Hey all, I'm relatively new to HUSNGs and have been putting in volume at the lower stakes to get a hand on the format. Today, I ended up playing a passive/random opponent, and I have a few questions regarding spots in the match.Hand 1:*This spot is 10 hands into the match, and I'm starting to get a passive read on my opponent. He has open folded two of his buttons. From the big blind, he has attacked one of my limps and c-bet pot-size, but has folded to all my min-raises until this hand. We have not gotten to showdown yet.*Questions:Is it worth double-barreling in this spot with a hand with slight showdown value? Since this is the first hand that the villain has called a preflop raise for the first time in the match, I'm assuming a stronger range of hands here, especially mixtures of face/high cards or aces. Am I better of checking with pocket fours on the turn since I have slight showdown value against floating aces/high cards (maybe calling a small raise afterwards)? No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$2 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBHero1490 BBfish0011510 Effective Stacks: 75bb Blinds 10/20 Pre-Flop (30, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero raises to 40, fish001 calls 20 Flop (80, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 40, fish001 calls 40 Turn (160, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 80 (?)Hand 2:*16 hands into the match, he's shown up with air after I called a turn bet after a flop check. He has also shown to be capable of floating a cbet, and after I check turn, donking 3/4ths pot on river. Other than that, no notable postflop changes in his image.*Questions:I bet a bit stronger than normal on the flop and turn (75% pot) which seems standard with top-pair and a flush draw. On the river, am I ever getting value from betting here? This is the first time in the match that the villain has floated two barrels, but I do have top pair (albeit weak kicker). (I end up checking on the river, and he shows 52o for rivered trip 5's, drastically changing my image of his floating range.) No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$2 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBHero1640 BBfish0011360 Effective Stacks: 68bb Blinds 10/20 Pre-Flop (30, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero calls 10, fish001 checks Flop (40, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 30, fish001 calls 30 Turn (100, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 75, fish001 calls 75 River (250, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero ? Hand 3:Villain has shown himself to be a bit looser of a player in the previous hand (especially since it was the first time I double-barrled in the match), and I ended up catching one of his bluffs when he triple-barreled on complete air. However, he is still folding to a majority of my flop aggression. My read of him at this point is a loose-passive player that randomly tries to make plays irrelevant of his holdings. Questions:Limp-stabbing tends to be working well against him, so I'm limping ATC from the button while min-raising some of my stronger hands. I make a standard stab and hit a straight on the turn, also completing a flush draw. I bet half-pot into the turn, but should I be betting larger here? ( I bet half-pot)When the river hits, what is a good value-bet here? I end up betting 150 (to which he snap folds), but maybe he would even call larger if he had a hand (6x, Tx, pocket pairs)? If he re-raises me, I'd imagine it's an obvious bet-fold situation.No Limit Holdem Tournament • 2 Players$2 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter SBHero1420 BBfish0011580 Effective Stacks: 47bb Blinds 15/30 Pre-Flop (45, 2 players) Hero is SB Hero calls 15, fish001 checks Flop (60, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 30, fish001 calls 30 Turn (120, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero bets 60, fish001 calls 60 River (240, 2 players) fish001 checks, Hero ?
Hand 1, I would check behind on the turn and hope to see a free river. It's good that your thinking about villains range's and how they connect with board texture, but your sample is too small here to be sure villains percieved range. If you had air, then this turn card might be good to barrel but with your weak showdown value might as well pot control and try to see a cheap showdown. Hand2 - Raise pre. Post looks good, though i might lean towards a check behind on the river or bet smallish to get hero calls from Tx and possibly some pp's. Only down side of betting river small is that you may induce from his bluffs (you described hims as LP so i doubt he bluffs too much otr, though he has bluffed u on the river when you check behind turn). Hand 3 - Definitely bet bigger on the turn - 100ish imo. Really wet and you want to get as much value if the river comes bad for you or villain. River I would bet 200ish
Thanks for the comments! I agree with most of the comments, but I have some questions about Hand 2 -
Once again, thanks for taking the time to read/comment =)
I agree in all MrRunsGood wrote except maybe that j6s is auto-raise. This is very player dependent and there are a winning mid to highstakes players who play a limping style. So I think if you have the read that opp will not attack limps, never fold to your raises and you have a great postflop advantage go ahead and limpI would bet River 90-110, because only hand that can call you is really 10x. Do not call if raised
Your right, raising or limping depends on you (and your opponent) and considering your read that villain is playing fairly tight oop and folding to your stabs - limping isn't bad. However, by minr'ing you have the chance to win the pot preflop, you build a pot oop (with initiative to take it down on the flop with a cbet) and you deny villain a free flop. J6s isn't a great hand so winning the pot pre is always a good result.But do what feels good for you, as long as you have some kind of rational for it.As for the river bet, I agree with crstn - or check behind.
I think a turn bet is actually a closer decision here than usual. The main information that leads me to believe that is that he has folded OOP a lot thus far, so his calling range is a little more weighted towards higher cards than lower ones preflop.As such, his flop calling range can often have a lot of draws (think T8, 98, T9 type hands) as well as high cards (hands like Ax, Kx) in it. If there were two suits on the flop, I think it would likely be a great spot to barrel the turn.Since there aren't suited, it does lower the amount of hands you're ahead of on this turn (and you're well ahead of any non pair draws on the turn, calculate his outs and multiply by 2, that's basically the % of the time he hits those outs on the river).This is something I did not do much coming up the stakes, or even initially into the $115s, but firing the turn with weaker pairs can often be absolutely better than checking. The more direct information you have that takes away strong hands from his range (maybe he 3bets over pairs, maybe he check raises top pair on the flop), the more likely it is that you can fire the turn with weaker pairs for value and often force some really terrible calls (just look at 44's equity versus 98 on the turn to give you an idea, I don't think it's more than 30% against you).
On hand 2 if you have fired two barrels and seen him fold before, that's a good indication that high card type hands aren't likely calling two barrels, and it's never a guarantee that they are calling 3.The only realistic value you then have with a river bet is from Tx, which is certainly possibly, but given stronger jacks could be in his range as well as 5x hands, plus the whole scenario of him raising a river bet with missed draws (a raise you can't likely call with the information you currently have), and there not being any value from weaker top pairs, I would check back here, there's just not enough value in betting and there's plenty of opportnity for him to successfully bluff missed draws.
I'd bet larger on the turn for value in hand 3 and continue to bet on the river without some very specific reads that he often has flushes/won't call weaker hands. That's extremely rare though, betting is almost always ideal on the river here.160+ is ideal here, I'd go larger if I felt that he is not as likely to raise Tx on the flop, or was likely to call larger bets in general. When in doubt, betting at least 2/3 pot is not a terrible rule, I find that people more often don't bet enough rather than bet too much (and if they are betting too large in size it's often due to them not bluffing with the same large sizes often enough either, making it too obvious they have hands in the value situations and thus finding some opponents fold too much).