25, BTN/SB calls $4.25

Turn: ($17.50) T (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

River: ($17.50) J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $13.50, Hero ???

Villain called the flop and checked back the turn extremely quickly, I can't really remember how quickly he acted on the river.

I c-bet the flop for value, I checked the turn as I thought I would pretty much be turning my hand into a bluff if I bet and I would fold out everything worse.

So call or fold on the river? And comments on all streets are welcome.

Looks fine to me if you fold the river, to much combinations made a better pair than yours..

An alternative line is to check the flop and let him bluff b/c of the fact that this flop is extremely dry and does not hit a lot of his range. The only problem with this is that it requires some skill in 3bet pots to play the turn and river. .

yeah fold river, you have an underpair. I'd 3bet bigger since he's not folding

What sort of range do you guys put him on at the river?

Seems like a ridic easy fold w/o a v strong read that he does something like float w/ flop and then check the turn with air, both really unlikely

OK, so its a fold.

However, I called based almost entirely on his timing. He snapped the flop and snap checked the turn so I didn't put him on a K or 4 ever (the thought crossed my mind that he might try to feign weakness by checking really quickly but I'm not going to give him credit for that until I have a reason to), and I thought if he had a T he would have at least thought for a second about what to do. Also I don't think his river bet sizing is congruent with a T.

So on the river I was thinking he had like a pocket pair below 99 or just a flop peel with A high or something. So on the river I thought the only hand that beats me is like AJ or something (KJ, QJ probably bet turn right?) so I called and he showed 55. You guys say its bad so I'll definitely take that on board but at least I had some kind of reasoning behind my decision.

What kind of notes/adjustments are you going to make after a hand like this?

OK, so its a fold.

However, I called based almost entirely on his timing. He snapped the flop and snap checked the turn so I didn't put him on a K or 4 ever (the thought crossed my mind that he might try to feign weakness by checking really quickly but I'm not going to give him credit for that until I have a reason to), and I thought if he had a T he would have at least thought for a second about what to do. Also I don't think his river bet sizing is congruent with a T.

So on the river I was thinking he had like a pocket pair below 99 or just a flop peel with A high or something. So on the river I thought the only hand that beats me is like AJ or something (KJ, QJ probably bet turn right?) so I called and he showed 55. You guys say its bad so I'll definitely take that on board but at least I had some kind of reasoning behind my decision.

What kind of notes/adjustments are you going to make after a hand like this?

-Snap calls w/ weak SD hands
-Snap checks turn w SD value
-Turns made hands into bluffs. Could be because he just clicks buttons, could be because he is actually a thinking player trying to get us to fold a better hand, knowing his line looks super credible.

Thanks a lot Gman. Just for the future, would you expect thinking players to have Kx or Jx a lot here when they take this line?

I would think that Kx would just bet the turn, but that Jx or Tx may check back because a) they don't think they get 2 streets of value and b) they don't want to get check raised? And would a decent player value bet Tx on the river a good amount?