Triple barrell bluff.

[bdawg56kg]

Villian in this hand was loose, and was in a lot of pots, but definitely not a donk. Cards have been cold, so my image is probably very tight TAG. I picked my turn bet amount so that I'd have about one PSB left on the river. You like it?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Button ($81.60)
SB ($371.10)
BB ($19.05)
UTG ($48.75)
UTG+1 ($294.80)
Hero ($195)
MP2 ($149.15)
MP3 ($266.75)
CO ($195)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, Q.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, Hero raises to $8, 4 folds, SB calls $7, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $6.

Flop: ($26) 3, 3, 3 (3 players)
SB bets $10, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $20, SB calls $10.

Turn: ($66) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $32, SB calls $32.

River: ($130) J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $135 (All-In)

[Lukie]

Villain calls and flips over 77.

[Fnord]

Really bad river bet.

If he's playing a lot of hands pre-flop I want to show this down. If he's tight then it's probably a small/med pocket pair.

[IowaSkinsFan]

if u want to bluff the river i'd bet $40 to make it look like you hit the jack.

[bdawg56kg]

Really bad river bet.

If he's playing a lot of hands pre-flop I want to show this down. If he's tight then it's probably a small/med pocket pair.

Fnord, do you really think AQ high has any showdown value at all?!?! Personally I think the river is the best street out of the three. Assuming I'm going to rep AA/KK, I'm just debating if a big flop raise + turn push would be better than my line against your avg 200NL'er.

if u want to bluff the river i'd bet $40 to make it look like you hit the jack.

Given that villian called $32 on the turn, what makes you think he will fold to $40 on the river getting 4-1, when the jack is not especially a scare card if he has a mid PP.

Villain calls and flips over 77.

LOL. Thank god he folded after thinking for about a minute. Still trying to figure out if this kind of play is +EV or not...

[journey075]

i like it.

villain is very hard pressed to call without KK+ or quads. i hope to god you had a read that he was able to fold mediocre hands though. playing this way arbitrarily is ridiculous.

[crikreef]

not a fan of that either but i agree that it was better than the $40 bet, if he was thinking about calling that all in he prolly would have auto called with mid PP which I too assume he was playin. if i were him tho and was holdin a small or mid PP i would have raised teh fuke out of you on the flop and possibly turn so maybe he had trash hand that he was hopin he could suck something out on...

[bdawg56kg]

if i were him tho and was holdin a small or mid PP i would have raised teh fuke out of you on the flop and possibly turn so maybe he had trash hand that he was hopin he could suck something out on...

If you're villian and you 3-bet the flop with say 88 or 99, and hero doesn't fold you're beat almost 100% of the time here. So you either pick off a c-bet bluff or put in a big chunk of your stack drawing to 2 outs. If villian thought I was full of sh*t, c/c is the appropriate line.

[journey075]

nah a mid pp's best play is to fold. raising is a close second. c/c'ing is horrible.

[midas06]

Jfish, do you think that hero looks like he's representing quads here with this line?

[KoRnholio]

In my experience it's rare that the SB would throw away a pair above 7's even to that river bet. I'd put him on 77-99 and probably he's calling this if he thinks you're just going overaggro with AQ/AK

[KY_Ace]

If he folds a stronger hand than AQ more than half the time it's +EV, the J is not your best scare card but it's not bad. Of course your best card would be a Q followed by an A followed by the case 3. Your best scare card would be a K, and your next best scare card would be the J. Not only is he worried that you sucked out on him with AJ, your bet says, "I'm not scarred of the J", so you can also have AA,KK or QQ.

The strongest hand he can have is TT, he limped in UTG+1 and only called your raise. His bet on the flop tells you he didn't get a miracle flop with A3s. However a smart player would definately entertain the possibility that there is better than a 1/3 chance that you have AK/AQ and call you, so you need to have a table image like "I never bluff" and you need to read your opponent as a folder.

I think the flop raise is a must with AQ, you have 7 outs and position. His betting out instead of CRing makes it seem like he's just testing the waters and dosen't really have a monster. Besides folding would be ridiculous and calling is just Gay. On the turn you have 2 choices you can continue the bluff or check it down, it seems like you were planning this river bet on the turn, this changes the pot odds for your bluff a little. Now you're risking $167 to make $98. This really needs to work alot to make it profitable, and if he's got 55, a weak hand on the flop just turned into a trapping hand on the turn. I think a better line would be either check it down or bet $20 on the turn and bet the pot if an K hits the river, bet 2/3 pot if you catch your A or Q, bet 1/3 the pot if the case 3 hits. However, your table image and your read on the other player may justify this plan in some circumstances.

[KY_Ace]

I triple barrel bluffed today at $10 NL, if I can bluff these guys, I can bluff anyone!!! The way I look at it, on a nine high flop you can bluff out anthing weaker than 2 pair. An overcard and a big bet bet are bound to come!!

It's BoDog, converter dosn't work on it, so I cleaned it up as much as I could.

$10 NL

Hand Actions
Stackin Chips Set dealer/Bring in spot 4
glavon Small blind $ 0.05
Jawz AJd
kingtut24 Call $ 0.10
canuhandle Fold
Jawz Raise $ 0.40
Bigapp Call $ 0.40
Stackin Chips Call $ 0.40
glavon Fold
phatchillin Call $ 0.30
kingtut24 Call $ 0.30
pot = $2.05
FLOP: 4 9 3
phatchillin Bet $ 0.10
kingtut24 Fold $ 0.00
Jawz Raise $ 1.85
Bigapp Fold
Stackin Chips Fold
pot = $5.75
TURN: 6
phatchillin Check
Jawz Bet $ 1.50
phatchillin Call $ 1.50
pot = $8.75
RIVER: 10
phatchillin Check
Jawz All-in $ 5.05
phatchillin Fold
pot = $8.69
Jawz Showdown Muck card
Jawz Hand result $ 8.69

If the river is lower than 9 I give up on the hand and check, I knew he had a nine when he called my flop raise. How often will the turn and river both be 2-9?

[Lukie]

bdawg,

I really don't understand your thought process in this hand.

preflop: standard

flop:

Villian in this hand was loose, and was in a lot of pots, but definitely not a donk. Cards have been cold, so my image is probably very tight TAG.

given this read, I really think a flop raise is in order. How much would you raise here if you had QQ-AA? You certainly aren't min-raising and giving your opponent 5.6:1 on the call. Hero raises to $40? If villain was tight, I wouldn't have any problem finding a fold here.

turn is a bit awkward. If you have future plans of trying to 3-barrell this baby, a large bet here just kills all FE on the river. Quite honestly, if you want to fire a second barrell here, I think a near pot-sized bet is much better, with the intention of not putting any more money in the pot. I think this gets out a similar amount of times at a fraction of the cost. Much better risk/reward ratio IMO.

as played, river push is fine. I don't think you can think of too many scenarios here where villain calls more then half the time with a better hand.

[Lukie]

Jfish, do you think that hero looks like he's representing quads here with this line?

Hero is tight and raised from UTG+2. in full ring. I don't think there are many hands in his range that make quads here.

[bdawg56kg]

given this read, I really think a flop raise is in order. How much would you raise here if you had QQ-AA? You certainly aren't min-raising and giving your opponent 5.6:1 on the call. Hero raises to $40? If villain was tight, I wouldn't have any problem finding a fold here.

Lukie, I am in total agreement with the fact that my flop and turn line are very questionable, and somewhat iffy. If I did have AA/KK here, he's likely drawing to 2 outs, so I don't see a big need to fastplay, except if I think that he'll interpret a huge raise and/or push as a bluff.

Like I said before though, I'm still unsure whether a big flop raise followed by a turn push would be more effective than my line, in terms of credibility. I think by utilizing all 3 streets to bluff, it makes it that much tougher for villian to call, since 3-barrell bluffs are very unlikely. Also, it gives the opportunity for me to possibly hit one of my overs or for a potential scare-card like a K or J to come and increase my fold equity some. But yeah, I bet the turn with the intention of pushing the river because I was almost sure he would call the turn bet. I guess I just felt like I had a better chance of folding him out taking this line versus betting say $50-60 on the turn, but maybe I'm wrong, and just played this hand too cute.

Lukie, what would you do? Fold to the lead? Or hammer flop then push turn?

[Rondavu]

This is a perfect 3 barrel situation. I think it becomes obvious the villain is on a low pocket or worse most of the time. When the jack hits, it becomes a perfect opportunity to TRULY rep the high pocket you've been talking about the whole hand, by showing that the J doesn't bother you.

A lot of things have to line up to justify 3 barrels. The villain has to be capable of folding, the cards peeling off have to relate to the story you're telling, the villain has to have gone along with the story through the river, you need to have credibility in general, and also specific to the hand. The thing is you don't decide to fire off 3 barrels before the river. The scenerio unfolds, and you realize it's going to work enough times in that spot to justify making the play.

I commend your giant gonads. Not too many people will fire off 3 educated barrells. This is an awesome hand which you played perfectly.

[Lukie]

Lukie, I am in total agreement with the fact that my flop and turn line are very questionable, and somewhat iffy. If I did have AA/KK here, he's likely drawing to 2 outs, so I don't see a big need to fastplay, except if I think that he'll interpret a huge raise and/or push as a bluff.

Well if you have QQ-KK, you have to worry about overcards, but I'm going to ignore those for now. If you have, say AA, he has a mid pair drawing to 2 outs. He's getting 5.6:1 on the immediate call, but he's about 12:1 against hitting his 2 outer by the river. Assume full stack implied odds.

He needs to call $10 into $56 pot, plus hero's remaining stack which is $167 more. So $10 to win $223. 22:1. He's getting 5.6:1 . Of course I conveniently ignored your inevitable turn bet with a big hand, but you get the point. Factor in metagame purposes, desire to win a large pot with a dream flop for a high PP, etc., and you just aren't playing a big pair like this. Nor should you.

Lukie, what would you do? Fold to the lead? Or hammer flop then push turn?

When I first saw this hand, I was sort of dumbfounded because it's such a weird hand on so many different levels. I think this is just a case of you getting too cute in a very tricky situation. Ideally this is how the hand would play out for me: raise flop up to $40. Maybe a bit more. Villain looks at you as a tight, EP raiser. He's loose but not a donk. Given that he's loosish, there's no reason to put him on a pair.. it could easily be something like 98s. Admittingly the limp/call always screams PP in my mind. Raise it up hard to get the trash out, and if he's smart, he's dumping a lot of hands that have you smoked right now. My general lack of respect for unknowns says that there's a good chance that may not be the case, however.

Yeah, I raise the flop hard. Obvious fold to a flop 3-bet. Fold if he leads into you on a blank turn. Check behind a blank turn. No reason to put more $$ in if you don't improve. I disagree with those who say otherwise. This is also great for metagame purposes...

Also note there's a slim but realistic chance that you are already drawing dead. As3s can't be discounted.

[bdawg56kg]

Well if you have QQ-KK, you have to worry about overcards, but I'm going to ignore those for now. If you have, say AA, he has a mid pair drawing to 2 outs. He's getting 5.6:1 on the immediate call, but he's about 12:1 against hitting his 2 outer by the river. Assume full stack implied odds.

He needs to call $10 into $56 pot, plus hero's remaining stack which is $167 more. So $10 to win $223. 22:1. He's getting 5.6:1 . Of course I conveniently ignored your inevitable turn bet with a big hand, but you get the point. Factor in metagame purposes, desire to win a large pot with a dream flop for a high PP, etc., and you just aren't playing a big pair like this. Nor should you.

Lukie, good points. Makes a lot of sense. The one thing that you touched on that I think is very important is that if villian has a hand like 88, and calls the flop raise with the sole intent of hitting his 2 outer, then he has to know a big turn bet is coming, if he puts me on an overpair. This ruins his immediate and implied odds a great deal, so in that sense the flop min-raise is not as bad as the numbers seem IMO. But looking back you are probably right in that I should've raised bigger on the flop. Also, regarding the overcards, if I have a hand like QQ, I definitely don't want to see any A's or K's come out, but it is pretty unlikely he is calling me down with a hand like AK/AQ, so in that sense it would probably just add to my fold equity. Plus I have position, so that would really help to control the pot size if I needed to.

Yeah, I raise the flop hard. Obvious fold to a flop 3-bet. Fold if he leads into you on a blank turn. Check behind a blank turn. No reason to put more $$ in if you don't improve. I disagree with those who say otherwise. This is also great for metagame purposes...

You recommend raising the flop to $40 and checking behind on the turn if I miss. I don't like this, as I think loose players, like the villian in this hand will look you up just to see if you slow down on the turn. Based on the way the hand played out, and from what I could sense from the speed of his calls, this guy really didn't want to let go of his mid PP. So I think (at least in this situation) if you are going to commit to bluffing/semi-bluffing, then you have to be prepared to take it the distance IMO.

[Lukie]

You are assuming that he has a mid PP. The information we are basing our flop line is this: loose player calls a raise, and leads for a little more then 1/3 pot on a 333 board into a tight preflop raiser. One of the great things about being in position is that you can threaten your opponent's entire stack by only putting a portion of your own in the middle. I don't like going to the felt here unimproved...

[Demiparadigm]

I float this one to the river, then make a pressure bet to threaten his stack without putting all of mine in the middle.