£2 NLHE 6-max: Why is villain checking AAA

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MJJ

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Hello

Still new to the game.. What I don't understand: why is villain checking when he has AA on the turn and especially when he has AAA on the river. Villain checking made me believe that I had the better hand hence the big raise on the River by Hero.

I keep finding myself in these situations and I dont understand the logic of Villain by checking with a strong hand

PokerStars - £0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players


Hero (BTN): 55.5 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 100 BB
CO: 120 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 J

CO raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 6 J 5
CO checks, Hero bets 3.5 BB, CO calls 3.5 BB

Turn: (14.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO checks, Hero bets 4 BB, CO calls 4 BB

River: (22.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO checks, Hero bets 21.5 BB, CO raises to 43 BB, Hero calls 21.5 BB

CO shows 3 A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 57%, Flop 18%, Turn 89%)
Hero mucks 8 J (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 43%, Flop 82%, Turn 11%)
CO wins 104.5 BB
 
Q

quant1986

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Preflop: J8o is a bit loose to call even from BTN vs CO 3x open, especially you are playing mid stack

Flop: larger flop bet size should be better, given this board should be slightly better for your range and play in position

Turn: A is a better card for CO x/c line as preflop aggressor. I think you should check there most of the time. With your sizing, I guess you can still can called by TT,99 but you could face a lot of check raise when villain is more competent.

River: Your river bet is definitely too large for your hand, and large bet usually used by a more polarized range. I am not sure TT/99 will be curious enough to call your bet here so likely you will only get called by better hands. Vs unknown players, you can play more straight forward.

Villain's line (x/c,x/c, x/r) is exceptionally strong and NL2 is hardly a bluff.

Generally when playing out-of-position, a player needs to have strong hands in checking ranges to protect his weaker holdings so that his play is not face up or exploited by others. But in this scenario, he perhaps got a bit lucky playing A3o from CO and decided to go "trappy" when he rivered a strong holding.
 
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gustav197poker

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Because when another A appears on the board, it decreases the possibility that the villain has an A in his rank. Therefore, when checking, the villain wants to give you the opportunity to represent a hand of value in your rank, such as for example a AAA.
Greetings.
 
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fundiver199

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I obviously do not know, what this player was thinking, so instead I will tell you, how I think, both of you should have played your hands.

Preflop
CO open with A3o is a little marginal but not a big mistake. BTN call with J8o is way to loose, and you should have folded.

Flop
A3o more or less missed completely and should mostly just give up now out of position. Against some players I would fire a C-bet though just hoping to take it down. I am never going to check-call A3o out of position on this flop, unless the bet is very small. J8o should bet for value and protection when checked to. Your size is fine as well.

Turn
Now A3o has top pair with a very bad kicker. The hand is now to strong to check-fold to a normal bet, but it is not strong enough to lead for value. Check-calling is the best play. J8o is only second pair now and should check back to control the size of the pot.

River
Now A3o has trips but still with a very bad kicker. The hand is now strong enough to either lead for value trying to get called by a hand like a J, or it can check-call yet another bet. It is not strong enough to check-raise, because then it should only get action when beat. J8o definitely need to check back now. When you bet again and especially this big, you are only getting action, when you are beat. Calling his raise is really bad as well.
 
Aballinamion

Aballinamion

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betting for information because aggression prints money

Hello

Still new to the game.. What I don't understand: why is villain checking when he has AA on the turn and especially when he has AAA on the river. Villain checking made me believe that I had the better hand hence the big raise on the River by Hero.

I keep finding myself in these situations and I dont understand the logic of Villain by checking with a strong hand

PokerStars - £0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players


Hero (BTN): 55.5 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 100 BB
CO: 120 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 J

CO raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 6 J 5
CO checks, Hero bets 3.5 BB, CO calls 3.5 BB

Turn: (14.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO checks, Hero bets 4 BB, CO calls 4 BB

River: (22.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO checks, Hero bets 21.5 BB, CO raises to 43 BB, Hero calls 21.5 BB

CO shows 3 A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 57%, Flop 18%, Turn 89%)
Hero mucks 8 J (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 43%, Flop 82%, Turn 11%)
CO wins 104.5 BB

Hello there MJJ, welcome to the CardsChat community and thank you for sharing your hand. Don't need to worry, we are all students here and we all have the desire to learn.

The Preflop

Are you playing SSS (short stack strategy) or MSS (middle stack strategy)? If you are okay, no problem but if you aren't, we recommend to play with a effective stack of 100 blinds.
Your calling range seems a little bit wide, because calling here what good could come on the flop when we do hit our Jack or an Eight? CO/Villain can, and will have better jacks than you always, because J7o is not so good for opening, you are holding J8, so we should put into Villain's range J9, JT, QJ, KJ and AJ.
I don't like playing MSS strategy because of the low SPR, we are almost always commited with any Top Pair we hit, so there isn't many space for bluffing postflop when we do have only 50 blinds of effective stack.

the postflop

The Flop

CO checks, because most of players are checking 100% range out of position, so they could easily go for check-folding, check-calling or check-raising. I would not bet this flop, because, as I said, we are almost commited to the pot and when we do bet, CO can continue with better jacks, two pair, flush draws and even some straight draws, given CO's range is dynamic. This means that CO can show on its preflop opening range:

22+, A2s+, K7s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o (35%)

We understand now why it is easy for CO to be checking out of position when BTN calls, because it is just a small part of 35% range could/should be betting here out of position and even so not everytime. CO is checking its 35% opening range in a high frequency here, checking something between 70-100% of times.
This is one thing many players do, they bet for information and because they believe Villain will always pay with worst hands, but now CO doesn't has any worst jack than ours, and Hero BTN goes for 1/2 pot, and we should ask ourselves whether this is a bet for value or whether this is a bet for bluff.

The Turn

CO will continue checking here even when it hits AJ for example, because if CO has AJ on its combos, CO is blocking almost all the combinations that BTN could have, and if CO bets it gives an easy fold for BTN.
The strongs hands are checking, all of them, AJ, A5, A6, even AA if Villain has, since BTN demonstrated that it has some Value by betting flop and turn. If BTN/Hero doesn't has any made hand, but flush/straight draws, no problem, CO can continue paying with strongs value hands to evaluate river.

The River

Many players will check a lot when they have strong hands, because the rational philosophy of poker these days are "if you don't know what to do, bet", "if Villain checks or calls it is passive and bluffing so we must force it", "bet for information to see what Villain really has".
The logic is simple, since CO checks flop and BTN/Hero bets, this is a information bet that we are giving for CO: now Villain knows we do have hit something on our range/or we are bluffing the draws of the flop.
CO checks turn and Hero bets again, it is another strong tell that BTN is holding value and will probably keep betting river if we do check for it, so why bother putting money on the pot when our opponent is already making us this favor? ;)
If I was on Hero's shoes here, I would not bet flop, nor turn nor river, well, to start with I would not be defending J8o versus CO, and if I decided to defend it I would go for 3-bet bluff 100% of times.
But, it seems you are betting for information and when you put some many chips on the pot it becomes impossible to fold when Villain re-raises you, and only with better hands.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
0815am

0815am

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Preflop:
FOLD
I might call J9s+, would call or 3B JTs


Flop:
Check or bet are fine. If you bet. Bet rather 4.5-5.5

Turn:
You need to ask yourself what Honda called the flop? Mid PP, some FD that might have hit an ace now.

So I would check behind because it is unlikely that you can bet 3 times here.

I would then reevaluate the river
 
jaworek1405

jaworek1405

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Hello, I agree mostly with guys. With hand j8o on the button, it is a fold pre flop to raise. As played - on the flop I prefer bigger bet with top pair, bet for 50% of the pot. When opponent check on the flop it means for me usually weakness. So I think you should bet for value on the flop. On the turn came up bad cards for hero, but when opponent check again I think we can bet again for 50% of the pot with second pair. On the river I prefer check. Usually opponent will have something. So better is check on the river and better see showdown. As you played on the river, you probably lose this hand, it seems that opponent has something stronger than you pair. If you aren't commited with a pot, you should fold this hand. If you are commited with a pot I guess you have to call on the river. Opponent can check the river, because he can slow play three of a kind.
 
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MJJ

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Thanks for the response from everyone. It's amazing how deep you can dive into analysing a single hand
 
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