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Ok i f'ed this one up. Villian is loose over a very small sample.

So i c bet and get min check raised. What would he do this with, 2 pair sets, draws, bluffing with air. Since it is such a weak raise i went with draw.

Turn, he leads for almost pot i cant shove, since equity had gone down. Here i should fold right?

River he checks. I make a retarded bet, no worse hand is ever calling here.

Should have got away from this on the turn. Fair assessment? Anything else?

Party Poker $10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1458821
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $10.37
MP: $2.00
Hero (CO): $13.72
BTN: $10.00
SB: $2.12
BB: $6.26

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with K A
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.65) K T 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.46, BB raises to $0.92, Hero calls $0.46

Turn: ($2.49) J (2 players)
BB bets $2.37, Hero calls $2.37

River: ($7.23) 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5.15, BB calls $2.67 all in

Final Pot: $12.57
Hero shows K A (a pair of Kings)
BB shows T 8 (two pairs, Tens and Eights)
Hero wins $2.48
BB wins $11.95
(Rake: $-1.86)

In my experience a min raise on the Flop is most likely a "value hand" in villains eyes (who is bad most of the time) because most passive guys call with draws and most aggressive guys raise draws bigger, but if this is a draw, it's a passive guy's draw, because he raises so small and most passive guys on the micros are also calling too much -> i would just push the flop (he has just over 50bb anyways) and expect to get called by all sorts of tpwk and have good Equity against his better made hands.

btw i would also raise 4bb pre if i had a loose BB and bet more otf because he is calling with a lot there.

Ok an example of trying to defending an UTG open. Villian looks to have TAGish stats over a small sample, no reads.

Party Poker $10 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players - View hand 1461273
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $10.00
Hero (BB): $19.35
CO: $10.61
BTN: $10.19

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with 7 7
CO raises to $0.40, 1 fold, SB calls $0.35, Hero calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.20) 8 Q 8 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets $0.57, SB folds, Hero calls $0.57

Turn: ($2.34) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($2.34) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.11, CO folds

Final Pot: $2.34
Hero mucks 7 7
Hero wins $2.23
(Rake: $0.11)

So against his UTG range there is a good chance i am behind. Initially I called for implied odds since it was 3 way, but the other guy folded. Now im OOP which sucks. So the board comes dry, and i figure he bets his entire range, this bet looks weak. Now hes never giving up his PP here but has a lot of broadway cards.

So i check it back to him. Should i have lead the turn? He checks through.

Now according to the guide i have been reading, my hand is not good enough to bet for value, so if i bet it is for a bluff right?

Now the river, i dont know what to do, i have this situation often: i have showdown value, but two checks signifies weakness, and most players seem to pot the river, and this frustrates me since i only have a bluff catcher. So i make a weak ass bet, a blocking bet i guess. Is this a bad move?

Should i have just lead the turn? Pokerstove has me as an underdog with 33% equity on the turn.

Villain's range isn't really an UTG range, it is a CO range.

Preflop is standard I think.

What are your reads on villain postflop? What hands is he betting the flop with? Which part of that range will bet the turn/river? What is your equity against this range? How often do you expect to improve when you have the worse hand? How often do you expect to get to showdown when you have the best hand?

I don't really like the river bet. It can't be a bluff, because villain probably isn't folding TT/9x/Qx or better. It really isn't a value bet either, because villain's calling range doesn't have enough worse hands in his range to justify a value bet. I'd just c/f the river. It really isn't a spot where villain will be bluffing a lot.

Ok i didnt see it was a CO range, this makes me a slight underdog on the flop assuming a 25% range. Obviously it gets worse on the turn.

What about check raising the flop, it turns my hand into a bluff, but maybe folds out 99 TT? Or is that an expensive spew? I could lead the turn, but with only 2 outs, the turn card is more likely to help him. I just dont think he's going to let me get to showdown with out having to face at least a river bet.

I also hate my river bet, but i looked weak and dint know what to do.

dcart, could you tell us what hands you would consider raising and calling on the flop both here and if the pfr was genuinely UTG.

Value raising range: two pair doesnt apply here, so probably trips, TPTK. Over pairs i would have 3 bet pre. Flatting hands= 66-JJ, TPGK. Although with 66-JJ this is a bit of a murky area, since they could be raised, but this would be bluff raising i guess. 22-55 would be bluff raises.

Would there be merit to flatting my entire range since only value raising polarizes my range? However, this is 10NL, so maybe that isnt important.

Facing a second barrel on the turn, i would only be looking to continue with TPGK+ getting away from the weaker hands.

I'd lean towards flatting my entire range, too, if it were agianst an UTG. As you say, you're not likely to have any overpairs so by raising you're representing very few combos and why raise if your hand is pretty difficult to draw out on anyway? Vs the CO, though, I agree AQ is a good raise.

I actually think against a TAG UTG rather than a CO open this is a fold on the flop as you'll just get barreled too often and won't be able to stick around with the 77. By the time you get to the river you've got a bluff catcher and UTG won't have too many bluffs. Against a CO, though it's definitely closer.

Been far too opinionated already so off to bed and I'll tactfully get out of having to give an opinion on the river :-)

Im pretty happy because everything you said seemed to go with my thought process. Where as at the beginning of the thread i had no thought process, just played my cards. I find myself playing about 50 hands, then end up in this thread posting a hand history and 'stoving some stuff, then reading some articles.

Flop: ($1.20) 8 Q 8 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets $0.57, SB folds, Hero calls $0.57

Considering that he just bets half pot in an attempt to pick it up I'd say you're ahead here. I'd expect him to bet a bit bigger with all pocket pairs, definitely a Q. If he has an 8 he could bet like this because he may be afraid that otherwise you'd fold, but he wants to build a pot. So in this spot, I don't like to call since a) we're letting him control the situation and b) it's difficult for us to play the turn. I would raise to $2.00ish. I'd expect him to come over the top with a 8, since he'd put me on a Q and for the rest I'd expect him to fold and pick up the pot. If he just calls, I'm shutting down and am praying for a show-down

Ok id like to ask about polarised and de-polarised ranges.

Polarised means betting with the top and bottom of you range, for value/bluff.
DP range would be betting with a top heavy range weighted towards value. Is this the same as a WIDE range?

So against the fish who play poor cards, we could 3 bet pre flop with a WIDE (de-polarised range) for VALUE.

Against the nits/ regs, we go for a polarised range to get paid off with the bigger hands/defend against their raises.

Is this correct?

If you are defending your blinds against a habitual stealer, could you 3 bet both a wide range(for value) and a polarised (give up if called) range.

Also i was thinking about pocket pairs, specifically 22-99. Often, they are difficult to play post flop unless hitting a set. So what if you turned them into a bluff by 3 betting pre flop? Obviously not against loose players who wont fold, but the amount of fold equity against blind stealing would be huge, and if they call and you hit a set, getting stacks would be more likely.

Correct/ Horse shit?

Also, this hand sort of ties in. Villian is 80/60 over 5 hands.

Now i 3 bet for value. He 4 bets. Can i call this profitably, would i have been better off flatting his raise? would i expect to be behind here most of the time?

So anyway, flop comes with an ace. I cant fold now can i? I flat his C bet, check raise only folds out his bluffs/gets called by better. I check again on the turn, could i lead here? He checks through then shoves on the turn. Here i expect to see nuts or nothing. Also he just gave me very good odds to call?

Im really struggling with range over all here, can you help me narrow it down, did i play optimally?

Party Poker $10 No Limit Hold'em - 3 players - View hand 1466657
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $10.15
BTN: $23.16
SB: $12.27

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with A J
BTN raises to $0.30, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1, BTN raises to $2.30, Hero calls $1.30

Flop: ($4.65) 2 K A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $2.75, Hero calls $2.75

Turn: ($10.15) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($10.15) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $18.11 all in, Hero calls $5.10 all in

Final Pot: $20.35
Hero shows A J (a pair of Aces)
BTN shows 9 7 (a pair of Nines)
Hero wins $19.35
(Rake: $1.00)

Only learned about polarised and depolarised ranges recently. Don't think you really need it at 10NL or 25NL. Also saw that you did research into defending against cbets and stuff. I don't think its a bad idea to look into these concepts to learn and broaden your understanding of poker.

But you shouldn't be planning to put it into practice at these stakes. For one, you'll suffer from knowing a bit of everything, and not knowing everything of the key bits. At our stakes, I'd really work hard on the hand reading and getting the most value out of each and every situation and loose the minimum when we're beat.

If someone cbets say 100%, then I look to call him down with my strong hands and more marginal made hands. I don't look to check-raise him every third hand with rubbish or whatever , but I might raise some draws instead since I've got some equity to play with.