$25 NLHE 6-max: Check/call all 3 streets?

Bovada; Zone Poker; 6-max

NL Holdem $0.25(BB)
HERO ($24.75)
BB ($24.52)
UTG ($28.2)
HJ ($84.57)
CO ($19.93)
BTN ($24.75)

Dealt to Hero KdAc

UTG Folds, HJ Raises To $0.75, CO Folds, BTN Folds, HERO Raises To $2.75, BB Folds, HJ Calls $2

Flop ($5.5) AsJdTs
HERO Checks, HJ Bets $2.25, HERO Calls $2.25

Turn ($10) Ad
HERO Checks, HJ Bets $5.62, HERO Calls $5.62

River ($21.24) 3s
HERO Checks, HJ Bets $21.49...

Call or Fold??

It's zone poker on Bovada, so no reads on villain, but I tend to play people with big stacks (more than 2x buy-in) with caution because they're either good, running good, or both.

I checked the flop because I was out of position and in a 3 bet pot, I felt like the flop was either awesome for him or a complete whiff. So I didn't think it was a great place to cbet. Same on the turn.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I like how you played it, river really sucks. I don't mind flipping a coin on river making a decision off that. I probably lean forwards folding though. Interesting hand readless. Want to see others opinion here.

His bet sizing seems suspect if he has 2 pair, set or flopped straight. And the only hand of those that you'd want to pot the river would be a boat. It's probably somewhere towards a neutral call/fold, but I'd lean towards a call. I haven't played zone in awhile, but at even the higher stakes there were so many bad bluffs, especially if you checked at all. If you're checking 3 streets here you're really opening up someone's bluffing range.

I'd call vs a deepstacker but wouldnt be happy about it. It's okay to fold too. I think this call is extremely marginal and super high variance. He probably understands that our range isn't super strong on the river and might try to take advantage of it. And generally deepstackers on Zone are more aggro & spewier pre/post from my experience.

He should only be potting the river with a full house or exactly KQss. But I dont think he sizes that way with KQss on all 3 streets. And the sizing is a bit bizarre for flopped two pair and turned boat. Your hand looks like AQ, so he might try to bluff you off it. However, not many players are gutsy enough to pull this off so this does reduce his 3-barrel bluffing frequency. If you had the Ks, this would be a little more +EV to call.

I like how you played the hand too.

I've been playing a good bit of 25nl on bovada lately and you absolutely can not fold here once you take this line. Regs will start bluffing with hands that they shouldn't and fish will valuebet A7suited like it's the nuts here.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I ended up calling. He had AJ, I was pretty happy with how I played, but it was one of the ones Leak Buster had flag because I check/called 3 streets too often. So its good to hear that this one wasn't completely fishy on my part

jrodders said:

Thanks for the feedback guys. I ended up calling. He had AJ, I was pretty happy with how I played, but it was one of the ones Leak Buster had flag because I check/called 3 streets too often. So its good to hear that this one wasn't completely fishy on my part

Click to expand...

Yeah, you don't want to get in the habit of it w/o info. I think you can try and make field generalizations about, say zone poker opponents, and that they will bluff too wide when shown weakness, but you will open yourself up to high variance because you don't know when you're facing that segment of the field population. You generally want to c/c multi streets when you're against opponents you know are bluffing too wide, and you can only know that when you have info on them.

It's good you're reviewing these hands those and asking questions. That's how leak buster is supposed to be used.

The hand played good but I'll bet on the turn and river