I was playing a good reg at a low stakes game. He plays NL50 usually but dropped down for fun. I grind small stakes to build bankroll and grow some confidence before I move up. The guy seemed solid, fairly agressive in position and barely folded to my pre flop minraises.
So we got into post flop wars. There was a lot of barreling and bluffcatching going on.
At some point we got into a spot on the turn where my options (I thought) were calling or folding, and I hated both
Binds 20-40, stacks are equal
Hero is BB with Q9s
Pre flop he min raises the button to 80 and I call, Q9s flops decent. I have no clue of what hand I should have in my 3bet bluffing range;
Flop: Villain cbets 120 into 160 3 9 T rainbow.
I never check raise middle pair for value, this could be a leak but I don't know. If someone can give arguments for it please tell me. He cbets very wide and I only think it accomplishes that I get him off his air. On the other hand, I give him equity to hit overcards.
Turn is a J which gives me 3rd pair, an open ender and an overcard which might be good.
Again I check to him, and he fires the 2nd barrel. Calling would leave me with roughly 750 chips left
I find this an ugly spot. The J gives me more equity, but I think his flop betting range has a lot of jacks which have top pair now. Just calling allows him to fire a 3rd barrel on a lot of rivers, and puts me in really ugly spots. But if I raise, I felt like I only get called by better and I own myself. Turning value hands into bluffs is not in my arsenal and it didn't even come to my mind, but the reg told me after the hand that that's what I should have done.
The river bricked and he shoved.
Is check calling twice, and re- evaluating on whatever card comes a good play or is turning value into bluff on the turn a better play in general? Should I have led into him at any stage?
Having the initiative is a really powerful tool in heads up games. I felt like he had the upper hand and I don't know what I should have done to turn it around
It sounds like the game was getting pretty wild.
- 3betting Q9s is probably not ideal, as you say, it plays well, and at these stack sizes you probably gain more from calling.
- I don't see a lot of advantages of raising the turn here. If we're shorter stacked, maybe you really commit some draws that should otherwise fold, but I don't see a good reason to put more chips in the pot here.
- I'd imagine he's bluffing a lot on the turn and river. I'd probably consider calling if the game has really gone this way (lots of aggression and trying to really put one over on the other person). This happens frequently when two regs get kind of tricky with one another or a player from higher stakes moves down (sort of the "play money" syndrome).
- You sound a bit paranoid about his hand on the turn. You said he never really folds pre and almost always cbets. So the hands he gets to the turn are essentially 90-100% of all hands out there. So think about all the possible hands he might bet the turn with, if he's been pretty aggressive on latter streets and this is the type of match I speak about above, his turn range is probably fairly weak. It might even be that he gets to the turn with so many hands, and bluffs so many on the turn that he continues on the river plenty enough to make calling the river another good play.
- It might boil down to his ability to thin value bet. Often, players just don't thin value bet enough in spots like this, and it can really kill and aggressive player if you adjust by calling down light (if he can't double barrel Tx, for example, but bluffs a lot on the turn, that's a huge leak you're just crushing by check calling the turn with Q9).
Interesting hand that you posted here.