$0.25 NLHE STT Turbo: 3bet light against pot size bet in the flop.

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Jakson94

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Hello everyone.
First of all, I'd like to inform that this is my first post in the forum, so I apologize in advance for my possible mistakes.

I just started playing and I decided to play the spin and go $0.25. I want to improve and I know that Hand Review is the way to do so, but I'm still not sure if I'm taking the right conclusions in my review, so I'd like to check with what you guys think. Thank you very much.

PokerStars - 15/30 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players

Hero (BB): 26.17 BB
SB: 23.83 BB (VPIP: 63.64, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, hands: 14)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J♠ 7

SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero checks

Flop: (2 BB, 2 players) A♠ 2 9
Hero checks, SB bets 2 BB, Hero raises to 5 BB


What I think: I feel like I shoud have folded. If he bets half a pot in the flop than a 3 BB 3bet feels right, but when he bets the pot I don't think that is the best moment to 3bet light.
 
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thatguy6793

thatguy6793

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I would absolutely have folded here, simply because you have nothing (i.e. pairs or draws) for you're own cards and there isn't really a scary draw on the board for the v to consider folding (I guess there's the A-5 straight but that's still eh). I assume the purpose of the 3bet was to bluff a strong hand against the SB who was playing weak, so I'll just comment on that and see if that helps you out any. As you probably already know, the purpose of the bluff is to make people think you have a really good hand or at least a better hand than they do in order to win the pot before the showdown. Now although we want the v to think we have the nuts, it's probably a good idea to at least have some type of decent hand or a good amount of outs to fall back on should the v call our bluff. In this particular situation, we have absolutely nothing that wins unless we hit a two pair on the river and turn or the v is also bluffing the ace, so really a bluff here is bad because if they do have the Ace we need at least two cards to have the better hand and if the v is a half decent player, which based on the stats is iffy, they can look at the board and think ok they cant have a straight/flush draw so they must have a pair.

So that's why we shouldn't be bluffing with the 3bet here, but when should you try to use you're 3bet? One time that a bluff can really help you is on a a really wet board, that has decent cards to make sets or paired boards, flush draws and straight draws that aren't as common (middle straight like 5-9), but in order to play these the caveat is that you should probably have a weaker pair giving you two pairs to bluff a set (or a really strong pair), one suited card that would need to hit runner runner to get the flush but also can help in the straight with other cards. Basically you want a hand that either is ahead if they actually have the draw and don't hit or has a ton of outs if they do call. That's just my personal opinion on bluffing like that with nothing, but unless you know something about the v, J9o is not a strong bluffing hand on the board especially with his range he could easily have any A in his hand. Hope that helps!
 
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AlexTheOwl

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If he had an Ace or a pocket pair, he probably would have raised pre-flop.

There are no straight or flush draws on the board.

So his most likely hand is a 9 or a pure bluff. A bluff by the villain makes sense because you probably would have raised pre-flop with an A or a pocket pair, and your check of the flop in an unraised pot indicates weakness.

It's not a bad spot for a 3-bet bluff. The problem is that you will often encounter players at this level who are not going to fold middle pair, or even a hand with two broadway cards, to a small 3-bet.

Folding is OK.

If it seems like he is capable of folding, and if your image is not hyper-aggressive, a 3-bet bluff is OK. You would be representing a hand like 92, A2, or maybe an Ace with a low kicker. But you have to make it painful for him to call and lose. I'd raise to 7BB.

Edit: Did not see thatguy's post. Disagree somewhat about villain's range and whether this is a good spot. It is always better to be able to semi-bluff instead of making a pure bluff. But sometimes pure bluffs are profitable.
 
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