2/5 NL river bluff

Posted by

Posted by posted in Mid Stakes

2/5 NL river bluff

Live game over the weekend. I came over from a broken 4-handed 2/5/10 PLO game and have been playing pretty laggy so far but haven't shown a ton of aggression in later streets. Snapped off a bluff with K4o on a Kc6s5sQdJc board in a ~180bb pot earlier in the session where I c/c both turn & river.

Villain in this hand is a pretty straightforward TAG-ish player who gets a little passive on later streets and generally avoids big pots/tough spots. I had seen him 3-bet a couple times but then step off the gas in later streets. I'm playing $675, he has me covered.

-UTG +2 opens to $20, I flat on the button with AsJh. HU to flop.

Pre-flop I feel is standard and I'm happy to play pots with him, in position particularly because I feel I can take pots away on later streets and have stronger hand reading skills. He has also shown to be somewhat passive post-flop.

-Flop: JsQs4h
-Villain checks, I bet $28, he calls.
-Turn: Ks
-Villain bets $65, I raise to $175, he calls.
-River: 6h
-He checks, I bet $400 (essentially all-in).

Thoughts? I'll post river decision later.

13 Comments

Loading 13 Comments...

Parker Muir 12 years, 3 months ago
I'm down with this given your specific read on him and the sweet blockers you have in your hand.

But I do think you need to be careful though, because I doubt you raise the turn very thin for value and are basically repping only flushes, of which there aren't many combos.
Bill 12 years, 3 months ago
I see what you mean and how that could be translated... which is exactly why I fired the river as played. Clearly this is one hand, one instance, one read. However your analysis regarding value betting the turn with a limited range is something I will consider moving forward. One thing I tend to get caught up with is reading my opponents well but disregarding my own potential holdings in their eyes based on my observations. Thanks for the feedback.
James Hudson 12 years, 3 months ago
I'd check back the flop personally. Seems like you're going to be mighty unhappy if he checkraises and there aren't going to be a TON of worse hands that check call.
Bill 12 years, 3 months ago
James.. If I do choose that flop line and then:
A. He bets same amount.
B. He checks again.
What is your action and why?
James Hudson 12 years, 3 months ago
A) I'd call because we have showdown value and a redraw. Once he checks the flop and bets the turn in a single raised pot there's no reason that our hand can't be the best hand and even if he isn't we have outs to improve so no need to turn it into a bluff.

B) I'd make a small bet because I feel like we're almost freerolling this bet in a sense. By this I mean that given that he's shown weakness by checking twice and we have the blocker to the nuts it seems really unlikely that we get check raised. With that said, even if we do happen to get check raised we can call given our draw to the nuts. The bet is basically thin value/ protection to perhaps get called by a hand like 10s10x or J10.
MerArk 12 years, 3 months ago
Your given reads of him being passive post flop and who tries to avoid big pots crushes when he leads the turn and even calls a raise after. Since river comes a blank your river bet does quite pollarize your range ... And seems when he called you on turn his bottom range is two pairs +... His river decision probably will depend on the history you guys have (meaning how often you take this line with nut type hands and bluffs ) and his WTSD % .
DickDollars 12 years, 3 months ago
I think this is pretty good given that turn raises in live games are so often nut hands and villain knows by calling the raise he is also repping a strong hand and shouldn't expect you to continue on river as a bluff.

What you're up against is whether or not he's capable of folding a hand like KQ or AT here (more likely hands imo than a small flush and his line - given that he is PFR ). My experience in live games is that opponents aren't really thinking about your hand/line being polarized so much as the absolute value of their own hand - his decision probably won't have anything to do w/ how many combos of flushes you can have.

A couple other subconscious things in your favor:

- You bet $400 instead of all-in, looks less bluffy to some players.

- He has you covered, TAG/straightforward players don't like to lose huge chunks of their stack during a winning session on big river calls. He can definitely call a turn raise hoping he gets to showdown w/o committing to the hand on the river.
Bill 12 years, 3 months ago
"What you're up against is whether or not he's capable of folding a hand like KQ or AT here (more likely hands imo than a small flush and his line - given that he is PFR ). My experience in live games is that opponents aren't really thinking about your hand/line being polarized so much as the absolute value of their own hand - his decision probably won't have anything to do w/ how many combos of flushes you can have."

That's a great point and something I have been trying to be more aware of. When I raised the turn, I had already decided that I was pot'ing the river because once he calls the turn I feel he polarizes his range even more. However to the average player, folding a hand like AT is hard even though the story I was telling was for him to fold based on my range. If I thought I had a decent % of winning at SD, I would have checked behind. It may just be that he decided he was calling any non-spade/board pair river and no bet amount would have stopped him.
Bill 12 years, 3 months ago
Ok, so now seems like a good time to tell you what actually happened.

Villain agonized for a bit and eventually called with 9cTc
Sean Lefort 12 years, 3 months ago
Agree with everything James said.

As played, the river jam is mandatory unless you have some explo-reason to think he's a station in these spots. His range is screaming "I never have a flush" with the wild exception of 4Xss that he decided to play this way which should be pretty rare. I also don't expect him to chk/call flop with AT very often so it sounds like you *almost* got him to fold out his entire range (given that T9 is pretty much his nut hand).

Any time you have a super sweet blocker and you have a good chance of folding out their whole range, it's generally a good spot to let her rip. WP.
James Hudson 12 years, 3 months ago
"James - as played, do you bet the river if the board pairs?"

On a K or a Q probably not and on a jack I'd probably take our showdown value as we've sort of over represented our hand on the turn so I wouldn't expect to get call by worse much at all if we value jammed. If the 4 paired maybe, maybe not, depends on my mood.
igotya 12 years, 3 months ago
I agree with what James has said aswell, though I would like to point out that if villian isn't c/r, the flop bet can easily be mandatory.

Be the first to add a comment

Runitonce.com uses cookies to give you the best experience. Learn more about our Cookie Policy