Bluffing with the best hand?

[Sam]

Hi guys,

I wanted to share with you this kinda cool, kinda weird hand I played last night…

It was a great table: very loose, very passive, lots of straddles, biggish multiway pots and no one putting me to tough decisions. This is a hand played earlier in the session:

A loose passive player in middle position opens to 10, there are 2 callers, and I look down at JhTh on the button. I make the call, and both blinds come along as well, so we go SIX ways to a flop of 2T2 rainbow.

The big blind, who is both very passive and has some pretty easy sizing tells, leads into the field for 10. It folds to me, and I make the call. It’s not my favorite spot in the world, but the BB bet super small and can absolutely have worse tens, scared middling pocket pairs, and a pretty wide range. The small blind overcalls.

The turn is a 6, creating a back door flush draw, and the action checks to me. I check it back for a couple reasons: A) the small blind can very easily have a 2, B) the big blind, though unlikely, could blow me off my hand if I bet, and C) I don’t see much worse calling me here. IF the small blind bets the river, I plan to fold, and if the BB bets I’m not sure what I will do.

The river is another 6, double pairing the board. The small blind checks, and the BB bets 10 yet again, into a pot of 90, and I have somewhat of an interesting spot.

First off, it appears we all have pretty capped ranges (though I’m pretty sure they don’t know my range is capped as well). I think the big blind has AT at best, possibly JJ or QQ that he chose not to raise preflop (seriously, big pocket pairs were limped by the whole table), or a worse pocket pair. The small blind probably has about the same range, with a small chance of a really slow played 2.

Both players are pretty passive and they can have fairly wide, weak ranges here. I don’t love calling with JT here, because I can have better jacks, maybe A2 suited, and just some better hands. That being said, against my opponents’ fairly wide ranges, this hand MIGHT be strong enough for a call in this exact spot. At the time, I didn’t think it was, however, so I raised to 55. It’s a small raise for sure, but here’s why: A) I don’t think either of these guys took pot odds into consideration, B) I don’t think either of them knows I will very very rarely have a 2 here, and C) they both played the hand incredibly weakly. Finally, my thinking at the time (not sure if this is true now) was that AT, KT, and QT would probably all fold to my raise. Also, I think in general if I was repping a 2, I probably wouldn’t size too large here, being far ahead.

I like a fold in this type of spot a lot of the time, but just because of sizing and the lines my opponents took, it was incredibly unlikely either of them had a 2.

Anyways…the small blind looks a little annoyed, and folds in about 15 seconds. The big blind looks like I’ve caused him a lot of pain, and he does the same song and dance, and lets it go as well.

After the hand, I asked the small blind if I got him to lay down KT, and he says absolutely not, that his hand was way worse. The big blind wouldn’t say what he had, but the CO on my right, when I told him I had JT, said I definitely had the best hand. In a better game, that should very rarely be true, but maybe I overestimated my opponents’ ranges in this spot, and maybe they are never folding a better T to a raise in this spot.

What do you guys think? Is the raise ill-advised? Did I overestimate their ranges? Keep in mind, this table was very weak.

[Author]

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