Paired boards
Posted by John Shamwoww
Posted by
John Shamwoww
posted in
Low Stakes
Paired boards
new to the forums so first of all glad to be part of the site :)
I play 25nl reg and zoom tables (6 max) and seem to have some trouble with more of my marginal holdings, especially OOP, on paired boards.
I have been watching some videos on various sites and instructors do vary on their stance in these situations.
I want to give 3 different scenarios and see how people play them.
Scenario 1:
We open AQo UTG and get called by the button who is a 20/18.
Board: 722r.
Do you check or bet? Are your intentions to check and call or fold? If we bet, do we barrel scare cards and obviously A's and Q's or do you shut down? What are your thoughts as you play the hand?
Scenario 2:
We have the same hand and this time it's a more aggressive opponent who is playing 29/25 who calls us on the button.
The same questions apply. What are you thoughts on flop, turn and river?
Scenario 3:
Again we have AQo UTG and open. This time we are readless on villain on the BTN who calls.
Board: TTJr
How would you play this hand?
I know some of the questions are very broad but i am hoping to pick the brains of some of you and get a thought process in my mind to approach these situations better instead of feeling exploited every time i play these spots.
Thanks,
John.
Loading 7 Comments...
1) Your tight-ish/standard opponent will usually flat pairs there and maybe some suited broadways depending on who's left behind to act. The wider he flats, the more likely your cbet is a success. Knowing he has many pairs, I don't expect a flop fold or raise so it's a spot where you can barrel but it's risky to try and make people fold flopped overpairs. You can probably triple J+ on turn or river as a bluff/value depending on what comes and do so with many of your broadway hands. If turn is a blank you can barrel if he floats some and if it's J+ you represent TP+ by tripleling. If river is the broadway card it's a bit tougher but might still work.
2)More equity and some more folding equity, he probably floats more often so you can be inclined to barrel more as a semibluff with your overs. Make sure he is not the type of player that calls wide pre just to hit because then he doesn't bluff call (float) the flop.
Check/calling is a bit risky if he barrels vs missed cbet. If he bets once and gives up it's decent since he'll try to rep A and Q => implied odds, plus you are likely to have the best hand without improving. The problem here is you are not much ahead and he capitalizes on his equity share very often. You need to weigh that before you decide.
3) Cbet more obvious than all of those. Readless you have enough equity + folding equity to bet and if your assumptions of average unknown is he doesn't fold a pair or some A high here you can double barrel with reasonably clean equity and blocking at least part of his continuing range like AJ, AT, KQ, QJ, QT, etc.
Hope it helps and let me know what you think.
I think my biggest leak in my thought process is "I have a strong A high that plays well at showdown, i must get there as cheap as possible" and it becomes very face up to good opponents and i'm very unbalanced in my continuing range.
Secondly, how would you approach these hands in position. For example, you are the BTN opener and say, the same villain types defend in the BB.
Would it be largely the same or would you include more check backs in your flop play?
Just a quick note, remember to consider yours and the villain's positions/ranges when measuring show down value. When he flats your ep open he's likely to have a range that's pocket pair heavy without a ton of worse Ax in his range meaning AQ high has a lot less showdown value than it would BVB.
I think you are right that you have showdown value on the flop even OOP but this is where the trouble starts:
- if you check/call your opponent bets a decent range and realizes his equity a lot of the time.
- if you bet you can get floated and raised more often
AQ is just a semi-bluff in all spots for me but depending on opponent you can barrel or not imo. Would definitely like to hear more input on this...
Cbet and reevaluate turn?
Delay cbet?
Ch/give up?
To me it seems like we have a lot of good turn cards that give us equity to barrel our hand (6s', 9's and J's) and also our perceived range (J,Q,K,A). If we have a back door FD then even better.
The 3bet% stat against people you have hands on can also be important on those board textures, if they have a high 3bet% with a lower cold calling%, then depending on positions i'd be very often inclined to triple barrel if a broadway card hits the turn since those guys will way more often have small/medium pocket pairs in their calling range and will be nearly always 3betting hands like AK/KQ etc since their mentality is "i'm ahead of his CO/BTN opening range, i want to 3bet those hands for value or as semi-bluff", while the opposite for those with a low 3bet% and higher cold calling%.
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