cg15254

I think PF, flop and turn are fine, river I would check back. It seems counter prooductive to be betting A high as a bluff if villain likely has a draw which A high beats anyway. You aren't repping much by checking back turn and firing river. Basically 3x which you don't have that much of as the 3 better, and weak Kx which checked back turn. If this is your river value range, you have to be careful not to add too many bluffs as you don't have that many value hands given that you checked turn.

Hands that would be better suited for betting this river I think are hands like 87s,76s,65s as these hands block medium pocket pairs, 9x and have no showdown value.

Why 3bet a hand like this? Against a button open it makes sense to have a linear 3betting range, and this hand falls very low on your overall hands that you want to play vs a button open. I'd be more willing to 3b T9s or maybe T8s but this hand is a clear flat imo.

As played I think flop and turn are fine, river I'd give up. After you 3b and then barrel flop and turn, villains range has been significantly narrowed. I don't think it's overly wise to bet again into what looks like top pair. As noted above, at 10NL players don't like to fold top pair especially in a 3b pot so I think you are just burning money by betting on the river.

As noted above, I'd raise larger on the flop, around 10-11bb. Turn is close but I'd prefer a check with this combo and a bet with AA when you have the Ac.

The river raise is really bad I think. Unless villain is a huge calling station I don't see him calling with worse or folding any better.

Don't like the river bet for the same reasons as already stated above.

However, what I find most interesting about this hand is the flop check. If you are betting semi-polarized on this flop, which I would opt to do, why not bet this flop? Seems like a perfect hand to bet as you can make the nuts on an A and you also have a BD FD. I would bet flop and barrel any heart/A and sometimes even just another low card to try and get the nitty villain off of hands like 77/88 as nits generally will call one street with any pair but fold to the 2nd barrel quite often.

Fold turn. This is a good flop for callers (your) range so when villain bets flop and barrels turn I'd put him on a pretty strong range. If villain has KQ you're drawing to 3 outs, if he has a FD, river bricks and he jams river anyway you can't call, and even if you hit a straight on a spade river it's a tough call. You have reverse implied odds and you're deep, and you have much better hands in your range here

I didn't really provide any explanation to this, but to further my above comment with some actual analysis: you are getting roughly 2:1 on a call which means you need to be good 33% of the time. His value hands that have you beat are 88, JJ, A4, probably K4s, Q4s, 74s. That is 34 combos. Hands that would perceivably value shove here that you beat are 54, 43s, AA, KK, QQ. That is 20 combos of trips and 18 combos of overpairs. Even if villain never shoves with an overpair and only with 54 and 43s, and never bluffs, you are getting the right price to call. If villain ever bluffs here with Ax of clubs or shoves with an overpair you are so massively +EV it would be crazy to fold. Of course you are going to be crushed or drawing dead occasionally when you call but I don't think it's a close spot at all I think it's a clear call.

I'm never folding here. Villain could be jamming worse 4x like 45 or 34s or even overpairs for value.

SeniorPomidor these are all hands SB is likely 3 betting with. This flop connects well with the callers (Hero's) range and so SB should not have a super high Cbet percentage on this board, he should be checking a lot to the button as he can check raise a lot with his draws and realize equity if button checks back flop.

As noted above turn is a pretty easy call.

Mistake above, only 2 combos of QJs, but still a fine call

Getting roughly 5:1 on a call here makes this a pretty easy call mathematically, but I wouldn't love it. I see JJ or 66 here alot, but that's only 6 combos total. I would also expect villain to play QJs this way, and potentially AQ at least some of the time.Those are hands I would consider villain's value range, as I would expect to see a 4b from QQ most of the time.
However, If you assume villain doesn't 4b QQ ever, he has 9 combos of boats (66,JJ, QQ), and 4 combos of QJs. If villain only value bets with these hands and never bluffs, you are still getting the right price to call. In reality villain is probably playing AQ like this some of the time and probably has a couple bluffs, so this is a fine call.

I don't love it vs a TAG, as I would expect he has more Ax or PP hands with SD value than diamonds once he calls the turn barrel. I would just bet 2/3 pot. I think more hands in his range call than missed draws bluff. You also are BvB, so the chance you get called lighter is high. You also need enough strong value hands in your betting range on the river here for the times you get to the river with diamonds yourself and want to bluff. I like the idea of having a bluff catcher on the river, but you probably shouldn't have any hands that double barrel and give up anyway, so it's not really an issue.

Hands that villain would value bet when checked to will call your river bet anyway, and hands that bluff when checked to have no shown down value, so you don't need such a strong hand as a bluff catcher.

I've been playing with overbets recently and I think this is a spot you can overbet turn. I expect villain to be pretty capped here so an overbet to get value from draws and top pair hands is great. I used to just bet 75% pot on the turn and I also think that's fine, but you definitely need to up the turn barrel sizing. River is a check call for me as a bluff catcher as you also block the nuts

I agree with belrio42 that this flop is a check for me with this combo. If you had KJs and had a BD FD I would bet 1/3 pot. The problem with cbetting is that you don't turn a card that gives you a lot of equity very often and are either a) forced to barrel a lot with very little equity or b) forced to check fold a lot of turns. Both of these are not very good and why I would prefer just checking flop

TruthS33ka I like the idea of an overbet on the turn, but not a shove. 1.25x - 1.4x pot will accomplish essentially the same thing as a shove, and since it is the turn you don't need to be worried about realizing your equity as if villain calls you see the river regardless. If villain calls the overbet, you can give up when you brick the river and jam when you hit as I'd expect villain to call the river once he calls a turn overbet, so it wouldn't make a ton of sense to bluff the river if you whiff

I think this is a fold. I can't think of a hand villain would call the turn and lead river with that doesn't have you beat. I'd expect to see a flush here very often.

By any chance is this RIO poker :D? Personally I actually prefer playing without a HUD, as it forces me to consciously think about my ranges in different spots and play a more fundamentally sound game, rather than clicking buttons based on a stat on my HUD. I'm not saying they are not useful, they definitely are, but it's easy to get in the mindset of 'oh villain folds x perfect of 3bets so I'll just 3b" or other decisions based on random stats that without a huge sample size don't really matter.

I reccommended playing 2 tables until you get really used to playing without a HUD, so you can be more aware of what your opponents at the table are doing. It's pretty easy to spot the calling station at the table with only 2 tables running but the more tables the less likely you are going to be at profiling the players accurately

I agree I think this is a snap call. You block AK and I think BvB villain attacks you a lot on the turn after you check back the flop and cap your range. Id expect to see a lot of diamond draws or Kx in villains range.

I don't think the flop raise is horrible, but if you are raising the flop with all of your unsuited gutters I think you will have too many bluffs in your range. What other combos are you check raising this flop with? I

On this turn with this combo I'd be selectively betting bigger, closer to 2/3 pot. Once villain calls a check raise on the flop his range has been reduced drastically and I wouldn't expect a fold very often to a 1/3 pot bet.

As played I would not be shoving this river. You don't block any nutted hands and you block a lot of draws villain could have. You have a lot of missed draws that could get to this river so I think you have to be careful not to over bluff.

HawksWin I agree with most of your points, but villain would be almost priced in to call the turn jam with a flush draw regardless, especially if he has a gutter to go with it.

If my math is correct, once villain raises turn, he has 77BB left in his stack. If you jam, the pot Villain can win is 282, so he needs roughly 25% equity to call. It would be a losing play to call with just a naked flush draw, but I think it's close enough villain would call regardless.

Alternatively call turn and check call any non 9 or heart River? (obviously with the exception of the Qh or 2h).

My first reaction is to jam turn. There are a lot of hands that pick up equity on the turn that could be raising as a semibluff and a lot of rivers that wouldn't be great to see (a heart, J, 9, A).

I just think you miss out on a lot of value from combo draws and 2 pair type hands that would call a jam on the turn if you just call. If you flat and a heart comes on the river, are you going to check/call? If an offsuit 2 comes on the river do you check and hope villain bluffs at it with his busted draws? Do you have any reads on villain regarding his river bluff frequencies? If a blank does come on the river and you check with the intention of check calling, it would be a nightmare if villain checks back.

As noted above, you're only losing to QQ and J9s, and there are only 10 combos total of those hands. Not to mention I would think villain would sometimes be 4b QQ.

I think you played it fine. I'll sometimes 3b PF, and on the flop I'll sometimes call sometimes raise.

I'd Cbet entire range small on the flop and check fold turn. As played turn is a fold.

I agree with what belrio42 says about Pete Clarke's videos on 3 betting a mixed strategy. I usually follow this strategy when I'm in BB vs an unknown BTN or CO open, the only difference being that my overall range for continuing vs the CO open is a bit tighter.

As for a SB strategy, Pete Clarke also has a good video on this in his 'From the Ground Up' course. Essentially he advocates adopting a 3bet or fold strategy from the SB, with your range being created depending on the opener's position. Ie. you will be 3 betting a lot of BTN opens, and way less UTG opens. You can find lots of starting range charts out there, and then you can play with it in a solver or as you play.

There are times where deviating from the 3bet or fold strategy is fine though, like when either the BB is a fish, or doesn't squeeze often, and you have a hand not good enough to 3bet but plays well multiway. The thing with a lot of these strategies to always consider is that they are attempting to be balanced strategies. I'm real games against opponents that don't play balanced, you can make a lot more money by playing exploitative and not balanced. For example against someone who folds too much to 3 bets you can 3bet polarized. Vs an opponent that calls too much 3bet linear. Pete covers all this in his vids, but it's something to be mindful of. Don't just follow a strategy blindly without thinking about it in game.

sunshine98 To understand the math, think about it from the Villain's perspective when he's deciding to bet. When he bets 2/3 pot, he is risking .66 pot to win what's in the pot + the 0.66 pot bet. So the amount of fold equity he needs to run a profitable bluff (assuming whenever he gets called he loses) = risk / (risk + reward) = 0.66 / (0.66 + 1) = 0.66/1.66 ~ 40%. Another words, if you fold 40% of the time or more, it's a +EV bluff. Therefore, you need to defend 100% - 40% = 60%. This is known as your "Minimum defense frequency" or MDF.

This is a pretty loaded question. I would check out Pete Clarke's Grinder manual or his 'From the Ground Up' course here on RIO. He covers all of the fundamental topics such as Cbetting strats, PF hand selection and 3bet strats, overbetting, equity, pot odds etc. Honestly I think if you were able to absorb even some of the material in his book/course and understand the concepts, you would be much better off than just going into zombie mode and clicking random buttons based on one or two stats on your HUD.

While I understand your strategy, I think A9 is definitely a bet on this flop. I assume BB would 3b all better aces with the exception of maybe AT, so A9 is essentially the same as AJ in this spot. I also don't think you can assume villain is ever folding to a 3/4 bet on the flop with any Ax, unless you know he's an uber nit.

Because of the small bet size, you only need 32% equity to call here based on the pot odds.

Villain has a bunch of flushes, QJ for the straight, and a lot of Lower Ax that I can see betting this river. There are not a lot of bluffs that make sense here, unless you know villain will turn his mid pair hands like 99, 88 or Tx with a spade into a bluff on the turn, and it's not even clear if villain will be calling with all of these on the flop.

However, because its BvB I think there is a small chance villain has complete air, and that coupled with the fact that he would be betting A7, A6 etc there are enough combos that you beat vs the ones you lose to (I believe, I didnt actually do the math) that makes this a call. I would expect to lose pretty often to a flush or straight, but I think the small river size makes this a mandatory call. Had the bet been closer to pot it becomes closer to a fold.

I'd either 4Bet or fold PF, depending on how wide UTG is opening. Generally in full ring games UTG opens pretty tight, and given the action I would just let it go. If you flat in the BB I would expect to get 4b pretty frequently and you would be just burning money with the call. If UTG is opening wide you can 4b as a bluff as you have blockers to a lot of his strongest hands.

This is a very broad question and needs a little more specificity to get a good answer.

If I understand your question correctly though, it seems like you are asking how your range should differ for flatting 3 way+ pots vs flatting a single open. The answer to this question is going to vary greatly based on the positions of you, and the opening raiser and caller. Also it is going to depend on the type of player who opened the pot initially (is he a 10/8 nit who opened to 4x UTG or is it a reg who opens to 2.2x from MP, CO calls and you are on the button with AJo.

It is very difficult to just give you a 'one and done' type answer but to give you some kind of answer, I'd say that the better price you are getting to your flat, the wider you can call. This is especially true when you are on the button or in the BB. If a nit opens UTG and you get two callers in front of you and you are on the button, playing almost any suited cards and connected cards and all pocket pairs is going to be profitable. You should be careful in 3way+ pots especially at lower stakes though as a lot of people set mine like crazy. My general strategy for flatting pf in 3way+ pots is to flat a lot in the BB as you will be getting a really good price, flatting more pocket pairs and suited connected hands on the button, and looking for good spots to squeeze primary in the SB(I like to not have a flatting range in the SB at all)

I don't know if I helped at all, and if you want to ask a more specific question feel free, but if you're just looking for a chart you're going to have a hard time finding one as it is very Villain, position, and situation dependant.