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Villain is pretty smart but plays a bit too tight (only 31% f/ the BB and 3-bets only 9%). He hasn't overbet once all match and neither of us has really caught the other running a big bluff on the river over maybe 400 hands. I also caught him 3-betting J8s, so he probably doesn't 3-bet stuff like KJo and ATo.


Absolute Poker $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 240108
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $21266.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $13242.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is BTN/SB with J J
Hero raises to $150, BB raises to $500, Hero calls $350

Flop: ($1000.00) 5 6 T (2 players)
BB bets $700.00, Hero calls $700

Turn: ($2400.00) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $1850.00, Hero calls $1850

River: ($6100.00) 2 (2 players)
BB bets $8000.00, Hero folds

Absolute Poker $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 240107
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $26426.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $11297.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is BTN/SB with T Q
Hero raises to $150, BB raises to $500, Hero calls $350

Flop: ($1000.00) 3 4 A (2 players)
BB bets $700.00, Hero calls $700

Turn: ($2400.00) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1750.00, BB calls $1750

River: ($5900.00) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8347.00

Knowing nothing about his cbet frequencies, I would say I probably call hand 1 and fold hand 2 on the flop unless you have a good feeling about this particular play.

He c-bets about 55-60% in both single raised and 3-bet pots.

Edited to add that obviously on these board textures, he's c-betting way more than 60%.

I think folding hand 1 is fine. He's probably not valuebetting worse, and from your read he doesn't seem the type to bluff here big often enough for us to make a call.

Hand 2 is more interesting. Folding flop seems standard, but he's probably cbetting this board very wide so floating once in a while can't be bad. I think I like the river bluff, unless your image is bad and people expect you to make crazy bluffs. It looks to me that villain has a bluff catcher, and usually I would expect them to just bluffcatch once and than give up since they would expect that you float, bet turn and than give up most of the time.

Knowing nothing about his cbet frequencies, I would say I probably call hand 1 and fold hand 2 on the flop unless you have a good feeling about this particular play.

Well, I agree that on on hand 1 he cbets a lot. And I call because your hand range is wide by the river, JJ is quite near the top and because there are so many hands he could continue with on the turn that if he thinks this is a good bluff spot, you are easily winning enough.

On hand 2, it's really player dependent. Tons of players will (correctly, in my estimation) check a very wide range of medium made hands here in this spot, and bet with a very polarized range. On the other hand, a lot of players will bet all their medium made hands with the intention of inducing precisely this sort of play. So unless I know what sort of player this guy is, I think just playing this situation straightforward is the best option.

I think I would fold 1 aswell given your read.
He isnt value betting light and he would be suicidal to try and get you off your range for what its worth. It is close but I air onto the side of folding.


I assume hand 2 was played after hand 1????
If so I expect him to barrel his v strong made hands on 2.
So basically when he checks he is checking air and giving up or trying to bluff catch you.

Since I think he would expect you to float the flop a reasonable amount of times on both these boards (ie. not a huge amount but a small-reasonable amount), he can expect you to have air a small amount on this turn.
And if that is the case people wont fold top pair type hands, just because they think call turn they have to call river (especially if thats the first time you made it + given your other hand he maybe more likely to calldown with a top pair type hand)

Also given the fact you are repping a polarised range, and you 4bet some big hands preflop and raise some other hands on the flop, I think this is not a good spot to bluff.

Therefore I think turn bet is +EV but river bet seems bad here.

Also whitelime would you bet ATo or AQ on hand 2 like that, and if they are yes whats hands is your borderline?

Hand one - im really not sure on the face of it your hand looks too strong to fold. Its all down to the read on the player - in my experience players either tighten up when they are deep or the use the deep stacks to run big bluffs. If you think he is tight he is prob not bluffing here - although i must say the way you played the JJ he cant possibly expect your hand to be that big so he prob puts you on 10x and therefore thinks a big bet would take it. So all in all my analysis is prob not that useful - i think on balance i would close my eyes and call purely because you have under repped your hand so much and you only have to be good 36% of the time.

Hand 2 i personally wouldnt float here - it is a pure float as you have virtually no outs if he has an ace. Once youve decided to barrel the turn i dont mind your barrel on the river as his hand looks like it is a pair of aces and no better - if he had two pair id expect him to continue betting or raise the turn and get it in seen as you are both quite deep. I guess its whether you think he would fold aq, a10, a9 to a river bet. I would say a bet of 5000 here looks as strong as the overshove so at least if he calls youve saved yourself 3300.

*thumbs up*

hand 2 can be bad in a wide variety of circumstances however, but probably not here

Hand 1 - probably depends a lot on how often you defend 3-bets and how weak your hand looks to him by the river. Overbetting obviously polarizes his range to nuts or nothing but that's nearly irrelevant unless he's giving off a glaring tell to you, because betting the flop and turn like he did polarizes his range to begin with, he doesn't need to bet the river to tell you that. So then it just all depends on his river bluffing frequency with his bluffs and whether or not him overbetting is at all a tell. The weaker your perceived range the more I call here and I make a note either way. Cool hand.

Hand 2- I don't bet the river, the turn bet should work often enough where you don't need to bet turn and river for the turn bet to be +EV by itself... I just think here where your range is now v polarized and you're loose on the open... a player who is tight to begin with just will close his eyes and click call too often

Hand 1 - probably depends a lot on how often you defend 3-bets and how weak your hand looks to him by the river. Overbetting obviously polarizes his range to nuts or nothing but that's nearly irrelevant unless he's giving off a glaring tell to you, because betting the flop and turn like he did polarizes his range to begin with, he doesn't need to bet the river to tell you that. So then it just all depends on his river bluffing frequency with his bluffs and whether or not him overbetting is at all a tell. The weaker your perceived range the more I call here and I make a note either way. Cool hand.

Basically hand 1 is just a pure psychological war.
The weakest part of my game is psychology, so be great to get some advice on this.

Vs a lot of players he will know that your hand is a bluff catcher, and he will know that you know that!
Same goes for whether you defend a lot to 3bets.
I can understand the first time you base your decision its just on the perceived strength of your range and how wider your original range is.
Ie. my range = weak/wide we both know that, so he think I will fold - so I should call.

Now would there be anything else that would inflence your decision more if the player is good, because it seems to be if you are making your decision based purely on how wide your perceived range is preflop and the strength of it postflop, you are going to get owned.

Maybe thats just me overthinking things.
Man I suck at the psychology in poker!

Villain is pretty smart but plays a bit too tight (only 31% f/ the BB and 3-bets only 9%). He hasn't overbet once all match and neither of us has really caught the other running a big bluff on the river over maybe 400 hands. I also caught him 3-betting J8s, so he probably doesn't 3-bet stuff like KJo and ATo.


Absolute Poker $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 240108
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $21266.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $13242.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is BTN/SB with J J
Hero raises to $150, BB raises to $500, Hero calls $350

Flop: ($1000.00) 5 6 T (2 players)
BB bets $700.00, Hero calls $700

Turn: ($2400.00) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $1850.00, Hero calls $1850

River: ($6100.00) 2 (2 players)
BB bets $8000.00, Hero folds

Absolute Poker $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 240107
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $26426.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $11297.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is BTN/SB with T Q
Hero raises to $150, BB raises to $500, Hero calls $350

Flop: ($1000.00) 3 4 A (2 players)
BB bets $700.00, Hero calls $700

Turn: ($2400.00) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1750.00, BB calls $1750

River: ($5900.00) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8347.00

Standard.

Standard.

Joe the Pro Episode 8 ftw