... and I'm playing back at him...

While this table had been playing pretty loose, being 5/10, there were of course hands folded to me in the CO or button. I would open raise with any decently playable hand, and the villain has 3-bet me on a number of occassions, and I've had enough.

I present the following hand for your review:

Villain is 22/18/6.29 after 188 hands.

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is Button with K:heart:, T:diamond:.
6 folds, SB calls.

Flop: (9 SB) 2:club:, A:club:, 6:heart: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) K:spade: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets

Pre-flop and flop both seem spewish. Even once you catch a pair on the turn I'm not sure. I think he probably has some sort of weakish Ace most of the time here.

Let me reiterate that he was doing this EVERY time I raised preflop in any sort of blind steal or even semi-steal situation. I have to reason to give him credit for any ace or anything of value.

if he has been doing that all the time i think the preflop cap is fine.

i would get a little worried on the flop, but it could well be that he´s just trying to represent an ace. when he calls the three-bet i think ace or fd. if he pops the turn, i would let him have it. we can certainly find better spots to exploit his agression.

It would be better to just call preflop and then raise the flop (instead of capping pf and then 3betting the flop, less spew towards the same purpose). Then if he 3bets flop, just give it up and pound him when You have a hand.

He has a 6 AF, so he doesnt seem like he knows how to call. So Yeah if he 3 bets flop, just wait for a better spot.

I don't mind pf. I'd rather call the 3-bet. Capping sends a message if you want to ge the point across.

If I capped, I would bet the flop. There may be some merits to checking behind, as it would really throw him off, and could look like you have a monster. I use this play sparingly, and against the right opponentes. 3-betting this flop is a huge spew. So is calling, IMO. Just fold.

Why are you betting the turn? This is a very good spot to check behind. If you are ahead, your hand is not vulnerable, and it's unlikely villian will call a bet. If you are behind, you just end up costing yourself more money.

I get You're raising for equity preflop, but remember how aggressive he is. Not sure if it's worth the possible equity against this specific opponent.

Screech, what do You think about calling pf and raising the flop? You'd spend the same amount capping then bet/folding flop, but the 1st line might be more representative of an ace?

Risky play, but I understand it.

You are playing the player, rather than your cards.
Usually a play designed more for No-Limit.
But when you have a very good read on a super aggressive opponent, it can make sense.

Let's just hope your timing is bad and you he didn't wake up with a hand.

In situations like this, when I know my preflop "steal" has no chance of working, I will usually limp in and the play aggressively post flop if I get a piece.

--cm

I like it.

On the turn you are either WA or WB. Betting makes no sense at all, IMO.

Frustration.

He folded to my turn bet.

Zach

Thats most likely a bad thing as their is a good chance he was drawing dead.

Yeah, I never thought about it like that. I rarely think about things like this when I'm playing. It seems counterintuitive to check/call if I think I'm ahead in situations like this.

I'm not even necessarily sureI was ahead on the flop, but I wanted him to think I was so that I could get a turn fold regardless of what card came. Fortunately for me, I paired my top card, but I still instinctively fired out at it.

move seats.
or get more comfortable playing against strong (better) opponents.

you're not in his league, yet.

This hand doesnt necessarily show that. More then anything it shows tilt because an opponent has his played back at him and i'm assuming he has missed thus far.

It wasn't that I was on tilt by any means.

I was trying to get him to lay down his hand, no matter what it was. In retrospect, the hand could have been played 1 million different ways, with many different outcomes in terms of pot size, etc. But I was just posting as an example of a way I chose to deal with someone who consistently raises your steal attempts.

Like many of you have pointed out, it may have been a spew, I may have even lost value, etc. But who knows? My read was that he really had nothing, but he would be aggressive preflop, and on the flop. I had no idea what he would do beyond the turn, so I was not sure whether he would continue to bluff at it or not in order to pay me off.

Under the circumstances, and given my read, I think I played it well, and got a pretty good sized pot for a heads up pot. Of course, something like this is very situation dependent.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Zach

you got lucky he didn't have an Ace.

Maniacs that won't fold are super sweet, LAG's with those stats that will fold, not so much. He may not be stronger player than you; but I bet he's not posting anywhere about how he took many pot(s) away from you.

it's to routine for him.

You've had enough? He's probably thinking, 'when is this guy gonna freakin learn not to steal my blind?'

If you can't give him credit yet, I probably would've called the flop raise, then raised his lead at the turn. That would have to look like an Ace to him.

[Read replies. I agree with the PF calls. If a guy is adamant in defending his blinds, mix in some calls PF with action post flop.
Screech mentioned raising or calling the flop here is a spew - is there any bluff that's not really a spew?]

The problem was, I was never "stealing". I always had a raisable hand, but he would always 3-bet me, and I would completely miss the flop, and be forced to fold.

Regardless, this is not a routine play I would make, by any means.



As for this, how would you play against this player? You let him 3-bet you every single time? I'll tell you he stopped doing it after this hand. He gave me a ton more respect with my raises. Would you rather get three bet and then every once in a while have a decent enough hand to bring passively to showdown?

hey zach - just wondering if you were playing at party today.
saw someone at my 2/4 table on party, with a name like zach4777 or zach7777 or something. i can look it up.

anyways, i only noticed one hand, and it was horrible. he limped in late position with AKs. just thought i'd see if that was you.

p.s. i lost a huge pot to AKs that hand fish!

Umm... I really hope you don't think it was me limping from LP with AKs.. I think I've proven at least that I'm quite aggessive from my posts...

My SN is ZachFCP....

Betting the turn isn't nearly as bad as people say it is.

He'll call with pocket pairs, or any pair, much of the time, and letting him draw at up-to-5 outs for free is bad.

If he calls, you can just showdown UI in position, and you don't miss any value.

I don't get it... why NOT bet the turn??

Wang

i'd have been amazed if it was you, but the name was close, so thought i'd ask. glad i was wrong. then again, i'd rather it was you taking down that $80 pot but meh

preflop:

sorry.. i just really wanted to use that jpg.

If he 3-bets you everytime you should probably try stealing less.

It's not stealing if you raise with KTo from the button.

If you kept folding when you missed, it looks like you've been stealing.

It's still a semi-steal and only a decent hand.

If we bet the turn and he has an ace, we lose 2 bets.

If we bet the turn and he has a PP, he folds (we win 0), he calls (we win 1) or he may raise (giving us a hard decision). I don't know which one is more likely.

If he has nothing and we bet, we win 0 bets. If he has nothing and we check, he almost always bets.

The only hand we get action from here, IMO, is a hand that has us owned.

Which in my opinion will do very well against his 3-betting range, which is basically any two at this point.

Because on occasion it's a good idea to induce a river bluff from villian if hes got nothing. You don't have to pound away all the time, and by checking turn villian could think You don't have the ace and even be afraid of the K, and take a stab on the river whereas if You bet turn he just gives up (again if he has nothign)... but on the other hand in this specifc hand it's possible with a turn bet to fold him if he's got K-J or K-Q, plus folding the 4-5 outers he could be drawing too. So I don't see betting the turn as best "ainec"...

Not necessarily, we could bet the turn and check behind on the river, given that he doesnt donk bet it.