Is my soul an open book?

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Is my soul an open book?

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/8042788_C350E41963

Hey guys,

I'm curious as to what people think of the action by both of us. On the river I figured my J8 high was no good, and he likely had many similar hands that could check fold. i thought i could rep some pairs, some 34dd type hands and that i had to bet to take it down. I'm wondering if this guy is a POW or a real wizard who gazed into my soul?

thanks for any thoughts


13 Comments

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MrSneeze 11 years ago

Sick call from vilain. Don't know if it's good, but you are for sure repping a missed draw with your line. You rep very little for value (22, A9s). To make this kind of call, vilain is likely to be a thinking player, and to be honest I kinda understand why he's doing it (him having JT, he can discount the better GS you can have in your range that are bluffing + you're likely to raise the K hi and Q hi FD on the flop (they are often combo draws) + you shouldn't have so many pairs turned into bluff + you might showdown K hi river).

Or vilain is just a paranoid station.

Either way, what you have to learn from this hand, is to be careful about what you're repping, and also not bluffing against players that don't want to fold. You might be better off betting slightly smaller turn, and river a 1/3 rd pot bet could have more EV than a shove (adding to that you're not risking your tournament life on a cold stone bluff).


Dr.Octagon 11 years ago

Thanks for the analysis. Originally I thought, o well lets move on, because so few ppl are capable of making that call in MTTs anyways.

I certainly didn't give enough thought to what I was actually repping. I'm still not sure this can be that great by villain unless he had a specific read on me(which is possible being the monkey I've been, although I had no notes or memory of history with him). 

So, can he beat enough combos of air to make this good? wouldn't mind a math whiz's help here.

I like the idea of smaller bet sizings. Its something I've been consciously trying to work on so I'm not going broke in these spots. I think you can get away with some pretty cheap bluffs in the right spots.

I think the reason I went with those sizes is because generally I will try to bluff in a similar way that I would be betting for value there. Since I would likely go this big for max value, I thought I should take the same sizes as a bluff. Also I find when its for their whole stack, or near to it, people have a tougher time calling off with J10high : )

Do you think having the smaller bet sizes makes it easier for him to call because he has a better price, or less likely to call because it looks stronger?

either way I see the reasons for not risking my own life with J8 high!


MrSneeze 11 years ago

Actually it's not only about the smaller sizing looking stronger (because it's not always true: often a small sizing indicates more weakness than a big one), it's about telling a coherent story. On this spot your story is not so coherent: you're repping a strong range willing to go for heavy value by betting very strong turn  / shoving river. What nut value hand do you get there with? => AA/QQ are not in your range, AQ you might sqz pre and will definitely raise flop (or should be expected to), A2s is not always a flat pre, you could for sure raise flop ; same with 22, but I do see some people overcall (more likely to overcall than AQ).

The 9 turn makes A9s a nut hand given opponent's action. Still that's only 2 combos. If we add the 3 combos of 22 (that you will often raise flop), you hardly can show up with more than 5 value combos that would want to stack off (that is the story told by the sizing). In comparison you can have any flop gutshot, any flush draw, in your range. What vilain has to figure out is how you would play your draws.

Still overall it looks like you're semibluffing very often. If you had bet smaller you might be more able to rep some Ax type hands. Still doesn't imply you'll actually get folds, as it's so easy for you to have a draw, and so hard to have a made hand good enough that it would want to stack off 4 way (as it is on the turn and you bet pretty big).

CairyHunts 11 years ago

I think we might be overanalyzing here a bit. If we take a look at his turncall, we have to assume that he doesnt have the slightest clue what he's doing, range and equitywise. Also, we need to have sick history to ever profitably make a call here versus anyone, because our range still has a lot of weak onepair combos in it, that aren't jamming for value, but trying to force folds from Ax combos, Qx combos etcetera. Just because we aren't jamming for value, doesn't mean our entire range is constructed around airballs.

MrSneeze 11 years ago

Agreed with the possibility that vilain just doesn't know what he's doing (I still never see Jhi river call from recreational players).

As for our onepair combos we would turn into bluff, which ones do you see? It's not as if we'd overcall flop with 77. Don't see KQ play so fast often (don't think we should).

John Shamwoww 11 years ago

What a disgustingly sick call! Unlucky OP.


I'm tending to side with MrSneeze here because i don't see what hands we play like this too often that just flat flop and then fire off too streets except for nearly all our draws. But J high is a … well, good for him! 


I mean our value range is like AJ, AT and he blocks two of those combos (i'm assuming we don't flat AJo and ATo here) and then i don't think anything else because AQ and 22 raise flop (and also A2s if you do have that in your range).

Rapha Nogueira 11 years ago

your turn size is too high, almost 20 bbs on the third level of blinds at a turbo tournament. Your hand has a lot of multiway equity, you still have 13 outs that probably will make you nuts on the river and there's no reason to bet on the turn more than 380-460. And also you're giving an almost 1:1 spr to the guy who opened UTG and bet multiway that may have like ATo. bluffing on this static boards and which everything missed isn't the best, specially with this such a polarizing bet where your value range doesn't seem to be very wide, considering that the guy showed some weaknesses just calling 2 streets. you can't profitable shove your sets there considering that a lot of the villain range will be composed by some draws or some pair+draws. his range is too weak to call almost a pot size bet and you have a lot of missed draws too. 

JT call is absolutely sick but you could play it in a different way that I think it is more profitable at tourneys. 

John Shamwoww 11 years ago

That could be true but it doesn't change that OP's line has been debated as a way to improve. So no, not end of thread. 

Dr.Octagon 10 years, 11 months ago

Appreciate all thoughts!

thanks john, I like that you pointed out how he blocks AJ and A10, I hadnt considered that. I think it was a truly sick call in the end. I shall be working on my sizing and story telling.

And thank you andre for your insight and thread ending powers!

ashley jenkin 10 years, 11 months ago

If you ask me this is just clearly a hand where villain is tilted to have missed his draw so just calls out of pure tilt, if it was some soul read then why didnt he timebank and think the hand through, you can see hes bad he flats Jto after an utg raise early in an mtt then he calls flop with a gutshot and calls a big turn bet still with just a draw. personally i would of checked turn to take a free card you definitely dont want to bet fold that massive draw and bet calling off there isnt good either, also its early in the mtt early on there is no need to get out of line.

mikehunsucker 10 years, 11 months ago

villians flat OOP on the flop, and turn, with a flush draw on board, indicates a weaker opponent imo.  river call is a joke imo, and as played, likely a misclick.  If you had serious history, or villian played previous streets differently, we could argue differently.


my only issue with the hand, was our plan after our large turn bet. were we shoving all rivers if checked to?  the 5 is a horrible bluff card, and as mentioned by others, we are def not repping many value hands.

whether he misclicked or not, isn't the important part of this hand. it's our plan for rivers, and what our turn bet is setting up.


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