Since I just posted a bunch of whines, here’s a brag. The SB was the table fish, the BB is a very tough and aggressive opponent. I could just 4-bet pre-flop but I think he’d find a way to own me. I decided I was just going to play my position and go with the assumption that he didn’t have much:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($2753)
MP ($1837)
CO ($4028.25)
Hero (Button) ($2697)
SB ($2045.70)
BB ($2032)
Preflop: Hero is Button with K
, J
3 folds, Hero raises to $35, SB calls $30, BB raises to $170, Hero calls $135, 1 fold
Flop: ($375) 4, 2, Q (2 players)
BB bets $210, Hero calls $210
Turn: ($795) 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $333, BB calls $333
River: ($1461) 5
(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1984 (All-In), 1 fold
Total pot: $1461 | Rake: $3
I like floating the flop because even if he fires a second barrel there’s a lot of ways I can continue. If I turn a pair, I’ll call him down, and if I turn a draw, I’ll shove. The turn bet was calculated to set up a roughly pot-sized river shove (Villain had like $1300 left) and/or win the pot immediately. It doesn’t give him a great price to check-raise, so I think he’s mostly going to raise only when he has a legit hand. The small bet also works as a feeler to show me that he probably doesn’t have a legit hand, which means it’ll be tough for him to call a river shove. He tanked forever, which was pretty nerve-racking, but eventually went away.
If you’re him with a hand like TT…are you calling? Your line doesn’t really rep very much IMHO when you shove the river. Maybe I could give you credit for 44, A3s or A2s. Maybe QQ, although it seems like that would be a 4b preflop if he’s that aggro. I don’t think you’d shove the river very often with hands between TT and A2, which would make me think my TT is probably good vs. your range (I know easy to say when I see your hole cards at the beginning of the hand, but if he’s the very tough and aggro opponent, I would guess he’s tanking considering calling you down very light – like he can’t beat a Q for sure).
Even if he always calls with his Q’s and better, which may well be the case, I think this is probably a profitable shove. The question of whether to call with TT is entirely player dependent and based on what they’re capable of. The thing is that I’d have to be floating the flop really light and/or turning a hand with a fair bit of showdown value into a bluff to make it a profitable call. Some people are capable of that and some aren’t, and I don’t think he knows for sure that I am.
The one thing I do regret is the turn bet sizing. It looks like I was trying to make the river shove very close to pot-sized (which I was), which implies that I’m going to bluff and want to minimize the odds he’s getting. If I really had a hand big enough to shove on the river, I probably would have made at least a slightly larger turn bet, since I could easily have done so without showing great strength.