The button is a very good player, and I've played tons of hands against him. He knows what I'm capable of, and in a pot like this, he's very likely to play the hand very aggressively (and very well) with me, even with a mediocre holding. He would raise the flop with any pair, and often with Ace high. He knows I'm a very good player.

Full Ring Limit Hold'em

I'm in the SB with As8s.

Folded to the Button who RAISES. I 3-bet, and the BB folds.

Flop (7sb) Ks 2c 6h

I BET, button RAISES, I call

Turn (5.5BB) Ks 2c 6h 7s

I check, button BETS, I RAISE....




Alright. Flay me.

I really dont like it. I just dont think you're folding that many better hands. Save A9-A10 i'd assume better aces are capping preflop so you dont have to worry about them all that often.

Basically its all about the likelyhood that he folds 2x 33-55 and 6x. So yea its read based just with this board it really doesnt seem like you're folding that many better hands especially if you have a very aggressive image.


Meh I dunno, maybe the hands hes folding are enough to make it +Ev. Just a matter of how often he holds and folds those hands

I've talked to him about how he plays here, and I think he's just calling with AK/AQ about 35% of the time, and AJ 100% of the time. He's capable of capping with a hand like KQs, KQo, or even when he's sure he's behind with a hand like 9Ts or 78s. If he has smaller cards, he will always be suited if he caps.

But he didn't cap, so that's irrelevant.

Wang

in an isolated situation, i think this is a bit odd. but for metagame reasons, it's very important to make plays like this occasionally against good players--i'd just do it more often in larger pots where your fold equity nets you more money.

The flop call is a bit light. Sure, he will raise the flop with any pair, but how often does he hold a 6 or 2? Usually when he holds an ace, so your outs aren't all that great. So his most likely holding here is some pp (TT-77 probably), or a Kx type hand. You said he might also have ace high, but that doesn't really help you much because I don't think you're calling down UI, are you? And you don't really know what outs are good, and what ones aren't. You may just end up making a pay off hand. For that reason, I would fold the flop. It's pretty close though, and maybe you want to call here this one time in hopes he will check the turn, or just to make him think twice about check/raising you agian.

I like your turn check/raise as long as your image isn't torn to **** by making these types of plays too often. You have to call a bet anyway, so you are getting 7.5:1 on a bluff. You say he will have ace high here, in which case he may fold. He may also have a worse hand, because TAGs like to c/r each other on king-rag flops. Who knows, you may even get him to fold some crappy pair.

I think this hand is not nearly as bad as it looks. In certain spots it is probably the correct way to play it. If villian sometimes checks the turn here, then the whole hand is excellent IMO. Plus, these types of hands will stick out in his mind, and any one elses who is paying attention, which may get them to spew at you later.

just thought i'd pick this out, because i think this play is great for that reason.

how often are you CR'ing a turn HU that you don't want a call? don't know about you guys, but i nearly always have a real strong hand here, and am hoping for a call. semi-bluffs like this might force people to call my turn c/r's more often, which i want.

I've found if I pick my spots relatively well, and leak off a smallish amount of money in situations like this- semibluffing unprofitably when I have a lot of outs or when I think my opponent is capable of a fold- I get paid off by partially observant players later on. This guy is too smart for that, but I'm ripe to get paid off by bottom pair and ace high next time I'm in a heads/up pot against anyone who watched this hand.

That being said, I'm glad Screech mentioned the flop. I thought there was about a 30-40% chance my opponent would check behind on the turn, which was definitely part of the reason I made the light call. I also planned on check/raising if a spade slid off. I figured I had 10 good cards to bluff at, and w/o thinking about it, pegged my "total outs for the win" somewhere around 1.5 for the backdoor draw, 2.5 for the ace, and 1.5 for the eights. I figured 5.5 outs was good enough to continue if there was a decent chance a check/raise/bluff might earn me the pot.

Anyway, I love hands like this, and wanted to write it up because I've been thinking about my table image, and why I've always got so many mediocre players gunning for me. It's stuff like this. It puts me in tricky spots, but as long as I do something like this a few times a session, I get paid off like a mofo later w/o really having to think too hard. Which is nice.

Wang

you don't even know you're a good player!

******

I completely agree with your assessment on the value this hand has against observant yet not-too-great opponents on later hands.

Haha, I know this. Whenever I win, it's because I'm running good. When I'm losing, it's because I'm playing like shit. I have no idea why this guy thinks I'm good... I think it's because I got hammered one night and ran like a mofo against him...


Wang