Hi,

Do you know anything about the villain here?

What range of hands would you put him on on the river?

1. I think I fold AJo preflop most of the time since the original raiser is UTG and I want to avoid situations where I hit strong and am still behind.

2. I’d probably bet the flop when check-ed to. I think you get more information this way and are more likely to win the pot. If you get called you can safely and cheaply assume V has some piece of the flop: a draw, weak T, second-pair, a set, two-pair, over-cards, etc. You may still be able to win with another bet if checked to on the turn, but if you get called again or check-raised you can weight V’s hands towards the stronger side of hands.

I think it is important to think about what your actions look like to your opponent too. When you check behind I think you either have nothing or maybe a second-pair type hand, are pot controlling with a weak T or draw (though I’d bet some draws too) or have an absolute monster and don’t want to scare me away. When you check and then bet the turn, it looks like you are trying to steal or have some weaker hands (not a bad thing. I’ll often bet when I’m checked to twice). Of course you can have a monster still and want to look weak to get more value. Considering what V does on the river I think he believes he can bet you off a weak hand, like a pair of 3s or 4s or A-high. Not a bad play in isolation.

Honestly, the way this plays out it seems like everyone is making it up as they go along (more reaction than plan). I’m not sure I buy anyone’s line here. Please don’t take offence at my bluntness. If you both knew each other well this could be a level war, but that only happens in specific read-driven situations. The less read I have the more straightforward I think I have to be. I’m sure I’ve handed away as many chips as I’ve won making hero calls and I’m sure most of the times I was wrong it was because I was trying to act without enough of a read.

A good point. Just to go a bit deeper on V’s ranges. I think when V checks the flop you can probably remove all top-pairs. On the turn you can remove all sets and 2-pair that were checking the flop to trap since the draw heavy board is just too wet to check twice (and probably too wet to check once, but that is another story).

After that I think my initial post stands. I’d put you both on weak hands or draws. Normally I would say this could be a good spot to try and buy the pot, but the problem is there isn’t really anything to represent that makes sense. What did you put him on that caused you to shove rather than just call on the river?

I can’t believe he called either. If this were live the hand would be followed by the most awkward silence ever while V quietly walks away from the table, followed by a collective “huuuuuuuhhhhh?” by the whole table. Hah.