Heads-Up. Good or bad bluff?

[bdawg56kg]

This is at the end of a $12 6-man sng. Reads on villian is that he overbets a lot, betting $450 into a $300 pot, raising 5xBB to steal, etc. We have played about 4 hands, and I have played very passively so far, with him winning 3/4 of those hands without showdown, and the one I won was when I bet bottom pair on the flop and checked it down and it was good. So basically my image is very passive.

Then this hand comes along. This is a standard raise from the buttom (my first preflop raise heads up) w/an ace, and when the flop comes rags, I figure I can represent an overpair by betting hard. I really didn't think villian had a 3, and if he did, I would live with my misread, but I figured he would lay down any hand less than trips here, and even if he did call my all in with some kind of weak overpair, I still had 6 outs to improve. I do realize that the stacks are deep, but given the way he has been playing, he could just be trying to push me around w/ the check-raise. Am I giving these players too much credit? Thanks.

PokerStars Game #2648499998: Tournament #12954148, Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2005/09/24 - 07:00:49 (ET)
Table '12954148 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: bdawg56kg (4465 in chips)
Seat 7: Keboom150 (4535 in chips)
bdawg56kg: posts small blind 75
Keboom150: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bdawg56kg [Ad 9s]
bdawg56kg: raises 250 to 400
Keboom150: calls 250
*** FLOP *** [3h 4d 3c]
Keboom150: checks
bdawg56kg: bets 450
Keboom150: raises 1050 to 1500
bdawg56kg: raises 2565 to 4065 and is all-in
Keboom150: calls 2565
*** TURN *** [3h 4d 3c] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [3h 4d 3c 6c] [4c]
Keboom150 said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Keboom150: shows [4h 6h] (a full house, Fours full of Sixes)
bdawg56kg: shows [Ad 9s] (two pair, Fours and Threes)
Keboom150 collected 8930 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8930 | Rake 0
Board [3h 4d 3c 6c 4c]
Seat 2: bdawg56kg (button) (small blind) showed [Ad 9s] and lost with two pair, Fours and Threes
Seat 7: Keboom150 (big blind) showed [4h 6h] and won (8930) with a full house, Fours full of Sixes

[Greedo017]

you can't represent an overpair heads up, unless you've been playing for a while. heads up, the odds of a flopped pair being good, especially on a board like that, are so high you're more often wrong than right if you put them on an overpair.

your first bet is fine but let it go to the raise.


Oh, and I just thought of something else. bluffs like this tend to work less well because, honestly, do you play overpairs like that? no, you would put out dinky "call me" raises. that bet looks like it wants a fold. its harder to judge whether a big raise is a bluff or a fake bluff with many people at the table.

[bdawg56kg]

you can't represent an overpair heads up, unless you've been playing for a while. heads up, the odds of a flopped pair being good, especially on a board like that, are so high you're more often wrong than right if you put them on an overpair.


your first bet is fine but let it go to the raise.


Oh, and I just thought of something else. bluffs like this tend to work less well because, honestly, do you play overpairs like that? no, you would put out dinky "call me" raises. that bet looks like it wants a fold. its harder to judge whether a big raise is a bluff or a fake bluff with many people at the table.

Why can't you represent an overpair heads up? The stacks are semi-deep, and I have been playing passively. If you're sitting in villian's shoes w/46, and you have been reraised allin after a solid check raise, would you honestly think your hand is still good? And on a side note, this is exactly how I would play AA-55 heads up in this situation. Are you suggesting that most people slowplay overpairs heads up in this situation? I mean after a guy has put in a solid check raise, and I'm sitting on AA, there's no way I'm gonna slowplay. It's all in without a doubt. Any sort of "call me" raise commits both of us, so all in is really the only option should you choose to reraise.

Going off on another tangent, I figured villian's hand range was very very wide at this point. Why does he need a hand to make this check-raise given that the raggy flop gave me no help if I only had high cards?

By the way, I'm not necessarily justifying my play, just trying to play a little devil's advocate.

[nickthefool]

Don't play passive preflop headsup.

Firstly, unless you have a pair, then you can't be confident on a rag flop anyway if you are playing high cards.

Secondly, it makes it really easy for your opponent to put you on high cards when you do play aggressively preflop.

If you're sitting in villian's shoes w/46, and you have been reraised allin after a solid check raise, would you honestly think your hand is still good?

Yes.

even if he did call my all in with some kind of weak overpair, I still had 6 outs to improve.

6 outs means you lose 1 in 4 times. That's not good. "I still have 6 outs if he has a pair" is not a good reason to call.

[a500lbgorilla]

It's usually a good rule of thumb for low limit sngs not to bluff 3-bet.

-'rilla