What would you do here

ventrolloquist

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Hi. Just curious how everyone would play in this situation vs. a balanced opponent and why?

Hero: MP :as4::ks4:
Villain: Button XX

Hero: Open 2.5x
Villain: Call

Flop: :kh4::4h4::jc4:
Hero: Bet 40%
Villain: Call

Turn: :6h4:
Hero: ???

Thanks.
 
MMaki1981

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Seems tough at first, but really easy call - JUST CHECK

It's know it seems tough, but I definitely would have just checked. You don't know if they were originally calling on a flush draw or not. You need to see how they react first. If they bet out, then call depending on how much of your stack you can continue to risk.

The only other option is to come in strong and hope like hell they don't have the flush but again, stack sizes and pot size really do play a part in the decision making...
 
Evan Jarvis

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Hi. Just curious how everyone would play in this situation vs. a balanced opponent and why?

Hero: MP :as4::ks4:
Villain: Button XX

Hero: Open 2.5x
Villain: Call

Flop: :kh4::4h4::jc4:
Hero: Bet 40%
Villain: Call

Turn: :6h4:
Hero: ???

Thanks.

I would probably keep betting for value here. They can still call you with worse kings, straight draws w/ a heart and pair of jacks w/ a heart.

If you had a heart in your hand I prefer checking back more because you are protected when the heart rolls off. But with no heart in your hand there's no real need to give them a free draw at it.

If they have the flush so be it, you will likely only lose one bet anyway (in a spot you are drawing dead), the same bet you would've lost if you checked back and called river.

Hope that helps!
 
TheDude6622

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Small continue bet on the turn and see what the villain does. If they re-raise big we know we have to make a tough lay down in most cases.
 
Aballinamion

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Long term explanation

Hi. Just curious how everyone would play in this situation vs. a balanced opponent and why?

Hero: MP :as4::ks4:
Villain: Button XX

Hero: Open 2.5x
Villain: Call

Flop: :kh4::4h4::jc4:
Hero: Bet 40%
Villain: Call

Turn: :6h4:
Hero: ???

Thanks.

Hello ventrolloquist thank you for posting your question.
I don't know what to do here in reality. It will depend on the limit you are playing in.
Because a balanced player at the micros could not be a balanced player at low and middle stakes.
If we are playing 100 NLHE it changes quite a bit who we are playing with and so our decision-making process.
Based on the assumption that you are playing at the micro-stakes (for the hands you've already posted here), I will make a comment considering that a player is an average regular of the micros, okay?
I don't use too much 2.5x raise with any part of my range from MP. Players simply call too much at the micros, 3x changes a little their preflop odds, specially from the blinds.
When a regular calls you in position you gotta have an ideia of which range he would be calling with, but you have to think all of this before the preflop raise.
It seems an okay flop for c-betting, but also seems a little bit drawie, or connected, not the worse flop in the word but not the best. We know that are some turns that will end up our action, such as a hearts. Do we have a plan for that before we decide to C-bet flop?
In a flop like this, is there a chance of villain calling me with medium and low pocket pairs and straight-flush draws? So, because of this I am more inclined to be 1/2 here for value, at maximum versus a player who really understands the game. Against weaker player I can bet a little bit more, to extract from worse Kings, Jacks, medium-sticky pocket pairs and the draws. We see there are many scenarios where we are going to be paid in a flop like this.
The turn is not good for our range, because we have no blockers of hearts and our hand loses strength. I would not be for value here, because if I bet, for example 1/3 pot and villain has a flush it is going to call me or raise and I lose value.
If I bet 1/3 pot and villain has two pair it will call. (KJ for example).
If I bet 1/2 pot in a situation like this, do I really expect to be paid by worse hands at the micros, versus a regular/balanced player? I don't think so. Why do we bet anyways?

A) For value: when we believe we have the best hand and Villain will pay with hands that are beated
B) For bluff: when we believe we have the second hand, a draw, nothing at all, but we believe we can make Villain to fold a better hand

When we bet this turn of hearts are we really going to be paid by worse (at the micros?)

Regulars usually will not cold call too much preflop unless they see that either they have a hand that will have good playability plus position, or they will use position to bluff you out of the pot, no matter the outcome of the board. (Although we know there aren't too many postflop bluffs at the micros)
A regular player will most likely know your tendencies. A balanced player knows that you are opening a strong range from MP and knows how to adapt to that.
When a regular calls you on the flop you don't know it it has something indeed or if it is just trying to float you in later streets, so, what's my point?
The sole objects of the Cash Game, either 6-Max or Full-Ring are:

A) Steal the blinds
B) Play in Position
C) Play versus weaker/recreational/fishes

No matter how good you are, if you are facing a regular, your expectation is to win 1 BB/100, if you play close to perfect against them. Where the money really comes from is from players with a weaker technique and overall gameplan. So, it doesn't matter if you have AA or AKs versus a regular. It is much better to have XYo versus a recreational in position, because a recreational player will make huge ammounts of postflop errors and we can extract 10 BB/100 or even more playing versus this kind of players.
A long time ago, in a very far, far away galaxy, started the Leveling Wars: by the moment we are playing with a thinking player, no matter how mediocre the regular is, we know that there is a great chance of the player knows that we know. The regular have a notion that MP opens strong hands, that a flop where comes a Kx and a Jx with a flush draw favours both MP and BTN, being a very close spot, the regular knows that you are going to C-bet out of position if you hit your king and sometimes when you don't hit the king, because the flop is good for you, etc, so it is thinking what you are thinking, and this leveling war, this mental war is real hard.
To have edge upon regulars, you have to be a professional, which I am not, so, having information that I am also a weak regular, I will avoid playing with this guys, unless there is no other way. When I play with them I will try not to be too much exploitative and play a little bit of GTO mixed with Exploitative game.
For our lucky there aren't too many average regulars at the micros.
I see that many players when they are facing an unkown decent player, tends to do weird things, for the fact that if we don't know who the player is, there is a great chance of this player not being a regular (a regular plays everyday and we have statistics on it, right?)
Nonetheless, there are unknown players every single moment at the micros! If we play standard games against these guys we are going lose too much, because it is not because we don't the player that the player is a bad one!
I use to treat unknown player at micros, low and medium stakes as good regulars, not even average, so I avoid entering strange spots, where I don't know what to do, because I simply don't have information of the player, and this is not a expendible variable.
I will not c-bet this turn I guess. If Villain calls me in the turn, am I sending another barrel in the river if it doesn't come a Qx, a Tx, a Jx or a heart? And if they come, am I still firing or I will be calling regardless of the player? If I check turn and Villain bets, and I inclined to call? Any sizing?
If I bet this turn and Villain raises, am I happy? Can we bluff this guy on later streets? (at the micros?)
I hope it helps you!

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
diego farfan

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It is easy since they are only two players you have to move according to the behavior of the opponent tel since you can see a project and color but as in comments of my forum partners you have to take into account two aspects of your stank of how much you can risk taking into account the recommended percentage is 10 percent of the blind or if your opponent rises it may appear to have a stronger hand than yours there if the investment is not strong the best is to risk since sometimes we have the winning hand but for the fear of color We left and I say it because it happened to me sometimes. the most advisable thing is to try to see the flop with the minimum expense
 
Eric Salvador

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Depending how your table image is so far. If you’ve already bet top pair on a wet board and fired the turn when one of the draws came in I’d check. If not I’d fire here probably half pot
 
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I would bet only 1/3 pot and see how they react. I am going to assume they might have a king or a made flush if they call bet on the heart turn.
 
ventrolloquist

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Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

Carlos, I opted for 40% pot because I cbet quite small usually, but I agree 50% is good, I would have probably done 45 or something if my bet shortcut buttons / slider were easier to use. My question was more theoretical (aimed for higher stakes play like NL50-100 and beyond), but I play mostly micros so I really appreciate the adjustments you've described here :). Thanks for your insight. Also, I like the star wars reference and mental wars bit. I guess being a good poker player is like being a Jedi [emoji1].

Regarding the turn bet sizing. I used to bet small here thinking it's a sort of thin value spot but I think I was wrong. My thinking now is if another heart hits then you're basically screwed so choosing a bet size that denies equity to another heart is better, so I do 66% now.

Evan, thank you for clarifying here, I didn't realize that holding a heart should increase my checking frequency. Regarding having a heart as a blocker, should that not incentivize me to continue value betting as it makes a flush less likely? Or is the logic here that I'm removing more combos from his flush draw calling range by holding a heart, and that he might be mire likely to fold against a value bet? Just out of curiosity what bet size would you opt for? I figured anything more than 66% - 75% pot would be spewing chips against made flushes.
 
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Aballinamion

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The Revenge of the Sith, lol

Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

Carlos, I opted for 40% pot because I cbet quite small usually, but I agree 50% is good, I would have probably done 45 or something if my bet shortcut buttons / slider were easier to use. My question was more theoretical (aimed for higher stakes play like NL50-100 and beyond), but I play mostly micros so I really appreciate the adjustments you've described here :). Thanks for your insight. Also, I like the star wars reference and mental wars bit. I guess being a good poker player is like being a Jedi [emoji1].

Regarding the turn bet sizing. I used to bet small here thinking it's a sort of thin value spot but I think I was wrong. My thinking now is if another heart hits then you're basically screwed so choosing a bet size that denies equity to another heart is better, so I do 66% now.

Hi Nick, glad you like it! :love: However, try to listen and read more about Evan Jarvis, he is professional, I am just a student. :)
You said you were going to make a Thin Value Bet in the Turn, lemme understand? You are going to be small (1/3 or 1/4 pot) because it is a Thin Value or because you believe Thin Value means betting small?
Because we could easily be betting 3/4 pot in the Turn/River and even so be a Thin Value Bet (Thin is when we are close, for example we have AK and villain KQ and a draw, when we have a pocket pair and villain also has one pocket, breakeven spots in general)
If you didn't meant to say this sorry, I just said for the sake of the readers who might miss the meaning of the text.
Well man, I really don't like betting this turn no matter what because a hearts is a real scary card. If we bet turn, are we not turning our value hand into a huge bluff? Because the most natural action of Villain is to fold a lot of turns when it doesn't have a decent heart in its range. The same goes for scary cards such as Jx, Kx Tx, Qx etc. (if the flush is spooky to us, it also could scary Villain) ;)
Complicated, because if you bet your TPTK in a flushed board, without blockers and Villain folds, you cannot win with your value hand. If you bet turn and Villain calls you don't know how much you are ahead and what to do in the River.
Why does everybody love so much to make the pot grows everytime?
Do we expect any time Villain to bluff this flush (if it has a hearts, or if it bets too much versus missed c-bet)?
May the force be with you!

PS: Jarvis has real sweet courses/prices plus a lot of amazing free videos at YouTube, look for him, the guy is very kind and awesome!

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
10gerka

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In the pre flop and post flop is well played, but the interesting thing is put on the turn where a 6 of hearts falls, where it completes color, there you should check to see what your opponent does, first if you bet, we have to see the amount, but you have to pay one always, and on the river if you bet the full boat or more I think fold.
 
ventrolloquist

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Hi Nick, glad you like it! :love: However, try to listen and read more about Evan Jarvis, he is professional, I am just a student. :)
You said you were going to make a Thin Value Bet in the Turn, lemme understand? You are going to be small (1/3 or 1/4 pot) because it is a Thin Value or because you believe Thin Value means betting small?
Because we could easily be betting 3/4 pot in the Turn/River and even so be a Thin Value Bet (Thin is when we are close, for example we have AK and villain KQ and a draw, when we have a pocket pair and villain also has one pocket, breakeven spots in general)
If you didn't meant to say this sorry, I just said for the sake of the readers who might miss the meaning of the text.
Well man, I really don't like betting this turn no matter what because a hearts is a real scary card. If we bet turn, are we not turning our value hand into a huge bluff? Because the most natural action of Villain is to fold a lot of turns when it doesn't have a decent heart in its range. The same goes for scary cards such as Jx, Kx Tx, Qx etc. (if the flush is spooky to us, it also could scary Villain) ;)
Complicated, because if you bet your TPTK in a flushed board, without blockers and Villain folds, you cannot win with your value hand. If you bet turn and Villain calls you don't know how much you are ahead and what to do in the River.
Why does everybody love so much to make the pot grows everytime?
Do we expect any time Villain to bluff this flush (if it has a hearts, or if it bets too much versus missed c-bet)?
May the force be with you!

PS: Jarvis has real sweet courses/prices plus a lot of amazing free videos at YouTube, look for him, the guy is very kind and awesome!

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa

Hey Carlos. I'm actually a fan of Evan's learning material and have his MTT course :).

I just misused the term thin value, I used to think I should bet small here in case a flush is made, but that flush is the minority of the time. So now, I think that 1/3 pot is a bad bet size here. Because no matter how big we bet the turn we will still be betting into a flush draw some percent of the time so its better to choose a size that gives us additional EV through equity denial for the times that villain holds one heart in his hand and can complete a flush on the river. Because if villain holds only one heart in his hand, then now we have incentive to bet bigger to give villain bad odds to call. I think checking here is wrong because villain gets a free card, and I think betting small here is also wrong because you give villain good odds to call if he's holding one heart.. All else equal, betting bigger is superior and mathematically you will make more money than betting small if you get called. And if you do not get called then you have still gained EV by denying equity, so it's a win win unless the flush is already made in which case you should bet just big enough to deny equity to a draw, but not too big so you lose too many chips when called with villains made flush (which won't happen a majority of the time). On the contrary a small bet seems like a lose-lose situation, because situation 1: Villain calls with heart because he gets good odds, and when he hits a heart on the river he makes money in the long run because the call gave him mathematically good odds. Situation 2: villain misses heart, but by betting small you have missed lots of value. Now for checking the turn: situation 1: villain hits a flush on the river, you have given him a free card and now you are forced to call or fold depending on how big he bets. Situation 2: villain misses his flush on the river but you have lost value. That's how I see it, but I might be wrong. Hope that makes sense, I'm not the greatest at explaining this stuff.

This is all for somone that's playing in a balanced way though. If villain for example only calls 2 pair or better and folds far too much on the flop then all of the above might not apply.

Edit: I guess betting the turn is a high variance line, but if I do bet I think I'd choose the bigger size due to the reasons I talked about above (technically, according to an upswing article I read, 66% on the turn counts as a small bet). I guess checking is valid if you want to play a more conservative less swingy approach. Maybe that's correct in a tournament?

Also you're right about a flush also scaring villain. But maybe by you not holding hearts its a little more likely villain holds a heart? I don't know if that's a big enough effect to make any difference though. But I guess jacks and worse kings might call a turn bet.

Finally, even if villain doesn't hold any hearts I would assume he can use a river heart as a scare card if you check the turn.
 
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ventrolloquist

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Also. Regarding being afraid that villain will just fold because he is scared you hit a flush... Suppose you check. Several things can now happen on the river. He can bluff you if a heart hits (20ish percent of the time), he can bet if a heart hits and if he also holds one heart, he can improve to a worse pair than you (1/8 of the time?), he can call you with an already made worse pair (about 20-25% of the time? Kinda guestimating this one). The 20% of the time he gains a bluffing opportunity and the 25% of the time he calls you with worse seems like enough incentive to just value bet the turn because that 20% where he bluffs a river heart outweighs the 12% chance he improves to a worse pair. Because I think when you check the turn you tell him you don't have a flush. I'm not sure what percent of his combos are a made flush on the turn. Someone please correct me if I'm making no sense since I'm only making semi-educated guesses here.
 
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Aballinamion

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Also. Regarding being afraid that villain will just fold because he is scared you hit a flush... Suppose you check. Several things can now happen on the river. He can bluff you if a heart hits (20ish percent of the time), he can bet if a heart hits and if he also holds one heart, he can improve to a worse pair than you (1/8 of the time?), he can call you with an already made worse pair (about 20-25% of the time? Kinda guestimating this one). The 20% of the time he gains a bluffing opportunity and the 25% of the time he calls you with worse seems like enough incentive to just value bet the turn because that 20% where he bluffs a river heart outweighs the 12% chance he improves to a worse pair. Because I think when you check the turn you tell him you don't have a flush. I'm not sure what percent of his combos are a made flush on the turn. Someone please correct me if I'm making no sense since I'm only making semi-educated guesses here.

I agree with almost everything you said, Nick, sorry for this candor.
In the first post you put villain almost only with the runner-runner flush possibility. There are many hands in its range because it called preflop, and we gotta figure out which move will extract more of this hands, because we know it is not a very strong range most of times (BTN didn't 3-bet preflop so we assume a wider range) It is more important to me know who am I playing with then knowing what to do postflop.
The leveling war matters much more than the outcomes or the cards we have.
We could be in the same situation from MP with, for example 88, miss completely the flop and do the same action. (1/2 pot flop, check-turn). Or the contrary, we could have 88 check the flop and raise the turn? It depends too much on who we are playing with.
We could easily open a great part of our range from MP and fold to aggression in the flop, having information villain has no bluffs in a situation like this.
We could have AQ, miss the flop and do the same only with a gutter. It all depends on who we are playing with. If I don't know what a hypothetical player X will do if I double barrel bluff turn, I simply don't make the pot grow and keep the strength of my value hand (TPTK).

Because it really doesn't matter if we do check, bet 1/3 pot, 66% pot, or 150% when it comes a heart in the turn and you have not a simple picture of Villain.
I am also not betting 100% of my flushes in a situation like this! If I complete a flush in the turn, specially nutted flushes with aces and kings, I will be betting and checking in the same frequency (50%-50%), depending on villain's of course, also varying the sizing, from 1/3 pot to 70% pot or more at the micros. (we don't want to give too much information for Villain, so we mix a lot our frequencies and size bets).
If I know a guy pays too much, and monotone boards doesn't scary it, fire in the babylon, no mercy, but it is delicate to speak about hypothetical players and optimal plays against them.
By checking our made flushes from time to time we are protecting our value range (top pairs, two pairs, sets, trips, straights) and our bluffing range (second pairs, missed draws etc).
By checking our flushes from time to time, some villains will never give us a flush in this situation and are most likely to try to bluff river with strong value hands such as TP, Two pair, sets or straights or not?
Some crazy players will try to bluff you only having the blocker of hearts, because you checked turn and then we print money when this guy shoves all in river only with its missed flush and blocker!

Final thoughts: I don't believe it is right or wrong to bet this turn. What I say is that I will check, bet 1/3 pot, bet 2/3 pot, bet 3/4 pot and sometimes even more than pot when I see a player is sticky to its two pairs and sets.
If we bet flop, bet turn and bet river, we are not opening doors for villain try to bluff us, and we need it sometimes. We know people love to bluff versus missed c-bet, and I love to explore it, by the same time I protect my value-bluffing range.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
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For any, you can’t continue to play without a raise on your part. But it all depends on your stack.
 
ventrolloquist

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I agree with almost everything you said, Nick, sorry for this candor.
In the first post you put villain almost only with the runner-runner flush possibility. There are many hands in its range because it called preflop, and we gotta figure out which move will extract more of this hands, because we know it is not a very strong range most of times (BTN didn't 3-bet preflop so we assume a wider range) It is more important to me know who am I playing with then knowing what to do postflop.
The leveling war matters much more than the outcomes or the cards we have.
We could be in the same situation from MP with, for example 88, miss completely the flop and do the same action. (1/2 pot flop, check-turn). Or the contrary, we could have 88 check the flop and raise the turn? It depends too much on who we are playing with.
We could easily open a great part of our range from MP and fold to aggression in the flop, having information villain has no bluffs in a situation like this.
We could have AQ, miss the flop and do the same only with a gutter. It all depends on who we are playing with. If I don't know what a hypothetical player X will do if I double barrel bluff turn, I simply don't make the pot grow and keep the strength of my value hand (TPTK).

Because it really doesn't matter if we do check, bet 1/3 pot, 66% pot, or 150% when it comes a heart in the turn and you have not a simple picture of Villain.
I am also not betting 100% of my flushes in a situation like this! If I complete a flush in the turn, specially nutted flushes with aces and kings, I will be betting and checking in the same frequency (50%-50%), depending on villain's of course, also varying the sizing, from 1/3 pot to 70% pot or more at the micros. (we don't want to give too much information for Villain, so we mix a lot our frequencies and size bets).
If I know a guy pays too much, and monotone boards doesn't scary it, fire in the babylon, no mercy, but it is delicate to speak about hypothetical players and optimal plays against them.
By checking our made flushes from time to time we are protecting our value range (top pairs, two pairs, sets, trips, straights) and our bluffing range (second pairs, missed draws etc).
By checking our flushes from time to time, some villains will never give us a flush in this situation and are most likely to try to bluff river with strong value hands such as TP, Two pair, sets or straights or not?
Some crazy players will try to bluff you only having the blocker of hearts, because you checked turn and then we print money when this guy shoves all in river only with its missed flush and blocker!

Final thoughts: I don't believe it is right or wrong to bet this turn. What I say is that I will check, bet 1/3 pot, bet 2/3 pot, bet 3/4 pot and sometimes even more than pot when I see a player is sticky to its two pairs and sets.
If we bet flop, bet turn and bet river, we are not opening doors for villain try to bluff us, and we need it sometimes. We know people love to bluff versus missed c-bet, and I love to explore it, by the same time I protect my value-bluffing range.

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
Hey, thanks for the input. You're totally right, I know his range includes a lot of other stuff and I know our range includes flushes too. When I play micros I actually often check a river like that too, but I'm just wondering what is theoretically right from gto perspective. It actually just happened again today, I had pocket kings vs. 3 undercards and a flush draw. When my cbet got called I backed off and backed off again on the turn when a third heart hit. Because usually micros players overfold to cbets and sonetimes even love to call draws regardless of odds. So in practice I do check here a lot. But I still think it's theoretically correct to bet 66-75% here.

But at micros I think it boils down to just having a read on the opponent. I play a lot of fast fold though so that's not always possible.

Also when you say you sometimes check flushes here, is that with the intention of check raising?
 
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Aballinamion

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Hey, thanks for the input. You're totally right, I know his range includes a lot of other stuff and I know our range includes flushes too. When I play micros I actually often check a river like that too, but I'm just wondering what is theoretically right from gto perspective. It actually just happened again today, I had pocket kings vs. 3 undercards and a flush draw. When my cbet got called I backed off and backed off again on the turn when a third heart hit. Because usually micros players overfold to cbets and sonetimes even love to call draws regardless of odds. So in practice I do check here a lot. But I still think it's theoretically correct to bet 66-75% here.

But at micros I think it boils down to just having a read on the opponent. I play a lot of fast fold though so that's not always possible.

Also when you say you sometimes check flushes here, is that with the intention of check raising?

Hello there Nick, good morning! Well, I will check-flushes here to either check-call or check-raise, depending on who am I playing with :cool:
If the player is too much aggresive and puts a lot of pressure in the turn, if I check-raise it, the player will be offended and will call or jam right on the spot (sweet)
If the player is a tight aggressive who loves to exploit versus missed c-bet I can easily call because this player will try to stab the turn.
A recreational player will see a check in the turn as a weak move and could try to exploit many rivers because of this.
However, at the micros, players are not thinking that much. They look to the hole cards and the boards and boom: "okay, I have XY, now the board is ADB, and Villain could only have F and W so I am going to do this and that".
Thank you for your patience, have a nice day! :D

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
 
ventrolloquist

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Hello there Nick, good morning! Well, I will check-flushes here to either check-call or check-raise, depending on who am I playing with :cool:
If the player is too much aggresive and puts a lot of pressure in the turn, if I check-raise it, the player will be offended and will call or jam right on the spot (sweet)
If the player is a tight aggressive who loves to exploit versus missed c-bet I can easily call because this player will try to stab the turn.
A recreational player will see a check in the turn as a weak move and could try to exploit many rivers because of this.
However, at the micros, players are not thinking that much. They look to the hole cards and the boards and boom: "okay, I have XY, now the board is ADB, and Villain could only have F and W so I am going to do this and that".
Thank you for your patience, have a nice day! :D

Regards;

Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
Thanks for explaining, often the micros I play at have multitabling regs haha. But they play fairly straightforward + bluff a majority of the time when checked to. So I guess checking the turn is helpful to protect my checking range and be tricky against these guys :)
 
liuouhgkres

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OP, you wanna hear simplified GTO strategy, that loses 0.1% to real GTO, that works like a charm at micro-stakes? Check your entire range on this turn, check everything. Including flushes, sets and two pairs.

On this turn, if villain bets small, you need to check raise half of your small sets (66, 44), quarter of your A high flushes and mix in some bluffs. As bluffs you can use AhQ, AhT and 76. Your check raise should be around 8-10%. However, in these spots villains almost never bet small at small stakes, most of the time villains bet big here.

If villain bets big after our turn check, we have another great simplified GTO situation, that loses virtually nothing. Don't check-raise anything, check-call with KQ and better. If river doesn't pair, you play check-call with AhK, two pairs and sets and you check-raise with flushes and some bluffs. As bluffs you can use AQh, ATh.

If villain checks back the turn, we can assume that villain doesn't have flush here and go heavy for value. Since our range contains a lot of slowplayed flushes, sets and two pairs, we can go real big there. On most rivers, you should pot bet with KQ+ hands, except KJ which I advise to check to protect your calling range. As bluffs you can use T high or lower hands.

With your particular hand it's check-call turn regardless of bet sizing, and check call river if villain bet's small, check-fold if villain bets big.

This strategy is extremely close to GTO, capturing more than 99% of GTO ev and at the same time it works wonders at small stakes. A lot of the time villain will misread you hand and barrel turn and river with a lot of weakish hands like top pair and when you check-raise river, they won't believe that you have flush and would give you their stack with just top pair.

Let this shit sink in and thank me later.
 
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Igor Popadyk

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depends on the opponent, if the check is tight and depending on his stake, if loose, we bet 40-60 percent of the pot
 
ventrolloquist

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OP, you wanna hear simplified GTO strategy, that loses 0.1% to real GTO, that works like a charm at micro-stakes? Check your entire range on this turn, check everything. Including flushes, sets and two pairs.

On this turn, if villain bets small, you need to check raise half of your small sets (66, 44), quarter of your A high flushes and mix in some bluffs. As bluffs you can use AhQ, AhT and 76. Your check raise should be around 8-10%. However, in these spots villains almost never bet small at small stakes, most of the time villains bet big here.

If villain bets big after our turn check, we have another great simplified GTO situation, that loses virtually nothing. Don't check-raise anything, check-call with KQ and better. If river doesn't pair, you play check-call with AhK, two pairs and sets and you check-raise with flushes and some bluffs. As bluffs you can use AQh, ATh.

If villain checks back the turn, we can assume that villain doesn't have flush here and go heavy for value. Since our range contains a lot of slowplayed flushes, sets and two pairs, we can go real big there. On most rivers, you should pot bet with KQ+ hands, except KJ which I advise to check to protect your calling range. As bluffs you can use T high or lower hands.

With your particular hand it's check-call turn regardless of bet sizing, and check call river if villain bet's small, check-fold if villain bets big.

This strategy is extremely close to GTO, capturing more than 99% of GTO ev and at the same time it works wonders at small stakes. A lot of the time villain will misread you hand and barrel turn and river with a lot of weakish hands like top pair and when you check-raise river, they won't believe that you have flush and would give you their stack with just top pair.

Let this shit sink in and thank me later.
Thanks. I like that approach. Seems like the safest option.

I still worry about giving villain a free card the 50% of the time he has at least 1 heart in his hole cards though. So many varied suggestions. I'm getting confused lol.
 
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GrammaKing

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I am new to CardsChat, and this thread caught my attention. I really like liuouhgkres's suggestion on how to play this turn against most opponents. I think it results in a good balance of keeping the pot manageable, getting value from worse hands, allowing bluffs, and not getting bluffed ourselves.
 
ventrolloquist

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I am new to CardsChat, and this thread caught my attention. I really like liuouhgkres's suggestion on how to play this turn against most opponents. I think it results in a good balance of keeping the pot manageable, getting value from worse hands, allowing bluffs, and not getting bluffed ourselves.


I'm starting to see the merits of checking our entire range here too.
 
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zisamba

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Hallo
I would raise 3x preflop and 2/3 of the pot postflop.
If he is a balanced player as you said he called you with a big hand.After your 2/3 pot raise postflop i don't that he has the right pot odds for a flush.I would raise the pot size.
 
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