5/10/20 BvB, difficult spot with underpair

I don't play this high, but:

1) Prefer to open larger in a raked game, maybe 80-100.
2) I don't like the xr here on this dry flop texture. HU I prefer a standard c-bet. V has as many sets as we do.
3) Turn: I think H is still uncapped and we have plenty of AK, AA, JJ - none of these need protection on dry rainbow board so x is fine.
4) River: the problem here is that we've compressed V's range with our flop xr. What is his calling range when we xr flop on such a dry board? I think it's minimum AJ. (Maybe he has the rare T9s) So what can he raise river with when we're still uncapped?

A River x turns our exact hand into a bluffcatcher but I don't think V can blast off here given our nut advantage, so I prefer x. Our flop xr folded out his weaker Ax. So there's not much thin value to target AP with this sizing. I don't think V gets to the river with any bluffs other than a few T9s. I think this is a straightforward fold AP and if V is good enough to have T9s here, I'm changing tables.

You're used to, "playing against a pool that won't punish thin value bets with raises," but that is basically every pool of live players and it doesn't really matter the stakes. But it does happen sometimes. I don't think your river bet is a mistake. I might go a bit smaller like 150 or 200 on the river though.

River is close. You need to be good about 24% of the time here to call his raise. Basically I think most players are not bluffing this spot, maybe 1/4 of players as described are going to have bluffs in their range. But there are tons of bluffs to choose from. You are in the loosest configuration possible. QT, Q9, T9, T7, 97, 76, 75, 65, are all straight draws on the flop, and v could have many of the offsuit combos of these hands bb v str.

For value v can have some rivered two pair. Again in the bb v str he could be very loose, so this can be J2s, 82s, 42s. Once in a while this could be flopped two pair. Turned aces up, 88, and 44 mainly bet turn, but recreational players slow play more often than they should.

Without any relevant history on villain and having infinite time to think about it, I slightly lean towards call because of how many bluff combos there are. Also, even though most villain's aren't bluffing here, a lot of villains will bet a lot of two pair on the turn, and with flopped sets bet larger on the flop or 3bet the flop. And a non-neglible number of villains will just call river with weaker two pair they think might be beat. So you're left with a relatively small amount of villains that bluff but have a lot of possible bluff combos, and a relatively large amount of villains that have a smaller amount of value combos because of the flop and turn action. I also think the information on what he has could be useful, whether we see a slow play or a bluff. If we are going to pay v off in this sort of spot at some point, might as well be early in our history to start gathering data on his showdowns and set a precedent that we aren't easy to bluff.

I think betting flop or check raising flop vs a half pot bet are fine. You can arguably bet the turn also, but I think checking turn to block bet river is also fine. We can also check call turn depending on size/reads)

id call vs rec and dont think its that close

i dont think river is a mistake at all either in theory or practice, when i look at the solve it wants to be range ott which i don't think id have found either

I don't like the x/r otf - OTT I think you can bet again. OTR - I would be snapping this off. His line makes no sense, your range is capped and you made a smallish value bet indicating medium strength. It is 5/10/20 - I think these players are a little more capable than say a 1/2 or 2/5 lineup. In general when you're value betting a capped range somewhat on the weak side you're going to see river raises more often from competent players. His line looks completely FOS so I wouldn't be folding.

Yeesh. That raise size looks pretty milky. Think calling can't be terrible, but I'd probably fold. Probably would have been better to bet larger, if we're going for thin value.

This x/r-check-bet 1/3 pot line looks somewhat weak/bluffy, and invites bluff raises. Looks like we're repping exactly AA, JJ, or AJ, and he might find a creative bluff with a better hand, like J8, blocking JJ and AJ.

Then again, if he's a true rec, there may be enough spaz raises in his range to make this a very profitable call. If he does this with a busted draw, hat's off to him for the attempt.

I tend to lean towards calling on the river in spots where V's line doesn't make sense and this is one of them. If he slowplayed aces up or better then take a note and move on. I don't see how this river helps him very often.

Jam

river in general is going to be the spot you want to deviate the most, and recs in general are going to be the player type you want to deviate the most vs. i think block is fine to target jx and i have a really hard time coming up with plausible value combos for him, and i think in general people spaz out vs block way too much (bluff too much, dont value raise thin enough, dont balance ranges enough to have hands that can raise).

i don't really hate facing a raise that much tbh, it's really really hard for him to have Ax given the flop is rainbow (i guess conceivably some kind of top pair hand would make sense to raise vs this size if he got here with it), and i dont see anything that improves otr except j2ss. id guess u lose sometimes to like idk a8 but im pretty excited to call this but i think you win way more than the needed 23% (if i had to ballpark i think u have like 80?% equity here, and honestly its just weighing the % of the population that never bluffs vs the population that spazzes out vs this bet)

Mlark covered it well and is better at poker than I am but here is my take anyway.

It feels a lot like a turned 2p. On the turn, he checks because he doesn't want you to fold a hand like QQ and also doesn't want to get jammed on by a set.

J8 could even take a similar line. It loses to AA, AJ, and might think you could have A8 or A4. It is also now harder to get value from KJ, QQ etc. And also is not exactly excited to get jammed on.

In game I would also bet small river to get a little value from a jack against a rec. Check against a pro at 5/10+. (Though I have almost no experience above 5/10).

He probably has every T9, so I would unhappily call with zero reads. Sucks cuz this could be a dreadful call if you knew him. . Well, you'll learn something about his play now.

I think your river bet size might be off. I would tend to bet significantly smaller. But I think you could also go bigger to look more bluffy and prevent bluffs. Your hand is kinda face up imo.

My take away from this hand is that it is really good for both H and V to check some monsters on the turn.

Like, in game, with 88, my impulse would be to keep betting and hope he had AJ or A8, though AJ might 3! Pre. If he does, you'll probably get most of his money anyway. Something like JT might only get 1 street either way. It would be really neat to have 88 playing as you did.

Heros hand is pretty face up that's the problem. Looks like a pair between jacks and kings
What other hands do you play this way? Then you can use mdf. You unblock diamonds and club floats like Qt kq q9 which could lean to a call. So I agree betting turn might have been better. Can you tell us what range you have on the river when he raises you?

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Thinking about it some more qq might be the worst hand I'd get there with so might be an MDF fold. But curious what your range is and what results are

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