$1.50 NLHE STT: What did he have?

[Plus Reste]

What cards did he need to make that move? I put him on 77 before he showed the J.

*I just turned on SAVE hands on poker stars so I don't have the text and could not use the Hand Converter tool.*

 

[Pufik]

I rather go check on the flop, because you don´t have hit anything, you have only backdoor straight draw and two overcards. But his calling range have any pocket pair and many high card with J, like KJ,QJ,TJ. Maybe he can have some suited connectors like 89s, so he can have open-ended straight draw+flush draw in one. that give him around 50% that he hit something on turn.
And you have just A high, so i should go check on the flop and call turn only if i hit KorA.


You must think more about enemy range

 

[300HPGOD]

It depends on if there is a dynamic between you and villain. If he has seen you get to showdown weak vs only showing strong hands he will play differently. He easily could have a lot of cards here as he could have taken you as someone who will open raise the button with top 60% or so. If this is the case he can check raise a board like that which has 67 suited in it and know they will get a lot of folds. Villain could look at it in the opposite light too and thinks you have somewhat normal raising range and with this flop it hits his range so much more than it hits yours so he will take it now with a check raise.

I don't mind the c bet here and also am perfectly fine with a check back. I think this is a spot where you will do different actions based on anything you know about the villain but I say you're C bet frequency on this type of board should be 50% ish. Easy fold if the villain does what they do here and check raises. I see this a lot and write a similar ending to all these posts which is, remember this spot so that the next time you are blind defending a button or late raise you can check raise wider than you think on a lot of low flops and get many folds from the initial raiser.

 

[fundiver199]

With those stack sizes I dont mind his play, where he check-raise top pair on the flop. He is more or less committed to the pot anyway, and by check-raising he can get it in on the turn and make it unprofitable for hero to draw. If stacks were deeper, then top pair is more of a check-call for him. As someone else have said, this is not a mandatory C-bet spot for hero. AK has some showdown value, so especially if you will get played back at a lot, if can be fine to just take a free card.

 

[jaworek1405]

Hello, I agree that in this situation is better play check on the flop and better to see free card on the turn. We have probably 6 outs to hit something on the turn. I usually give up ako in similar situation like here if the turn don't help us. Besides with air on the flop and two over cards I prefer playing pot control. Definitely I fold this hand when opponent plays check/raise on the flop. When opponent plays check/raise on the flop from the big blind he usually has at least one good pair like top pair or better, so easy fold on the flop, because even we hit ace or king on the turn, we don't know if one pair is good to win this hand. So better fold this hand on the flop to his check/raise. GL

 

[rastapapolos]

Villain is defending from the BB and didn't 3bet you so AJ, AQ, KQ, KJ is out of his range cause he knew that your range is much larger on the button, he could have suited connectors or Ax, but like he showed the J i think he has J8, J9, JT even J2s. I think you had to check-back the flop and try to hit your draw or represent a flush if a heart hit.

 

[Jon Poker]

Villan could have TONS of Jx hands he needs to defend the BB with - almost every suited Jx, then probably J7o+

Its hard to make a pair in holdem and on these stack sizings its fine for our villan to try and push the action with their top pair vs a BTN raise. Their J does need some form of protection - its not the wettest board in the world but certainly could have some turn cards villan doesn't want to see so for those reasons I like their check raise.

The raise preflop I think is too large on our stack sizes - 2.5x is plenty but I would be more inclined to go 2.1x or 2.2x here on these depths. We lose less when we miss flops or get raised preflop.

A second sizing error is the cbet - the cbet for me is fine vs the BB defend range - the problem is the sizing. We bet too large here, too many players are blindly clicking the half pot button where here a bet of 33-40% pot gets the same amount of folds, and if we do get called/raised we lose less altogether.

Don't get hung up on what he had here - villans should be check-raising alot of top pair combos here for protection and value - instead, concentrate on your play at hand and note that you gave our villan over 100 more chips than you needed to. That will save you more in the long run instead of worrying about what the villan had in this instance....

 

[Julez97]

This is not a flop you want to be C-betting very frequently. Villain is going to continue here with a ton of pairs, and draws. Its hard for your hand to improve, and when it does it could be a cooler.

One important thing to recognize, is that you should never "Put someone on x hand". That's not an effective way to play poker. Focus on playing his range. 77 is possible, but so is 66, 76, 54s, 89s, T9s, various flush draws and some Jx hands. Regardless, vs his entire range, your hand is never in great shape, so good fold.

 

[Jon Poker]

I think its a great perspective to understand what our opponent should/could have in their range - but i don't think we immediately need to start fearing the reaper on this board texture. When we cbet here we put 7x and 6x and 88s, 99s, TTs all in a awkward spot and they can only call - i don't care if draws come along because I am beating unpaired draws any way so i am pulling value - anyhow, the hands mentioned when faced with double barrels on the turn, are generally in an even worse spot than they were and it becomes very hard for them to continue so its a situation where we can double barrel alot and get better hands to fold to us. In short - we don't need our hand to improve all the time - if you are not bluffing when you should and picking up pots you shouldn't win - then you are leaving money on the table and playing entirely too passive.

Bear in mind that on average everyone misses the flop about 70% of the time - there are ALOT of circumstances here where your AK is going to be the best hand more often than you know. Not cbetting this board texture is a travesty - not knowing why you should is even worse - and not understanding dynamic bet sizing is costing you money. I hope this addition is helpful