$100 NLHE 6-max: Line check, is this river bet too soft?

Figured I'd ride the wave and continue with just 3 tables of 100NL. Game is feeling much more familiar at this level. Slower pace is really allowing better decisions based on previous actions. Ironically I've been using less polarized bets at 100NL. Maybe as the dollar amounts increase it seems ok to just get $40 instead of jamming $15 into $20 at 30 NL. Sorry for the banter on to the hand.

Main V in SB is VP 23 / PR 17 / 3B 0 over a small 121 hand sample
V2 in CO is VP 18 / PR 15 / 3B 10 / CB 67 over 273 hands
Hero looks like a super nit at this table with VP 12 / PR 10 / 3B 6 over 75 hands

PokerStars - $1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 104.15 BB
Hero (BB): 106.85 BB
UTG: 129.12 BB
CO: 100 BB
BTN: 156.48 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♣ 9♦

fold, CO raises to 2.2 BB, fold, SB calls 1.7 BB, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Pre seems standard closing the action. I guess I could squeeze here on occasion but it seems like an overplay.

Flop: (6.6 BB, 3 players) 9♥ Q♥ 4♥
SB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, CO calls 4 BB, SB raises to 14 BB, Hero calls 10 BB, fold
Flop I'm betting for value and protection on this super wet board. I would hate for it to check through and a fourth heart or straight card hits. I contemplated 3 betting but figured there was still action behind and we don't have to stack off if a fourth heart or running straight cards hit.

Turn: (38.6 BB, 2 players) 4♦
SB bets 25.6 BB, Hero calls 25.6 BB

Turn my initial thought was to min raise then jam all rivers but since SB seemed to really like his hand and there will be less than a pot sized bet OTR if we just call it seemed fine to x behind and jam over his river bet.

River: (89.8 BB, 2 players) 6♣
SB checks, Hero bets 40 BB
River is the biggest issue here. I really didn't want to get a fold here. I'm pretty sure I auto jam this at 30NL and below but for some reason I really wanted to be sure to get at least $40. When V checks river I think he has less Ace high flushes and may be wary of the board pair. If he has something like a J high flush (or smaller) and we jam he may be able to put us on a bigger flush or a boat and get away. The smaller his flush, the more likely he is to raise flop for protection and value. How bad is it to downsize to $40 here to try and get calls from a weaker range rather than attack for stacks. V is effective here on the river at 62.3 BB and I'd rather get 40 BB than zero. I'm sure most will say if he's calling 40 hes calling 62 but is that always the case?

Thoughts on all streets appreciated.

The first thought that comes out of this hand is the starting rank of hero. BB by having an adjusted image on the table. (image that is quite biased due to the low volume of 75 hands). The perceived limper range of hero in this 3-way boat contains medium-high scale pockets, broadways and suitable medium scale connectors. The next question that arises is the range of CO calls on the flop. It was a pretty forceful hero leadership (62.5% of the pot size). In my opinion this size can only come from average values ​​in this texture that seek protection. And considering the hero data, the closest candidates are 9-9 and Q-Q. Hero blocks 9-9 so the CO (18/15, with biased sample too) should call at least with 4-4. Player SB decides to raise to 3.5X. This can only be done with an Ah-x or Kh-x, or with a flush combo that doesn't lock nuts, but has strong potential. For example Jh-8h; Th-8h. And you could also do it with QQ looking for your same protection objective. The nuts on this flop (Ah-Kh) should only call here, as they cannot completely block Jh-Th and Jh-8h.
Another 4 appears on the turn and this street balances the ranges. Now the SB could continue his barrel with the flushes combos + gutshots flush combos and his QQ.After your x / c line, your perceived range is super strong. Your range is all boats. The river is a neutral brick.
Basically the structure of the V rank is little polarized. Now on the river the villain should only pay you with QQ and fold with his middle scales of flushes. It is not profitable for V to call and leave 22bb behind. So if he decides to call you, he must do it for the total. I think at this point if we go 2/3 the villain might get caught sometimes with a Jh in his range. And it also serves to induce balanced calls. A gto rank should call any high scale flush and should drop all other additional hands in this situation.
Greetings.

SB range is capped on the river, as he has literally has no QQ. With 44, his turn bet size likely to be smaller. And he has got more A high flush then weaker flushes like 65hh, JThh so I think you can go for polarized bet.

I guess villain likely 3bet KhQx preflop so excluding from the range.

he may manage to fold 65hh as naturally you don't have many bluff but not end of the world as he would need to pay when he has better holdings

c0rnBr34d said:

Figured I'd ride the wave and continue with just 3 tables of 100NL. Game is feeling much more familiar at this level. Slower pace is really allowing better decisions based on previous actions. Ironically I've been using less polarized bets at 100NL. Maybe as the dollar amounts increase it seems ok to just get $40 instead of jamming $15 into $20 at 30 NL. Sorry for the banter on to the hand.

Main V in SB is VP 23 / PR 17 / 3B 0 over a small 121 hand sample
V2 in CO is VP 18 / PR 15 / 3B 10 / CB 67 over 273 hands
Hero looks like a super nit at this table with VP 12 / PR 10 / 3B 6 over 75 hands

PokerStars - $1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 104.15 BB
Hero (BB): 106.85 BB
UTG: 129.12 BB
CO: 100 BB
BTN: 156.48 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♣ 9♦

fold, CO raises to 2.2 BB, fold, SB calls 1.7 BB, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Pre seems standard closing the action. I guess I could squeeze here on occasion but it seems like an overplay.

Flop: (6.6 BB, 3 players) 9♥ Q♥ 4♥
SB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, CO calls 4 BB, SB raises to 14 BB, Hero calls 10 BB, fold
Flop I'm betting for value and protection on this super wet board. I would hate for it to check through and a fourth heart or straight card hits. I contemplated 3 betting but figured there was still action behind and we don't have to stack off if a fourth heart or running straight cards hit.

Turn: (38.6 BB, 2 players) 4♦
SB bets 25.6 BB, Hero calls 25.6 BB

Turn my initial thought was to min raise then jam all rivers but since SB seemed to really like his hand and there will be less than a pot sized bet OTR if we just call it seemed fine to x behind and jam over his river bet.

River: (89.8 BB, 2 players) 6♣
SB checks, Hero bets 40 BB
River is the biggest issue here. I really didn't want to get a fold here. I'm pretty sure I auto jam this at 30NL and below but for some reason I really wanted to be sure to get at least $40. When V checks river I think he has less Ace high flushes and may be wary of the board pair. If he has something like a J high flush (or smaller) and we jam he may be able to put us on a bigger flush or a boat and get away. The smaller his flush, the more likely he is to raise flop for protection and value. How bad is it to downsize to $40 here to try and get calls from a weaker range rather than attack for stacks. V is effective here on the river at 62.3 BB and I'd rather get 40 BB than zero. I'm sure most will say if he's calling 40 hes calling 62 but is that always the case?

Thoughts on all streets appreciated.

Click to expand...

The Preflop

Strongly disagree: we can be squeezing (more often than calling I mean) here a couple of good hands to try to play in position versus the fish in the SB a heads-up pot.
When you call down with 99 you are praying for a lower flop, or for a set. The odds for setmining are good, but IMO 99 is way too strong here, CO can have enough bluffs on its range that could be folding to a Squeeze and SB could have called with dominated pocket pairs, simple, because SB made the blunder of completing preflop, that at 100 NLHE is fatal for a good observer: we never complete with real good strong hands, but medium-weak hands, suck as low pocket pairs and some insane suited connectors.

the postflop

The Flop

If you had made an Squeeze preflop you would have more initiative on a flop like this, now our only hope is that recreational one isn't holding a Hearts on its combos.
I also don't understand why did you c-bet for protection, because your calling ranging MWP is way too large to require protection here. I would go for check-calling or check-raising, because I didn't Squeezed preflop, so I cannot try out of nowhere try to represent the golden rabbit.
The SB's raise is very alarming. What are we going to do when we miss turn/river is a question that matters a lot here, before we decide to call and see. Anyways, SB is fish enough to justify almost 100% of our actions, so no much problem.

PS: when you bet so little OTR it seems very much that you want to get called so badly! IMO, given the possibility of recreational to have made hands such as a flush, if we do check raise OTT it would be impossible for fish to fold its flush OTR because the flushes would have a real neat price, in despite of the double paired board.
So, following your line, when you check-raise OTT you have no bluffs,because it double paired and there is already a possible made flush.
On the other hand, calling Turn and jamming river seems a very strange move and could induce more calls, given the possibility of the BB to the bluffing missed flush draws and straight draws, and SB could only pay with QQ(which will never have because it called preflop), 99 SB also can never have it because we are simply blocking anything, so SB could pay safely only with 44 (Quads).
Even some flushes nuts would have to fold to a river shove in situations like this.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

I think his calling range on the river is inelastic. I would definitely jam there, and as you said, if he's calling 40 BB, he's also calling the jam.

I agree that it is quite unlikely to put QQ in the SB range for NL1OO. However, the only reason I find it feasible to flatten this hand in preflop is if I think I face 2 players with very strong perceived ranges. In this hypothetical case QQ is not so good here, because it blocks AQ; QK and QJ. So if I press too much, I would be isolating myself more times with KK and AA.