$25 NLHE 6-max: My play against a fish

I know my play here seems weird but I have seen this guy play weird hands prior to this and call 3 bet really lite so.....



PokerStars - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 22.73, PFR: 10.61, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 138)
UTG: 106.2 BB (VPIP: 23.40, PFR: 14.89, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 48)
MP: 105.4 BB (VPIP: 23.86, PFR: 19.42, 3Bet Preflop: 9.17, Hands: 1,054)
CO: 178.72 BB (VPIP: 44.00, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 26)
Hero (BTN): 141.88 BB
SB: 99 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A:diamond: 9:spade:

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 6 BB

Flop: (19.4 BB, 2 players) 9:diamond: Q:heart: 2:diamond:
CO bets 1 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, CO calls 11 BB

Turn: (43.4 BB, 2 players) 9:heart:
CO checks, Hero bets 33.12 BB, CO calls 33.12 BB

River: (109.64 BB, 2 players) 5:heart:
CO checks, Hero bets 52.36 BB, CO raises to 124.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 35.4 BB and is all-in

CO shows J:heart: 8:heart: (Flush, Queen High) (Pre 42%, Flop 29%, Turn 23%)
Hero shows A:diamond: 9:spade: (Three of a Kind, Nines) (Pre 58%, Flop 71%, Turn 77%)
CO wins 277.16 BB

Your flop raise (or bet which is imo a better way of thinking of it) is too small. You did go a bit larger on the turn but I have to wonder if that was because you happened to improve to the nut trips as opposed to ranging your opponent as having a relatively large percentage of draws based on his flop play (in conjunction with his pre flop play and the board texture ofc). A great skill to develop is to plan your sizing over multiple streets by eyeing effective stack size in advance. You can set up a river shove that isn't 80% of the pot like it would be in the HH, and make it a lot easier for a fish to look you up with a weak holding.

I think you played it ok. The flop could be a little bigger, but you don't know at that point what size pot you want. So the turn makes it a little tough, and I think the sizing is good. There's not really a great way to size here on the turn to setup a river shove unless you bet somewhere around 40bbs, and that might be a little too much.

I think you played it fine overall. Only other small thing is I might 3-bet a little larger because I want those fish calling against me OOP. They almost never fold to a 3-bet no matter what they have and you can win a little more by going to 10 or 11 bbs.

Check the river plz...

What hand are you expecting to call a 50bb river bet here? It is almost always a busted draw here.
His shove on the river has to be value..if he shoves over 50bb he bluffs with the heart of a lion and I give him credit and consider a fold.
A smaller bet on the river might get called and or induces a bluff which is wanted here.
This hand Shows why we should always bet large when that backdoor draw comes in.

Have to check behind the river, nothing you beat is calling bar AQ and I dont think AQ bets 1BB into 19 on the flop.

Villain is so s**t it's funny. Nothing really that wrong with the river against someone so bad, but really we should be checking behind.

Never check behind this river... this would be a HUGE leak. I'd also not post results in the future because I think it skews people's responses way too much. There's tons of worse 9x that would call, and who knows what other kind of goofy stuff a bad opponent can show up with here.

John A said:

Never check behind this river... this would be a HUGE leak. I'd also not post results in the future because I think it skews people's responses way too much. There's tons of worse 9x that would call, and who knows what other kind of goofy stuff a bad opponent can show up with here.

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John I agree we have to bet for value but I just think 50 bigs is too much for such an obvious a draw heavy board.

50 blinds is less than half the pot here. If the flop raise were a bit larger as it should've been then such a bet would be even smaller still. Since the only draw that actually came in was a backdoor flush, I'm not sure if your comment about the draw heavy board and having to bet small for value actually means betting small to induce from a bunch of whiffed draws, or what.

It's a great spot to bet as you've bet or raised on literally every street and will get a lot of calls from stations such as this one wondering why on earth you're not afraid of the "draw heavy board" or 9x hands etc with your AA/KK/AQ lol. No discounts imo to let him satisfy his curiosity as to whether you're bluffing a whiffed draw here on a draw heavy board.

Were basically praying he has 9x or air with a bet

Less than 1/2 pot in a 3-bet pot is too big?

akaRobbo said:

Were basically praying he has 9x or air with a bet

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Or we're happily value betting with fist raised high in a pumping motion.

If you're seeing monsters under your bed all the time, this is going to be a tough game honestly.

John A said:

Or we're happily value betting with fist raised high in a pumping motion.

If you're seeing monsters under your bed all the time, this is going to be a tough game honestly.

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Value betting what though hahah

The point is you are beating everything except the backdoor flush which is usually so unlikely that it can virtually be ignored
So you should be betting this river to get value from whatever piece of cheese hand he has. If he has anything at all he will be inclined to call thats what fish like this do. If you fail to bet at all here in these situations you are massively harming your winrate.
I just think this is a really draw heavy board and the 1bb donk lead is him saying I HAVE A DRAW LETS KEEP IT CHEAP. I see this all the time with fish at 5 and 10 nl.
It looks so strongly like a busted draw that IMO that almost half pot 50bb is too big here to get enough calls from what is going to be mainly air and think it is a better ev play to bet 20-25bb and give him irresistible odds to look you up. That bet sizing also gives him room to think he has enough behind to shove a busted flush draw as a bluff. which is what we want here with trips which is a strong holding on this board.
Once 50bb is bet leaving 34 behind you remove the chance of his bluff and are snap calling any shove as you are priced in.

The only problem i see is the kind of small post flop bet. Maybe a little more would of got em away, after the turn though it seems like he woulda stayed for the ride

John A said:

Never check behind this river... this would be a HUGE leak. I'd also not post results in the future because I think it skews people's responses way too much. There's tons of worse 9x that would call, and who knows what other kind of goofy stuff a bad opponent can show up with here.

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With just 9x, it is quite possible that the villain raise the turn

Figaroo2 said:

If he has anything at all he will be inclined to call thats what fish like this do.

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Indeed. I can more or less agree with this whether it's 50bb into 110, 25 into 110, or 75 into 140ish. If he's holding a hand that can beat a bluff like maybe Qx, various pocket pairs, diamond draws that perhaps made a pair on the river or even if they happen to include the A♦, whatever else fish like to show up with, then there's a pretty decent chance they'll find a call somehow. If this player is not holding a hand that can beat a bluff like say JT, J8, T8, small diamonds, whatever, then I don't think he's calling off 25 blinds with that anymore than he's calling 50.

I also doubt this passive player is going to take that type of bet as an invitation to bluff raise with the last of his stack (even if we were deeper, which we'd want to be), and if he thought that way he likely wouldn't have donked 1/20th of the pot on the flop. Betting such a small amount on the river relative to the pot will largely eliminate the possibility that you're bluffing, so while I do agree with some of the points you've made in the topic, I can't agree that a river gaybet has a greater overall EV. I can only imagine getting our 25bb get snapped by like AQ and thinking well **** guess he wasn't folding otr whoops.

John A said:

Never check behind this river... this would be a HUGE leak. I'd also not post results in the future because I think it skews people's responses way too much. There's tons of worse 9x that would call, and who knows what other kind of goofy stuff a bad opponent can show up with here.

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how do I hide the result?

yanivshe said:

how do I hide the result?

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Simply delete it manually.

John A said:

Or we're happily value betting with fist raised high in a pumping motion.

If you're seeing monsters under your bed all the time, this is going to be a tough game honestly.

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indeed. I absolutely did not think he had anything by the river. just a busted draw or a pair .
when he called the flop I was a little concerned he has a Q because although fish usually don't fold to 3 bet with anything, they will shut down on the flop if they miss completely (well, I guess inside straight isn't completely..).

once the turn hit I off course hoping he does have a QX type hand .
then he called the turn and checked the river and I thought :
well, this type of player will usually lead here if he has a monster , so I strongly felt he is holding just a pair.

Kind of disregarded the reads as you're only 29 hands deep in this extensive history you elude to.

I never like betting over half my stack without moving in, so I would pick one OTR. Doesn't much matter which (check or jam), but betting half pot for over half your stack is not going to bode well for you.

One rule i learned about fishes is that they bet strong their strong hands and only calling with medium hands, maybe you should fold the river re raise, but actuallly you played the hand perfect till the river, i hate fishes that chase draws too but they hit it sometimes so that's poker you can't do anything about it except from be more carefull when you see that chasers, i also agree to Figaroo2 posts, especially the part with 1bb donk lead is him saying I HAVE A DRAW LETS KEEP IT CHEAP if he had sth else he would bet the flop and not checking the turn.

BenjiHustle said:

Kind of disregarded the reads as you're only 29 hands deep in this extensive history you elude to.

I never like betting over half my stack without moving in, so I would pick one OTR. Doesn't much matter which (check or jam), but betting half pot for over half your stack is not going to bode well for you.

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Yes. Shoving here is acceptable.