$2 NLHE 6-max: Flopped set w 77, villain shoves river.

[Casey55]

pokerstars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 5 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG (Hero): $3.01 (151 bb)
CO: $1.97 (99 bb)
BU: $1.97 (99 bb)
SB: $2.07 (104 bb)
BB: $1.98 (99 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with 7♠ 7♦
Hero raises to $0.06, 3 players fold, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.13) 4♠ 8♥ 7♣ (2 players)
BB bets $0.06, Hero raises to $0.12, BB calls $0.06

Turn: ($0.37) 6♣ (2 players)
BB bets $0.36, Hero calls $0.36

River: ($1.09) Q♣ (2 players)
BB bets $1.44 (all-in), Hero...?

 

[blueskies]

Why the flop min raise? I understand you have a big hand here, but I am making him pay to chase a draw.

Do you know anything about the villain?

At a higher level of play, I can see making this kind of play as a bluff since a 5 is likely not in your perceived range. If I am up against someone who I think is capable of laying down an overpair on a board like that, I will try it and I have done it successfully. But it's generally not something I'd do against a random micro player.

He could also have two pairs and thinks that he's ahead of your range. He's probably not thinking you have a set.

However, we are talking about 2NL here. As played, I am likely folding.

Again, I would have made him pay more to see the turn.

 

[gustav197poker]

The opening is completely standard with 77. On the flop when V bets we can raise with set. But with min raise you have more marginal hands and you really want to get more value from all possible draws. Since your range from UTG looks a bit weak on this texture, you can block some straght draw from the high end with some bluffing hands like AJ; KJs or JJ. But you must make a size much larger to polarize your range. Otherwise your opponent will have a better chance of improving his marginal hands that call a UTG position, which cannot represent too strong a value range for this board, when you make a min raise.
On the turn your call is reasonable, but it is preferable to fold. Because you allowed BB to improve his marginal hands. You're blocking the 87s and 67s that V could use as bluffs. It's very strange that BB in micro stakes gets fancy with hands like 68s or 98s. So I would just give up here.
As played, on the river a V expects UTG to call a good deal of the time. Therefore BB needs to print the maximum size to get the maximum EV, since he might think that hero went in bluff catcher mode. But when UTG doesn't have the best hands, now the fold is safer as we should be beaten most of the time in this place.
Greetings.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
Standard open.

Flop
I like raising his donk bet, but I dont like your sizing. Especially at 2NL I would use a very large sizing here like 25c to simply charge him more.

Turn
Terrible card and action. You are likely behind to a straight now, and you are not getting direct odds to draw to a boat. You do however have excellent implied odds, so my plan here would be to call and then fold on the river, unless the board pair.

River
No board pair. To make matters even worse a flush is now also possible, so even if he was bluffing you on the turn, he probably got there now. As if that was not enough, you are also facing an overbet, so you are getting terrible odds to call. Easy fold.

 

[2nji]

Pre flop:
standard open with 77

Flop
a larger raise size in response to villains donk bet would have being preferable here between 0.18 - 0.24

Turn
villain makes a pot size bet on a 6c villain might be betting lower strenght hands for value as there are a few hands that hit the board well but are behind our 77s so a call is okay.

River
hard to make a decision without more information but i think it is a call for me, there are too many hands that call our flop min raise that we are ahead of (weaker set, over pair 2 pair and TP hands) and very few that call an UTG raise that beat us as flushes are a small part of his range and QQ would probably 3bet pre flop.

 

[Casey55]

Thank you all for the great advice. One thing I was confused about is villains flop donk, should this be read as a marginal made hand or something stronger? If V’s range is marginal is anyone afraid billain will fold to too large of a sizing? Since they might assume if they are raised large they are beat? Or is this just one of those scenarios where we cant give a cheap turn card given the board texture?

What donking range do you guys think of villan here on the flop?

 

[QA77]

Min raising is just too weak on the flop. You don’t want to give a cheap turn. Either raise bigger on the flop or just call and raise on later streets.

 

[fundiver199]

Thank you all for the great advice. One thing I was confused about is villains flop donk, should this be read as a marginal made hand or something stronger? If V’s range is marginal is anyone afraid billain will fold to too large of a sizing? Since they might assume if they are raised large they are beat? Or is this just one of those scenarios where we cant give a cheap turn card given the board texture? What donking range do you guys think of villan here on the flop?

I dont think, he is leading for half pot with absolutely nothing. If he had a hand like KT or QJ, he would just check and fold. So the lead means, he connected with the board in some way. And with a board this low "connecting" means a lot of relatively weak pairs, that dont particularly love to see a turn out of position, with or without a gutshot. He can have A8, 75, the list is very long. He can also have a draw like T9, and he can occationally have two pair or better, but its not the bulk of his range.

At since he almost always have something at least decent, I would not be afraid, that he fold to a raise. Maybe the 25c, which I suggested, will get a few folds, but at least up to 20c, he is going to call nearly 100% of the time. So going to just 12c is simply leaving a ton of money on the table.

Where the lead becomes very strong is on the turn. Now he leads for almost full pot, and he does it, after you raised him on the previous street. This is a very nutted line, and given the board this will almost always be a straight. Yeah sure the guy could be going crazy with A4 of clubs or some other random bluff, but that will be the exception.

 

[Hermus]

But you must make a size much larger to polarize your range.

This statement is slightly misleading as your sizing has nothing to do with actually playing a polarised range or not. It's true that betting large is better if you have a high bluff to value ratio as is the case more often in a polarised range compared to a merged range. i.e. If your range is polarised bet large, but betting large does not mean that your range is polarised. I agree with everything else in your post.

 

[gustav197poker]

This statement is slightly misleading as your sizing has nothing to do with actually playing a polarised range or not. It's true that betting large is better if you have a high bluff to value ratio as is the case more often in a polarised range compared to a merged range. i.e. If your range is polarised bet large, but betting large does not mean that your range is polarised. I agree with everything else in your post.

Yes of course, the hero's rank is not polarized in a raised pot. And when hero min raise the flop, the depolarization seems more apparent. It is important that V have that perception when we hope to obtain more value in the next streets. But since the UTG range has few strong values ​​in the range, we can really start to build a polarization. And this is possible when V thinks that it does not interfere with our range of bluffs. In this case, as we have an advantage in overcards, we hope to obtain the maximum value of its marginal range. Because by removing the fold equity range in V, it really means that we are widening our perceived range, as this texture is not favorable for us and it is favorable for the villain. If the texture were favorable for hero, a big raise OTF would mean the reverse reasoning. In this case, we would seek to depolarize our range against players who have very tight range trends, increasing their fold equity in a texture that does not favor V.