Kuduku

Yeah I'm also raising this flop a lot of the time.

It's unfortunate that we block most of villain's x/f range otr.

AK - Villain might not barrel the turn without at least a big spade - which we block.
AJ - Villain likely has a follow-through on the river with those few combos (this might be reason for slight river over-bluff if he always bets AJ on turn).

AsXs, AcXc - Will fold if we bet but he might not have enough of those combos in chis check-give-up-range because they are in his bluff-range ott/otr. Again, might be a reason for slight over-bluff on this board but I am unsure about that part of villain's range.

JJ, 99 might not find the fold button.

QQ,TT, 88, 77, AQ, KQ, QJ, QT, JT - Will not fold.

So all in all I think that because we block so much of villain's x/f range otr we should not bluff this specific combo. It sucks because we are never winning if we check back but I also believe that if we bet villain does not have enough check-folds to make this a profitable or 0EV bluff.
It's possible I am completely off here and constructed the ranges wrong in my head but those are my thoughts on the situation.

think the hand is well played and the river is probably extremely close either way.
The only thing I personally would change is how to proceed otf. And tbh, this might be very non-gto but I like to start piling in chips there - my brain probably does this to protect me from difficult turn or river decisions like this one.

Frankly, I just recently got back into the game since legislation in my country allows online poker again so I might be a bit rusty but I thought I'd give this hand a shot.

Sorry I misread your hand. Thought you had hearts.

I would go as far as asking "what does the turn bet accomplish?"
Do we really want to get stacks in with this hand?

Check-raise flop - not turn, and then block-lead river for 1/3 or so.

This is fine in gto-land where villain's have enough bluffs in their 4bet range but against humans I think it's way too loose. Especially if you're still learning how to play well in 4b pots.
For me a more optimal calling range against humans looks something like this:

I think that you can probably even get away with scrapping QJs-KQs, ATs, and 77 completely.

I can see why TT or even 99 with a club peals the flop but 88 is a bit too optimistic to say the least. Especially against a range that does not include enough bluffs to begin with.

• If you fold this you're basically folding your entire range aside from a couple of slow-played AA.
• I'd shove flop for value because we can't just fold premium over-pairs on dry boards in 4bet pots without massively over-folding and opening ourselves up to heavy exploitation by aggressive players.
• Board textures don't get much better than this for QQ.
• If you think that this is a fold otf/ott without hitting a set you probably should've folded pre-flop against this massive 4bet. Or not 3bet QQ in the first place.

Checking back the turn would be my action of choice here.
As played I think we need to size-up on our river bluff because we need more fold-equity, and we have a large number of bluffs in our range.

Fireplace

together with

Rainfall

A few things I can say about block-betting but I'm not sure how correct they are so please take this with a grain of salt.

• I try to consider a block bet on rivers when I am oop as the pfr, and when I have an uncapped range.

• I use it when I want to avoid getting bluffed off the best hand for example.

• I try to incorporate it when I don't want to call a huge river bet.

• It can also help to control the size of the pot or "freeze" villain a bit so to speak.

• I also block-bet some times when I have a very strong hand, and don't want to see villain check-back river.

• When I have a missed draw, and the river was an advantageous card for my range.

• I try to think about how the turn/river affects the two ranges, and which turns/rivers are good for our range.

• Flopzilla has a very neat feature that visualizes different turn/river cards as a "heat-map" for both players.

In practice I run a ton of sims in gto+. I try to find spots from my hand histories where I went x/c x/c and am facing a river decision, connect with Flopzilla, and play around with different outcomes. Or I solve a number of random flops and then look how different turns/rivers play out. I usually set up a bunch of bet-sizes for those sims, solve them over night, and try to find spots in them where block-bet is used frequently.

I try to get a feeling for when those spots occur, and the criteria they require to be viable.Then I hope to recall the strategies in my gut or my sub-conscious mind whenever I face a similar decision at the tables.

But in all honesty I am no expert when it comes to block-betting at all. I think that it is a difficult strategy to play well, and relevant spots do not come up very frequently.
It's also not a spot that is being studied by many players. So they make mistakes against it. I know that I've made my fair share of bad block-bets or bad decisions when facing one.

How big a nit am I if I only call with boats/quads otr?
What are your thoughts on block-betting river 25-30% pot intending to fold vs a jam?
Range for block-betting would be a few missed flushdraws such as KcQc, QcJc, and then A3s, JJ+, T9s. We could mix in some boats for balance but I'd rather check-raise those.

River has to be a fold here. I agree with how massively under-bluffed this line is - especially on this kind of board. Even in theory this has to be a fold given the condensed SB flatting range, and the lack of natural bluffs.
I'd call river with sets only, and with 22/33 it would be a sad-call.

I'm check-calling flop, evaluating turn here. However, c-betting 1/3 is fine as well if that is your overall strategy.
As played I think we should just continue betting turn. Half-pot looks about geometric, and would be the size I'd chose.

I think that check-raising flop is better than check-calling with our hand and here is why:
The fact that he is c-betting range for 1/3 pot on this board makes me think that he is not very competent at assessing cbet-sizing on different textures. That, or he just wants to get away with a bluff as cheaply as possible on a board that is good for his range. That being said, against this sizing I believe we should develop a check-raising range on this board. KJ fits the criteria for a check-raise well on KQT.
We should be using hands like AJ, AdTd, KQ, KJ, KT, K9, QJ, QT, JT, JdXd, T9, AdXd, and an array of AdX for our check-raises here. Against this c-bet sizing we can even check-raise hands like K2s or JdXd.

As played I believe that we should check-fold against that turn sizing. We have plenty of hands that can more confidently continue in our range (AX, AdXd, KhXh, QhXh, TdXd etc).

River as played for me is a check-fold but I can see some arguments for seldomly turning our hand into a check-raise bluff.

Turn might be a bit of an over play/marginal play but I don't think it's bad or anything. There are plenty of worse hands in villain's ranges that can call, and put money in dead or drawing very thinly. It depends a bit on how tight villain is flatting pre. Some people will have all suited connectors, while others will almost never have SCs and only call big suited BW and AXs. So that should definitely factor into your decision whether to x/r turn or just x/c.

River is pretty standard and I don't think we should do anything other than putting in the rest.

If you check-call turn I wouldn't lead river. I would just check-call.

I did not expect AQo to be in people's 4bet range too often at 5nl :o
He should've bet the turn, and shoved the river. By checking twice he played it pretty poorly imo.

I think the hand is well played (by both?)
At 5nl 4bets are extremely value-heavy, and so QJs might be a pure fold preflop. But it's hard to tell without stats on villain.
Did he have AhAx?

I think that preflop is pretty standard solid sizing against a limper. We could even lose EV if we raise bigger preflop. But I guess that is up for debate and I have an open mind.

Flop is pretty good for us, and I would cbet a polar range, therefore I would like to see a slightly larger c-bet sizing - somewhere around pot. 2/3 pot is too small.

Turn we can go either way but against a loose-passive player I think I prefer betting - again for somewhere around pot setting up for a nice river jam. But definitely folding if he decides to come over the top.
While I can see myself check-calling turn, I don't like the idea of check-raising this specific combo.

So aside from some bet-sizing complaints that might just be bias from my personal preference I think the hand is well played, and I would play it about the same.

Flop c-bet is good. I don't think we should check a lot on this flop. It is very good for our range, and we can probably c-bet close to range for a small sizing.
But why not bluff the turn? I'd just bet the turn for 40-60% pot, and then give up this river once called.
As played you should bluff the river for a large sizing (75-100% pot).

Edit:
My sim likes the super small cbets on this board. It uses mostly a 10% pot cbet sizing otf/ott, and then would use 50%/100% pot bluff otr. Honestly, I'm surprised and very intrigued by it.

everyone pulling out the solver sims for ri2...
id fold

I don't know what you are insinuating but I hope you don't mind if I point you in the right direction by mentioning that the reason we are "pulling out the solver sims" is not to find out whether to call or fold against villain's check/jam. We're trying to figure out if a simple value-bet OTR is good/bad/meh against villain's range.

Idk if this helps but I ran an extensive sim on this hand and gto likes a cbet ranging from 1/4 pot to shove with KK.
But as played I would at least x/shove flop.

You can get a higher resolution image here:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AqzSDnaDvKUsgs56SJTKKegDyI_PXw

Aroma
Sure, if you have a solid read that the players involved just like to donate their chips/ are clicking random buttons then by all means you should call or even shove AA/KK etc.
I don't know how 2nl plays these days but where I play this is definitely a fold with an overpair. Even in my live games AA is completely crushed when facing this kind of action from passive players in a multiway pot it will almost always be up against a flopped set or at best against some big combo draw which on this board is not really possible.

C-Bet this flop with our hand imo.
As played the river x/c is very optimistic.
I would prefer to x/r to like 30-40bb and turn this hand into a bluff or just x/f most of the time. Villain has a ton of medium/weakish hands that can valuebet OTR but that shouldn't really call a x/raise.

Against this action, and on this board in a 4-way pot you can fold AA OTF.
I'd call/raise with sets. Yes that is pretty tight but I don't think we have other good options. Stacking off, and even just flatting here with an overpair is a bit of an overplay, and we're just donating money. We will be forced to fold if BB or MP jam flop or turn, and jamming flop ourselves is most likely straight up -EV. We even still have to worry about what SB will do.

RaoulFlush
I'm looking forward to see what you come up with. Maybe we can compare the trees in gto+ and see if & why we arrive at different results.

Aroma
Haha yeah it's a weird feeling when the pot gets pushed the wrong way after checking back such a strong hand. It's technically a win but it doesn't feel that way.

Yes I think that you have to bluff there. And make it BIG. I mean HUGE. Like 30 or 40bb with your entire range for added pressure because you are so polarized, and you have a lot of bluffs in your range so therefore you need to bet larger.
Your value-range (54s,77,33,22,AT, A7,A3,A2, T7s,73s,32s) can all valuebet for the same overbet sizing so with such a wide over betting range you're allowed to have hands such as 84s in your bluffing range.
I would also bet larger otf and ott fwiw.

And btw. I'm not saying that you are wrong or that I am right. I'm just genuinely curious about trying to figure this spot out because it is very interesting to me.

So far every sim I ran for this spot with different ranges for BB tells me to check river. And unless I node lock villain into being a massive station it does not change the result. And even if BB calls with all combos of QT, KJ, K9, J9 etc. the solver still wants to check back river. I remain unconvinced that this is 100% a bet in a vacuum.
But it's totally possible I'm wrong or doing something wrong in my sims.