Close call... Bluffed by a better hand

Live Tournament

Me: Button: A5 spades

Action is folded to me and is the early going and stack are very deep

Blinds 100 / 200 stack 30k

I make it 500 SB folds BB calls

At this point I played for about half an hour and B.B. played lot of hands ( I'd say 50 / 60% )

Flop ( pot 1100 )

Qh Qs 9d

He checks and I c-bet for 650, he quickly calls. I put him on a middle pair now or some straight draw, I think he would at least consider raising with a Q.

Turn 3c ( pot 2400 )

Action goes check check, I feel comfortable I got the best hand a lot and I plan to go to showdown or catch some bluffs on blank rivers.

River ( pot 2400 )

4c

Complete blank no straight gets there, and he bets 2000. As I said I thought he did not have a Q a lot and I don't think he's betting pairs at this point, so I really think he doesn't have a real hand but he's got bunch of straight draw which missed, I call and he says "you got it".

I proudly roll over my hand and suddently he goes like... "oops, I got it then" and rolls over AT.


Thoughts on this call?

Also I felt like this was a little bit inappropriate by him, as I told in previous posts I just started playing live and the two times I've been caught bluffing, once I just showed my hand and the second time I just mucked cause I had garbage.

Was that an unfair play or not?

Thanks a lot

think about it from his perspective.. does a villain ever play the hand the way you did if he has a Q? no, the story youre telling makes it easy for him to believe you never have a queen... secondly, this is a bad flop to cbet on... your cbet is usually going to be a bluff... thats why he called your cbet because you cbet bluff more often than you have a Q here. if that makes sense... when you check back the turn, you confirm that your cbet was a bluff why would you call with a weak ace on the river? hes never calling your cbet bluff on the flop with anything worse than Ax or better. theres only one way to win this hand and thats by making him fold, which is never ever ever going to happen unless you tripple barrel bluff, but thats sich a risky way to play and expensive if youre wrong that i wouldnt recommend it unless you had a positive read on the guy. the best way to play postflop is to check back the flop and fold if he bets the turn or river.

mbrenneman0 said:

think about it from his perspective.. does a villain ever play the hand the way you did if he has a Q? no, the story youre telling makes it easy for him to believe you never have a queen... secondly, this is a bad flop to cbet on... your cbet is usually going to be a bluff... thats why he called your cbet because you cbet bluff more often than you have a Q here. if that makes sense... when you check back the turn, you confirm that your cbet was a bluff why would you call with a weak ace on the river? hes never calling your cbet bluff on the flop with anything worse than Ax or better. theres only one way to win this hand and thats by making him fold, which is never ever ever going to happen unless you tripple barrel bluff, but thats sich a risky way to play and expensive if youre wrong that i wouldnt recommend it unless you had a positive read on the guy. the best way to play postflop is to check back the flop and fold if he bets the turn or river.

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GREAT level three thinking! Putting yourself in your opponents head is always the mark of a good poker thinker. Good hand analysis/post.

For those unfamiliar with "poker thinking levels", here's a paraphrase...

Level one: these players think only about the content of their hand in relation to the board. Calling stations.
"Top pair top kicker! I'm gonna check/call my whole stack!"

Level two: these players take into account their cards and their opponents cards. They can put opponents on ranges and adjust accordingly. The average player.
" I think he only has a one pair hand, my hand should beat his"

Level three: This is where you start to get into your opponents head. You play their ranges the put you on. these players know how and when to mix it up and throw opponents off. This is the level you need to be at to consistently make money.
"Last time I was in a hand with this guy, I played the nuts like I played this hand, If I bet x% of pot on the river, he will fold with x% of his range."

Level four: the top pros. These players they take it one step further and take into account what opponents think hero is putting them on. Basically they think what you think what they think you think. Pokers funny...

thanks. im still working on level three thinking. have to be careful not to "overthink things" if someone else is thinking on level one then level 3 will not work on them haha

DuffMcGruff said:

GREAT level three thinking! Putting yourself in your opponents head is always the mark of a good poker thinker. Good hand analysis/post.

For those unfamiliar with "poker thinking levels", here's a paraphrase...

Level one: these players think only about the content of their hand in relation to the board. Calling stations.
"Top pair top kicker! I'm gonna check/call my whole stack!"

Level two: these players take into account their cards and their opponents cards. They can put opponents on ranges and adjust accordingly. The average player.
" I think he only has a one pair hand, my hand should beat his"

Level three: This is where you start to get into your opponents head. You play their ranges the put you on. these players know how and when to mix it up and throw opponents off. This is the level you need to be at to consistently make money.
"Last time I was in a hand with this guy, I played the nuts like I played this hand, If I bet x% of pot on the river, he will fold with x% of his range."

Level four: the top pros. These players they take it one step further and take into account what opponents think hero is putting them on. Basically they think what you think what they think you think. Pokers funny...

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Good point! I can't tell you how many times I've outplayed myself! You really have to know what level your opponents are thinking on in order to know what level to use... and if your wrong, you can lose a lot of chips making moves your opponents won't even notice. It's hard to take into account that players may not understand the nuances of poker that you do. Poker really is a game of incomplete information...

mbrenneman0 said:

think about it from his perspective.. does a villain ever play the hand the way you did if he has a Q? no, the story youre telling makes it easy for him to believe you never have a queen... secondly, this is a bad flop to cbet on... your cbet is usually going to be a bluff... thats why he called your cbet because you cbet bluff more often than you have a Q here. if that makes sense... when you check back the turn, you confirm that your cbet was a bluff why would you call with a weak ace on the river? hes never calling your cbet bluff on the flop with anything worse than Ax or better. theres only one way to win this hand and thats by making him fold, which is never ever ever going to happen unless you tripple barrel bluff, but thats sich a risky way to play and expensive if youre wrong that i wouldnt recommend it unless you had a positive read on the guy. the best way to play postflop is to check back the flop and fold if he bets the turn or river.

Click to expand...

Thx for the mindtryck analysis. I only disagree with the fact that that's not a good board to c-bet ( very dry board )
and on the fact that his never calling the c-bet with worse than ace high