$10 NLHE 6-max: Rivered two pairs, raise against 3 barrels?

[blueskies]

This is 6 max 10NL on BOL, which is their lowest stakes, so it's really 2NL on another site.

First time playing him, but after about 30 mins with him at the table, villain is pretty aggressive and bets a lot.

I had QdJc on btn. I opened to 30c. Villain calls from BB.

5sQc8h flop. BB immediately throws a half-pot donk bet. I call.

Turn's Ks. Another half-pot bet. I call.

River comes Jh.

He throws out another ~half-pot bet ($1.17 bet into $2.47).

At this point I put him on Q9, QT type of hand. I discounted a flopped set because I think he would have checked the flop. Normally a weak Q probably checks the river, but I've seen this guy bet pretty mediocre hands.

It is possible he was throwing out bets with AT from the start, as I have seen people do that at BOL, but I think it's pretty unlikely. 9T is even more unlikely.

I ended up raising the minimum and he called so I knew my hand was good.

Too cautious? Should I have raised bigger to perhaps 2.50 to $2.75? I didn't think he had a particular good hand that would call a big raise, that's why I kept the raise small.

(Undersizing raises is a leak I am trying to work on.)

 

[blueskies]

Edit: when i wrote post, i was thinking i raised to $2. In fact the raise was to 2.34. so the question shd be shd the raise be to $2.75 to $3?

 

[loafaBREAD]

Hey man, nice hand.

I play on BOL often now, so I am familiar with these medium size donk/barrels. V is telling you the strength of his hand- a weak Qx pair. Q3 type of hand, for example

Raise on the river is mandatory, and I agree that you can go a little bit larger. $3 seems fine. V is telling you that he has a medium strength hand here. If the dude hit a straight or a really good 2-pair, he would bomb the river no doubt.

If the board was a bit more wet (like if there's a one-liner to a straight for example) you cannot raise big for value, as even a braindead fish would fold some 2 pair there. That might be a spot for the min click (even there you can make it a clean 2x against these guys!)

If he folds to a $3 bet... make a note! Again, donks on boards like that are so bad because they TELL you their hand... If he's donking Q3 on the flop and folding OTR, you can float with draws and bluff raise...

Also, IF we can make an assumption that v is donking all medium strength hands OTF... QJ may be good enough for a raise vs a flop donk (I wouldn't raise QT, though, against most players)

Overall well played! You definitely inferred the right action, it's just getting the sizing down.

 

[blueskies]

Spoiler

Q3 (suited) is exactly what he had. Nice read!

 

[fundiver199]

I think, preflop, flop and turn are pretty standard. Definitely not folding to the flop or turn leads, but no point in raising either. On the river I would normally just call again. The J gives us two pair, but it also puts out potential straights, and we dont even have top pair any more, so several better two pair are possible.

I understand, that he actually had worse AND called your raise, which is just way out there. I mean, why the heck is he even betting Q3 on the river? Just a total button clicker apparently, and I guess, with a solid read, then maybe the raise is ok, but I would personally not have found it. If this level of play is typical for BOL, then maybe I should actually give it a try LOL

 

[John A]

Open btn situation vs the BB, if he donks into you in this spot, it's almost always a weak made hand or draw, with the occasional total air in some spots. I'd pretty much always be raising the flop at these stakes w/ TPGK+.

The turn and the river are fine. If you learn anything from this hand, it's what a donk range looks like in open btn vs bb.

 

[Vilgeoforc]

The game was right. Since the pot was already big enough, the min-raise was quite acceptable for his weak hand. But there is even an opportunity to fold if a 4-bet flies.