Coffeespoons16

I neglected to comment of flop and turn play and focused on the decision to call river.

Readless I'd usually check flop to keep villains range wider and once I check flop I call turn and river. Villains stats (without seeing showdown of this hand) lead you to assume he isn't going to be getting too out of line on this flop or calling it super light that often. Since that's the case it would probably be a mistake to try and get 3 streets of value with A6 on this board vs a reg running those numbers as they're usually going to show you a better hand. If villain was something stupid like 57/18 with a no fold to 3bet, cbet and had a WTSD of 30+ you could make a case for attempting to get 3 streets (but given the run out of the board that may not be great).

All that being said I like checking flop for the reason stated above, to keep his range wider and possibly get 2 streets from worse or induce. Checking flop also means that we aren't playing a guessing game vs a stronger range on the river, whereas by checking it might be a bit easier. Seeing his hand now we can see that betting worked out really well.

The discussion of balance might come up when we suggest checking flop with this hand, but I think checking here keeps us balanced to a certain degree as against this opponent we would most likely check 99-KK, bet AT+ and air, which seems to be a reasonably balanced range. I think the case can be made to bet 99-KK and A6s for value here against certain opponents but vs this one, a 23/18, I'd say checking works best.

I think river is a call assuming this is the first time we've been in this situation with villain. Getting an idea of what hands villain defends out of position here and what hands he can take this line with is going to result in our being able to exploit him more in the future I think. Obviously if villain shows us AQ here instead of 9Tss we don't take as much away from the hand, but we still get something. Granted there are possibly 30 combos of hands that beat you here if we assume he 4bets AK pre, calls out of position with ATs and 22/88 and only check calls with those hands on the flop we are in a spot of bother getting the required 25-30% equity we need on the river to call, but without having seen villain go to showdown before in this spot I call and take note of what he shows up with and how he played it.

You should also put up more stats so we have as much information as you do to give you better feedback. For instance knowing how much he 4bets is quite important here I think and, if you have a decent sample of them, his WTSD, WWSF, Fold to cbet in 3bet pot, etc. Also his aggression frequency street by street might help too.