$2/5 very hard spot, 300bbs deep

I am playing against a guy who is actually good, I believe he still plays $.25/.50 online, makes a lot of money playing $2/5 at the casino. his range is more intelligent than most, it's more balanced, he uses position well, is capable of making some huge bluffs in big pots. He knows I'm significantly better player than most, but we haven't had tons of hands together so neither of us know specifics.

I have $1500, he has $2500, he is directly in position against me. game is $2/5, so we are very deep. I raise to 25$ when there is one limper with , and he raises to 75$ (he's 2 away from the button). Everybody else folds, I call

Flop is (pot $155)

I check, he checks. I was planning on check raising the flop or the turn as a semi bluff, and then if the spade came, just value betting all the money in. He knows I'm capable of bluffing in large pots too.

Turn

(pot $155)

I bet $150, he called

river (pot $450)

I bet $450, he jams for an additional $800

??


*EDIT this was in a live $2/5

I assumed it was OK to post this in high-stakes since we were 300 bbs deep, and opponent is skilled.

Look at him very deeply, then call

I've been a bit of a calling station in the past, so I've been trying to rework my bet sizing such that I can get away from these sick spots. When I was considering river bet size, I was like "If I bet $450 it's large enough that if he raises it's usually going to be with the nuts so I might be able to get away from this hand if I'm beat", and then he moved in on me and I felt conflicted. If I only bet $300 or something I think there are hands he could be raising for value (like a lower flush), but here I kind of think it's nuts or air. Maybe as long as he had the ace of spades he would feel comfortable jamming since he knows I can't have the nuts and I would probably be folding all sets or maybe even low flushes?

Ban

Is it really that easy of a call? I have a friend who is on a completely different plane from myself as far as level of play and understanding of the game, and he said he would fold here like 75% of the time. I just wanted some second opinions.

if your going to call with the nuts only.... then he can raise anything here and your folding 99 percent of the time? thats a lot of money to be folding 99 percent of the time

I don't think its an auto-call. Its really hard for him to have worse spades or a set and be raising for value. So the question is, how often does he turn AsX into a bluff? Most players at live 2/5 are nits and won't. But with a "is capable of making some huge bluffs in big pots" read I think you have to.

i guess you could "think" for a little bit like you actually have a decision to make before you call so that he'll bluff you more in the future -.- cant imagine thinking about folding with reads given...and even without. though going pot turn pot river sorta makes it closer. also dont pot turn pot river unless you have a v good reason =[

I could see folding this v stnd 2/5 nitball. def not with reads though.

also if i am full potting turn and river its probably bc villain is really spewy which means i am never folding to river shove.

On January 28 2014 01:09 JohnnyBologna wrote: if your going to call with the nuts only.... then he can raise anything here and your folding 99 percent of the time? thats a lot of money to be folding 99 percent of the time

I did make the call this hand, at the time I didn't think it could possibly be correct to fold. Now I have second thoughts. As far as trying to play unexploitably, I clearly have to call here sometimes, much more than 1%... I'm not certain where the 99 percent from. I just don't know how often I should, maybe my default here should be to fold, and only call one out of 3 or one out of 5 times or something. I have very little experience (and have done little study of) playing in hands with an effective stack of 300+ big blinds.
It makes me feel a bit better that most of you think calling is at least OK, and possibly the definite correct choice.

I think my large bet sizing looks pretty strong (like some sort of flush or possibly a set); He knows I have some non-nut-flushes in my range here, I don't think it makes a lot of sense for him to bluff jam the the river even if he has the bare ace of spades unless he thinks I'm capable of folding a flush.

On January 28 2014 12:07 PoorUser wrote: also dont pot turn pot river unless you have a v good reason =[

My reason was simply to get in as much as I could with a hand that was close to the very top of my range. Somebody else also told me that making the pot sized bets like that is probably bad, but honestly I don't understand why as long as I balance by bluffing similarly sometimes. Not saying you are wrong, I'm sure you are right, it's just beyond my understanding. Perhaps in this particular case the pot sized bets could have let me get away from then hand after he raised on the river?

--- Nuked ---

Results?

I think he is very rarely checking back a king here, possibly even never.
I should clarify: I haven't seen that many of his showdowns, perhaps 25. I would be surprised if he was actually balanced. That said, he is way more balanced than the majority of the $2/5 players... He actually mixes in bluffs into his play profitably and has reasonable bet sizing (as opposed to most people who either bluff like one out of a hundred hands, or bluffing so maniacally that it's correct to always call them down all the way with top pair). For example, he sometimes 3-bets in position with suited connectors or suited aces and then continuation bets most missed flops (and capable of firing further barrels, I have no idea with what frequency he does it though).

Results: I was surprised when he flipped over






Like I said, I didn't think he was checking back a king, even that one. If he flipped over a hand that had me beat I was expecting it to be most likely, or possibly him getting frisky on highjack with Xs

didnt see this thread, but guise come on its live.

no one is trying to bluff you off a flush after u pot/pot

--- Nuked ---

fold pre. given it's deep and your OOP + the fact you iso to 5x bb means your range is probably a bit stronger and if he's any good at all he's not gonna start 3 betting napkins (unless you've been just letting him do what he wants with u)

that said as played we are getting stacked here 99% of the time.

I'm not sure I agree with you on the folding preflop. I'm raising pretty wide, and as far as my suited connector type hands, it doesn't get much better than QTs. If I don't call with that kind of thing ever, he can greatly narrow my range with complete accuracy, which I think gets us in trouble because we are so deep.I mean, I don't think folding is horrible, I should probably fold most hands in this spot, but I think I definitely need to NOT fold in this spot preflop sometimes too. Just my initial thoughts.