$1-3 NL – Finding Where I'm At

This was a hand from my evening session. The game was good. Lots of table chatter and laughing, except from the villain in this hand sitting to my left. This hand ended with a interesting discussion of what villain and other players thought I had, and what I thought of the ranges. I’ll summarize the quick discussion at the end.

Hero stack: 900
Hero hand: QQ
Hero position:BTN

Villain stack: 300
Villain hand: KK
Villain position: SB

Preflop:
Hero opens 15, villain calls

Pot: 30
Flop: 10 5 10 r
Villain donks 20, hero raise to 50, villain tank calls

Pot: 130
Turn: 10s
Villain checks, hero bets 125, villain calls

Pot: 380
River: 4
Villain checks, hero checks

Villain in this hand had been very quiet and playing few hands. In fact, I “lost” track of him cause of his very low VPIP. I wasn’t sure where I was at with him preflop, but I assumed he had a made hand as well.

He donk-bet into me on the flop. Now I know he has a hand, but still was not sure how strong. I think he may have thought I was raising with an ace and was betting hoping to take the pot down. He’s also representing the ten. I make a small 3bet in position with my overpair.

He calls and I narrowed his range to: 99+, set of 5 for flopped full-house, or 10X. He has no draws here.

The turn saved me I think. If he flopped a full-house, he just got counterfeited. He is not holding pocket 10s. When he called my turn bet, he was really weighted towards JJ+, J10, Q10, A10, K10. I gave him credit to know his flopped full house is no longer good. 99 was taken out because this player type would not donk-bet with over cards on the board and call a flop reraise.

On the river, he has about 100 left behind. He checks to me. I count up the hands:

I beat: 99, JJ.
I lose to AA, KK, J10, Q10, K10, A10

Its not looking good for me. Given the player being so tight and passive, and his action, I have no reason to bet here. I check and quietly muck my hand.

The very brief discussion of the hand was interesting. As villain was scooping in his pot, he says “I thought you had aces.” I thought that was interesting. If he thought I had aces, he still called a big bet on the turn. Even if I had aces, and I made a final river-bet, with his remaining stack, he’s not folding. So I thought, it was weird that if he truly thought I had aces, why would he call me down?

The players to my right all thought I had the ten there and not thinking of my range. They were not thinking of the villains range, as well. It’s very interesting, what I hear about “thinking” poker, at this level is true, and very few are players thinking of ranges. And that they are all thinking different things as well. A real testament of how complex this game really is.

I’m guessing the more regular players would go for broke in this hand. I lost a big hand, but I was happy with my decisions in this spot. It’s one long session anyways right?

Villain folded hands for about 20 minutes and racked up. No chance to get involved with him again. I have a lot of trouble with this player type, playing his big hands very passive. I either lose a big to them playing so passive or win small from them because they never build a pot.