My most interesting hands today

The first one is gross because it's pretty deep, but I still have a hard time laying down an overpair heads-up. There were big decisions on the flop and turn... after that I have to call the river. Villain is 37/15 with a 3bet of 8 and an aggression factor of 6.5 over 52 hands (I had way less hands on him at the time and wasn't aware of the high AF).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($87.45)
Hero (Button) ($43.85)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
Hero raises to $0.75, SB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) 3, Q, 8 (2 players)
SB bets $1.25, Hero raises to $3, SB raises to $6.50, Hero calls $3.50

Turn: ($14.50) J (2 players)
SB bets $11, Hero calls $11

River: ($36.50) 8 (2 players)
SB bets $16, Hero calls $16

Total pot: $68.50 | Rake: $1


On this second one, I flopped the nuts and then ran into the worst possible river card. I timed down trying to figure out what I could beat, and I came up with JT, J9, and maybe AA, AT, or KQ.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($26.70)
SB ($26.20)
Hero (BB) ($58.55)
UTG ($29.70)
MP ($4.45)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, J
2 folds, Button raises to $0.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.60) 10, K, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $1.50, Button calls $1.50

Turn: ($4.60) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $5, Button calls $5

River: ($14.60) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $10, Hero calls $10

Total pot: $34.60 | Rake: $1.65

Code:

Board: Tc Kh Qh 8d Th
	equity 	win 	tie 	      pots won 	pots tied	
Hand 0: 	48.148%  	43.21% 	04.94% 	            35 	        4.00   { AsJc }
Hand 1: 	51.852%  	46.91% 	04.94% 	            38 	        4.00   { QQ+, TT, AJs-ATs, Ah9h, Ah8h, Ah7h, Ah6h, Ah5h, Ah4h, Ah3h, Ah2h, KQs, KTs, QTs, J9s+, Jh8h, 9h8h, 9h7h, 8h7h, 8h6h, 7h6h, 7h5h, 6h5h, 5h4h, AJo-ATo, KQo, KTo, QTo, J9o+ }

I didn't realize until I stoved it that there aren't a ton of hearts in his range, so I'm most worried about TT, QQ, KK, KT, and QT. I think a lot of those hands (and even a lot of the Axhh hands) raise the flop. So I'm in pretty good shape after all. Also, if AK, AQ, or a bluff is ever in his range, I'm ahead here.

I suck HU, so I won't comment on hand 1.

Hand two, I would lead out, but you're getting good equity to call.

To clarify on Hand 1, it wasn't actually heads-up, it was just a 6-max table that had broken down to heads-up for a few hands. I'm not very good at HU myself. I'm curious if the river might actually be a raise since he bet so small and I'm beating AQ, KQ, and QJ. My flop raise seems pretty bad looking at it again. It's so small. I think it was intended to be a bit of a feeler raise. Then again, his 3bet looks pretty feelery as well.

Right after I checked Hand 2 I was like "Why the hell did I just check a straight?" but it was just such a bad river card that I was initially shell-shocked, and I couldn't envision him was calling down my more-than-pot-sized bets very lightly.

Yea, these are both pretty close.

Hand 1 I like a PFR to $1 as my standard.
I probably push the turn against this monkey (52 hands is not enough for a real read), and expect to have him call with the naked or a lot (or the unlikely made flush)
But as played is certainly fine imo.

Hand 2, was this the same villian? Reads?
Your range is way too wide, but this might be a tight fold on the river depending on the villian. Can't really blame you for a call though. Nice job on flop and turn though. Another option would be to Bet/fold river, but I can't think of a good betsize (related to stacks) that would allow you to do that... so Check/call or check/fold are the only lines that make any sense on that river to me.

Sorry, Hand 2 was a different villain. I should have mentioned that. In my PT database, he's a 28/20 with a 33% ATSB, so his button range is pretty wide. What don't you like about my range on the river? Don't expect the SCs to call down? Don't expect AT or JT to call down? Don't expect KQ to bet that river? I think after I check on the river, he might be value betting lightly since betting so big on the flop and turn and then checking the river might make it look like I have KQ or less. Here's another try:

Code:

Board: Tc Kh Qh 8d Th
	equity 	win 	tie 	      pots won 	pots tied	
Hand 0: 	39.344%  	32.79% 	06.56% 	            20 	        4.00   { AsJc }
Hand 1: 	60.656%  	54.10% 	06.56% 	            33 	        4.00   { QQ+, TT, AJs, Ah9h, Ah8h, Ah7h, Ah6h, Ah5h, Ah4h, Ah3h, Ah2h, KTs, QTs, J9s+, Jh8h, 9h8h, 8h7h, 8h6h, AJo, KTo, QTo, J9o+ }

Here I have him not calling me down with AT or with suited connectors, unless he paired the board on the turn. Also, he's not betting less than aces up on the river for value. It sucks more, but I still have to call.

This makes me pretty happy with my play. I actually sat there for like 30+ seconds trying to figure out a few hands that I could beat so that my equity to call would be reasonable, and it turns out it was.

Hand 1 is kind of a hard spot. What is his range on the flop? Has he donked before? Does he play his draws aggressively or passively? What does he 3b small like that?

OK, if he's a decent player, he won't be 3b that flop that small with just a queen. He would have to have a high club + pair or a made flush. If he had say QT, why would he let you draw to a club by giving you such odds that you wouldn't most definitely peel with a club? He either holds the ace or the king in his hand and wants you to make your flush and lose money or he has a high flush already.

However, whether he is good or not, his small 3b is NEVER a bluff. You have to assume Qx or better.

Hand 2 is standard.

Originally Posted by iopq

Hand 1 is kind of a hard spot. What is his range on the flop? Has he donked before? Does he play his draws aggressively or passively? What does he 3b small like that?

Unfortunately, my read on him wasn't that good. I knew that he was a decent player for the numbers he had, but I had no idea what the donk or anything else meant.

I figured he either had the Q, a flush draw, or a flush. An A-high flush draw had enough equity on me that I was ok just calling his 3-bet on the flop and then betting a non-club turn. I was pretty surprised when he bet the turn, I thought he had to have the flush or a flopped set, or maybe even JJ sometimes. I was really close to folding, but then I remembered that I had an overpair heads-up, and I just couldn't let a flush draw (or a Q that thought I was on a flush draw) push me off my hand. The river was obviously an easy call. I could have possibly considered a raise, though. The bet looks so much like a bet that's going for thin value, like Qx (especially AQ or QJ trying to value-town KQ or worse). Does AQ or QJ call a river raise? I think he'd have to put me on a full house if I raise the river, not that I should be giving him that much credit...

I would stick it in on the river, hard to see how he could possibly fold getting like 6-1 and his hand looks a lot like QX w a spade.

Originally Posted by DoanDiggy

Originally Posted by iopq

Hand 1 is kind of a hard spot. What is his range on the flop? Has he donked before? Does he play his draws aggressively or passively? What does he 3b small like that?

Unfortunately, my read on him wasn't that good. I knew that he was a decent player for the numbers he had, but I had no idea what the donk or anything else meant.

I figured he either had the Q, a flush draw, or a flush. An A-high flush draw had enough equity on me that I was ok just calling his 3-bet on the flop and then betting a non-club turn. I was pretty surprised when he bet the turn, I thought he had to have the flush or a flopped set, or maybe even JJ sometimes. I was really close to folding, but then I remembered that I had an overpair heads-up, and I just couldn't let a flush draw (or a Q that thought I was on a flush draw) push me off my hand. The river was obviously an easy call. I could have possibly considered a raise, though. The bet looks so much like a bet that's going for thin value, like Qx (especially AQ or QJ trying to value-town KQ or worse). Does AQ or QJ call a river raise? I think he'd have to put me on a full house if I raise the river, not that I should be giving him that much credit...

What do you mean your read on him isn't that good
he either donked before or he didn't
or were you 10 tabling and not paying attention?

he has a hand on the flop that he wants to get it in with on the flop

he's going to have a flush 4% of the time on this board
now your job is to figure out how many hands he would play this exact way
we can already throw away most of his range because he would fold to a raise with air and most certainly not 3b tiny
in fact we can discount hands like aces no clubs or a set somewhat because he'd be scared of playing them too passively

you should not have been surprised that he bet the turn since he's trying to get stacks in
I don't know if I can give him credit for a flush, but that's how it looks like

I don't remember him donking before, but he was probably involved in less than 10 hands before this one. I think this was our first HU hand that saw a flop.

I guess my real questions are: Does it ever make sense to 4bet the flop, to raise the turn, or to raise the river? Do we need a good read to fold the turn?

i generally muck big hands like KK on a 3-suit board to heavy aggression like that if i don't have a 4th suit in my hand... but that's just me...

for hand one i would've cold-called flop and raised turn...

I have noticed on pokerstars, that 2/2 is a rigged hand....87% of the time, u end up with trips 2's