$100 NLHE 6-max: Bluff line with the part low of my range

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gustav197poker

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In this hand I decide to play with the lower section of my range. I know that I am 3/1 down, against a probably more closed range, from the UTG position. The table was a little tight tonight, so I decide to call from BTN. The flop favors me with a gutshot, but we arrive at the turn, with a decision to bluff. I would like to know your opinion about this hand. Here I leave link:
https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/6qhx7Uz

Greetings.
 
Aballinamion

Aballinamion

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balancing postflop

In this hand I decide to play with the lower section of my range. I know that I am 3/1 down, against a probably more closed range, from the UTG position. The table was a little tight tonight, so I decide to call from BTN. The flop favors me with a gutshot, but we arrive at the turn, with a decision to bluff. I would like to know your opinion about this hand. Here I leave link:
https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/6qhx7Uz

Greetings.

Hello there gustav197poker, how you doing buddy? Thank you for sharing your hand.
I like this call in position better when I know:

A) That UTG can be outplayed postflop or it is a weak player (Whales, fishes, nits, passive tights, etc).

B) When there is a weak player in the blinds

However, I don't hate your calling. We could be calling here and 3-betting in a low frequency and still be profitable.
I am assuming you could be cold-calling here with nearly 20% of your range:

99-22, A9s-A2s, K9s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, AQo-ATo, KTo+, QTo+, JTo

With this range you could be betting some flops when UTG elects not to c-bet.
With this range you could be raising flop/turn and still have a decent equity.
But which hands are we raising here to be balanced?
87s has a gutshot, if we raise a gutshot flop/turn what other hands can we use to balance our range?
You could be raising here with J9, 99 and 22 for value. You don't have many 99 and JJ in your range because you could be 3-betting them preflop, even versus UTG and have a decent playability postflop.
So, it rests only J9 and there aren't many combos of them in your range.
However, if you only raise here with J9, Jx with TPTK, 9x with 2PTK, you can be safely be raising your straight draws with 87, KQ and QT (OESD much better of course).
Thus, in a flop like this you have 3 value hands (Two Pair, TPTK and 2PTK) that could be raising and 3 bluffs (gutshots with 87 and KQ and OESD with QT) that could be raising. (perfect balance?)
In the turn, UTG makes a very strange move, because it simply gave up its equity by checking flop, and now it is trying to represent some strong Ax, such as AK, AQ, AJ or AT, by betting in a VERY SMALL side.
However UTG bets so small (less than 1/3 pot!) that it gives us excellent odds for calling turn to float river or simply raising the turn itself. In a situation like this we like to be raising more with bluffs than values, because, maybe UTG is a NIT and could be nitty folding a KK, QQ, because it saw an ace in the turn.
For the times we get called we are happy because we still have position, our hand has a decent equity for the turn (18%?) and the player can still be outplayed/bluffed. When UTG re-raises us we have a pretty hard decision, but I would be folding my bluffs and semi-bluffs and continue only with the strongest part of my rank.
Overall I liked very much the way the hand was played. When UTG makes a small bet in the turn it is not so good to call and give odds for it to hit some crazy river.
If UTG was a more solid player it would either be c-betting flop for 1/3 pot with almost its entire range (because UTG's range is mostly polarized") or it would check-flop and in the case Hero/BTN/You check-behind, make a sizeable 70%, 80% bet in the turn to really try to represent some strong range in the pocket.
I believe UTG doesn't protect its rank by playing like this, and we must deduce UTG could be more of a fit and fold style, which is awesome for us. UTG bets small just to try to make BTN to fold its trashes, however, with a very polarized/small sizing like this, we are folding absolutely nothing in the turn, and we could even be raising some of our bluffs very safely.
IMO, we must have a air bluffing range in a situation like this, versus a player like this. You will have more value hands than bluffs in board texture like this one.
Congratulations, very well played.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
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fundiver199

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Preflop
I am not a big fan of cold calling in general, and especially not against UTG opens. That being said this is 6-max, so its not an EP open, you did have the best seat at the table, and you picked a hand, which is not dominated by his broadways, and which can do some damage. So this is not like the worst flat call in the world, but personally I would have 3-bet or folded. 3-betting gives you fold equity, it gives you an uncapped range, it knock the blinds out, and it allow you to C-bet the flop.

Flop
When he check to you, I would probably start bluffing. You have no showdown value at all, and you did pick up a little something with the gutshot to the low end of a straight. Your hand is fairly bad though, so maybe its also fine to just take a free card and give up later, unless you improve.

Turn
He make a delayed C-bet on the A, which is a card, that will often have helped him. Your situation is way worse now, than it was on the flop, so time to give up and just fold. Its really backwards to start bluffing, when a card just helped your opponents range, and he is showing more strength. Its like deliberately riding a bicycle uphill and against the wind. It worked this time, but so does calling with 72, if you flop a full house.
 
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I think your call preflop on the button is fine.

Flop is fine.

The Ace hits his range far harder than your range. Yes, your bluff worked, but there are many more times it won't.
 
hackmeplz

hackmeplz

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3bet preflop, bet flop, once you get to the turn this way raise is fine if he's not good enough to realize you rep 5 combos maybe (do you call all A2s and A9s combos?), and if you occasionally check back flopped sets on this board you can have another combo or two of value? It's just that if you are going to have a bluff range on this board this is the hand to do it with, KQ going to be much better as a call.
 
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