Interesting Spot in 1/2 game at Sands Bethelham PA

[Alex Dow]

hand from last week thats not haunting me, not a huge huge hand but just thought worth sharing and hearing everyone tell me they would’ve called in this spot where i folded.

Late night around 3 Am at sands bethelham, i had been playing 1/3 plo until the game broke around 11 pm and only two non appealing 2/5 nlh games running and a wide selection of 1/2 nlh, so i hop into one and am able to dig myself out of the whole from PLO (-$400). I have a decent $800ish stack after 4 hours of play on 1 $300 bullet. And then this hand happens.. Table was fairly typical 1/2 pace, lots a passive play, limp calling pre, multi-way flops/turns, any aggression from these guys was most often nutted hands or random spazz outs, except for villain here. He had his wsop hat, his cat like face, his tall lanky self, his thick souther accent, his and his beer after beer after beer. He was aggressive as all hell, but pretty smart with it. Sure he liked to gamble (shoving nearly every time he straddled) but seemed to have a good understanding of when to pump the gas or push the breaks. A very capable opponent.

**HAND**

I fold here for a few reasons:

– the villains standard opening raise was about $20 ($17-$30), and he was showing up with all sorts of junk with those raises. The dynamics had shifted thru out the 4 hours and tho the table had some ok money on it, it was a really dry passive game at this moment. So him sizing down with QQ-JJ this go around is totally feasible.

-the turn click min click back 4 bet. it’s maybe in his arsenal to do this with like J-8, J-10 or A-K of clubs i suppose, but to me it feels like hes trying to keep me in the hand while playing off his whacky aggressive image.

-river i tank for about 45 seconds and he calls clock on me.

note: he didn’t show and he certainly loved showing his bluffs. he later told me he had a missed open ended straight flush draw which would’ve been J-10 of clubs. Not sure if i believe him to be honest, but who knows.

please offer your thoughts…

• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Alex Dow.

[baz weaver]

I would not of raised the turn for pot control …..and i would of check called the river

[Frederick F]

I actually like leading the turn, but I think as played the river is a shrug call.

[Old Dog]

Okay, I’ll be one of those guys. First, I don’t know that I would have called villain’s raise to play against a clever opponent OOP. That said, you hit a miracle flop and even better turn.The only reasonable hands you are behind are K-10 and 10-8. It’s very unlikely that villain has a 9 or a boat. The small bets on a coordinated board with two opponents smack a lot harder of a draw than trip Q’s or J’s. It seems like you let his image and river bet size run you over. So…I would have happily called.

[Alex Dow]

Yea I agree with everyone’s logic here. I personally like a lead on that turn a lot. I completely understand the logic of just fold and find a better spot than defending with 10-9 off from the big, but as the game went at the time it felt fine. I had sorta come to that conclusion myself, that even with a LAG strategy at these insanely passive PA/New England 1/2 no limit games, that is a pretty easy fold pre flop. Especially if I fold river when I have trips against a capable player.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Alex Dow.

[shipitbruh]

Pre: I don’t hate calling his small raise with 109o, but you will likely be going multiway OOP with a rather weak holding. I think folding/calling are both fine. But we will be put in difficult spots here a large amount of the time.

Flop: check/call is standard, well played with bottom pair and OESD.

Turn: This is where I think we get ourselves into trouble. I think check/call is the better line, we keep our opponents bluffs in and avoid getting put in a tough spot. We have great showdown value with trips and still can hit our straight.

River: Why did we call his click back 4b on the turn to fold to a complete brick for only a half pot bet? We block K10, if he flopped a set of JJ or QQ wouldn’t he bet larger on the flop to protect against a straight draw?

[Luong]

Sup Alex from a Montrealer
There already a couple comments above talking about how to play the hand so I’m a skip that part.
But i notice 2 interesting details that could help assign villain rang here

1) the 12$ PF raise by villain

Sb,Bb,3 callers = 9$ death money if villain has a hand like JJ or QQ, I think the PF raise should be little more probably around 18$. With 12$ PF villain could have other holding such at Q9,J9..the boat at the turn that beat us but wait,let go to point #2 before giving villain Q9,J9

2) pretty weird amount of villain 4 bet

U C/R his 20$ to 66$, villain 4 bet it to 120$. After your C/R If villain is a decent player like u say, his thinking should be..u flop a straight or u have 9x, so maybe full house for u. Again if villain have a strong hand here such at a full house (straight probably just call) his 4bet seizing should be more around 140-150$ to setup his river shove. But instead of that villain almost minraise (the gap is 46 btw). Let put us on villain shoe… what would we do
We r not gona make that small 4bet right? We will just call the raise in position and let our opponent fire the river then we shove. I may have an idea why villain 4bet that small, surely villain want to have the lead at the river, he don’t want to face a big bet from u if he flatted, it a kind of pot ctrl.

With this 2 details combine together. Now we could assign our villain rang.
1 pair type hand at the flop +
sort of SD
2 pairs type hand at the flop QJ
But not Q9,J9

Lately villain revealed he has J10 that includes on the 1 pair type hand + SD, villain may tell the true after all.

The river bet was not part of villain plan at all .. impulsive bet.

The final result:
we snap call the river!!!
We won $$$
Thank you mr.villain $!!$

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Luong.

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