$10 NLHE 6-max: I Am Not Sure When Should I Fire A CBet.

Villian Stats (VPIP/PFR/AF): 25/19/2

Additional information: FS:66 / F3B:40 / 3B:7 / FFCB:60 / FTCB:33 / CBF:37 / CBR:67 / WTSD%: 35

This semi-loose opponent made a small bet, and I 3Bet against him. Nothing interesting on the Flop, but also I didn't get anything, so decided to make a Cbet. Nothing on the Turn for and I give up.

I have struggled in this kind of spots. Tell me what kind of mistakes I did (or did I?) and what is the general basic line how should I continue after the pre-flop when I have made a 3Bet? How to use HUD stats to help me to make decisions? Thanks.

iPoker - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 101.1 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, hands: 6)
MP: 163.2 BB (VPIP: 22.19, PFR: 18.48, 3Bet Preflop: 6.27, Hands: 820)
CO: 35.1 BB (VPIP: 28.00, PFR: 4.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 25.05, PFR: 19.39, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 512)
Hero (SB): 112.8 BB
BB: 50 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♥ Q♠

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, fold, BTN calls 6 BB

Flop: (17 BB, 2 players) 3♣ 8♥ 9♦
Hero bets 11.9 BB, BTN calls 11.9 BB

Turn: (40.8 BB, 2 players) 5♣
Hero checks, BTN bets 28.5 BB, fold

BTN wins 37.4 BB

You probably played very well, since this villain has a high frequency of post-flop continuity, which indicates that in this case its range is close to a narrow structure (a high pair maybe) and, on the other hand, you did not form a hand and it is difficult to defend an attack in turn, when you open a colored line on a coordinated and dangerous board.
If we check the hand, 3bet in preflop was necessary and very well executed in my opinion. Then, on the flop, cbet was standard and eventually you would achieve a fold of a semi-closed range, similar to yours (tall structure).
For which the turn had 2 options, continue with your initiative and / or evaluate a subsequent hit in the river or control its range and get there. But I think you made the right decision.

In addiction we speak of a villain who participates in only 25% of the hands that are played. If I had a higher VPIP (60% for example) I would think more about the possibility that BTN has better connected with that co-ordinated board. That is why I now believe that it is more likely to improve on the river. Maybe we are behind a pair with flush draw.
Regards.

I think that generally you played the hand fine. You could consider betting again on the turn, as a lot of people will float the flop cbet in position with nothing to see if you give up on the turn.

In general I think you have to either check the flop or barrel.

People generally don't fold any pair just to one bet on a low flop like this.

So are you betting for value or are you bluffing?

If you are bluffing you can maybe fold out : AK and maybe some low pocket pairs.

If you are betting for value he can call with a draw like J10 or maybe a worse ace (unlikely).

Yes, you get a little protection against getting outdrawn but you can also be behind.

I usually just check with AK and AQ if I don't hit or bet at least twice if I want them to fold a better hand.

The best aces can be good enough ta take to showdown and can hit good on the turn or river.

If he is a fit or fold player when it comes to pairs and often fold to one bet after you have shown strength maybe a C-bet, but I would rather have either a stronger or weaker hand to motivate a C-bet on this flop.

If a king comes on a dry flop is it better to bluff with AQ. And if a Q hits a dry flop I may bluff with AK.

(Holding the stronger AK you can also sometimes bet for value one street against calling stations and defend with one call against loose aggressive).

You were beaten by being out of position. Once you missed the flop folding was your best option.

3-betting out of position, getting called and then missing the flop is a genuine tough spot. Maybe the best way to look at it is, that a lot of the value in 3-betting is fold equity. So when we get action, we dont need to win the hand all that often. With that in mind maybe we can just check-fold the flop and get out cheap? Sure that allow him to bluff us, but we can protect our range by also checking some overpairs on a low board like this.

One thing that's often left out is Hero's image. Specifically, what is our Cbet %? V could be floating us wide in position if we give up on turns a lot. This board does not hit a 3 bet range much and if he knows we are 3 betting AQ+ that's a lot of combos that missed. Once we check turn we are telling V we have Ace high. We have to cbet these some of the time. And I think we should have a fair amount of double barrels here too. If we bet the 30 BB instead of V then even hands like TT-JJ will want to fold. If we have a reasonable Cbet % then we should be giving up on some turns too, we cant win them all. Also in a 3 bet pot OOP another adjustment I like heads up is downsizing our cbet to 6-8 BB on this flop. Hands like QQ+ will want more calls from overcards that missed and smaller pairs, hands like AQ+ will want folds and we pot control at the same time. That lets us double barrel more often with Ace high and overpairs. If the board is more dynamic this may not be an option as we can give V great odds to hit. So in my humble opinion the hand is well played but we should be checking some of these flops, cbetting smaller, and double barreling at least half the time we cbet on a blank turn. Looks like this guy is only folding to Cbet 33% of the time too so if we are cbetting we should be planning to barrel blank turns.

I think this is one of the things that becomes more frequent as you move up in stakes. Players floating in position with wider ranges with intentions to steal on later streets.

I agree, that if we are going to C-bet, we need to pick a smaller size. When we go 2/3 pot, he is still not folding any pair to a single barrel, but he is also not paying us with AJ or KQ. So we fold out hands, that had little equity anyway, but we get called or raised by anything, that beat us, and some strong draws. 1/3 pot works better, because we lose less, when we are behind, and we actually put those AJ / KQ type hands in a tough spot. AQ is actually more of a thin value bet here than a bluff, and that is why, a smaller size is better. If the small bet get raised, we have an easy fold.

Obviously there is a second option. It consists of blocking the color with a second barrel on the turn. And if we reach the river evaluate a push.
But this aggressive path should be done considering specific parameters. For example, the playability of V in BTN position, its post-flop aggressiveness, its fold frequency on the river, the defense frequency on the turn (this is probably a weak point in this villain, since they only continue on the turn a 33% of raised hands).
But on the other hand, this villain has a fairly solid defense on the river, so that the attack at this point out of position, becomes very difficult to perform.
I think that against this villain as an alternative option we can build a great equity of fold on the turn with a strong bet, and avoid reaching the river.
As for the sizes of bets there are several options. If we plan aggressive behavior, we can make a smaller cbet on the flop (about 40%) and then on the turn another barrel harder to pay (65-75%).
The idea of ​​a strong bet on the flop, is to compensate for our position disadvantage by closing our range to the maximum and looking for a quick fold of the villain, knowing that we eliminate many weak hands in the V range, with our 3-bet preflop.

Nobody is going to fold to your cbet on that flop. Betting is fine but then you need to barrel if that is your line.

Do not cbet this board, you don't have a whole much going on there, stick to the boards where you have at least some backdoor equity - here you only have the 1 card backdoor flush. In this case I would prefer AJ to AQ, as you could double barrel any T or a heart (if the villain wasn't that sticky on the turn you could fire on a 7 too with AJ).