Against aggro villains I'm getting owned in such spots.
Ok, this is probably like the 3rd time I've been check/raised on a dry flop against aggro villain.
Hero is asian in his 30's has tight image, between aggro and nitty depending on how they view me.
There was one time in SRP, I'd cbet small on A94r and get x/r from super aggro villain. I folded villain shows air. I had nothing as well. He was spewing money the whole night, I wanted to wait for better spots, and I doubled up from him later on in the night.
There 2 times when I 3bet in position. They call oop. They are both young aggro.
Flop comes dry but low board like 752r, 962r, I cbet 1/3, they just x/r to 4x of my cbets. Effective stack sizes is like 300~450ish, they already put in like 150.
I have A high both times, I can't ship it right?
Am I supposed to stop cbetting so much against them? It feels like they're coming after my cbets with such stack depth in 3bet pots. Or am I supposed to cbet bigger so they don't take it as weakness.
16 Replies
Yes, you should cbet some of your weaker holdings that still have equity less, such as ace high and weak pairs, planning to call some turns if they lead. You can cbet hands that can call a CR and also total trash. How radically to adjust depends on how extreme their play is. Against a total lunatic, sometimes you just need to make a hand and call down.
You need to mix up your strat against opponents like this. C-bet small with a more polar range of nutted hands and air, c-bet larger or check back with some thick value and good draws.
When they x/r you when you have a nutted hand, mix 3B'ing and calling. When they x/r you when you have air, mix folding and calling, with the intention of stealing the pot on a later street. When you check back and they lead turn, you'll have enough hands that can call.
Don't assume a guy who showed you a bluff one time is going to keep bluffing you. I'd assume the opposite until I see that he's still bluffing.
What stakes is this?
It's very likely they aren't overbluffing and actually have some decent hands with backdoor equity or even good flopped equity.
Very unlikely you're getting exploited even though it feels like it sometimes..
Yes, you should *CHECK* some of your weaker holdings that still have equity , such as ace high and weak pairs, planning to call some turns if they lead. You can cbet hands that can call a CR and also total trash. How radically to adjust depends on how extreme their play is. Against a total lunatic, sometimes you just need to make a hand and call down.
Fixed my post.
In this 1/3? Are these HU pots you are cbetting? On a low dry flop, you are just representing an overpair with a cbet. You can cbet less or play back at them with air if they are bluffing a lot.
wrt A94r. you might not be floating the XR wide enough. This is a node where u do wanna hit MDF vs sufficiently aggressive villains. You have range advantage on this board so he shouldnt have a profitable bluff with air. Id take a look at the GTO baseline for floating vs XR, it will probably be wider than u think. Then look at BBs XR strategy: if you expect this villain is XR at a higher freq than GTO then u should float wider than the solution. one way or the other, vs aggro villains u gotta go to war or get run over! GL
The thing I would think about is his NAR, is his value range A9 A4 99 and 44? then the rest is air? or does he extend his value to make up for his hi bluffing frequency by including hands like AT and AJ for value.
In case A, we can extend our defense. we prefer to have a pair to the board to block 2 pair. so hands like T8 98 87 86 and 45 K4 become good floats.
In case B, we can also block value with the JT float. I would always look to float JTs with the BDFD here.
Don't assume a guy who showed you a bluff one time is going to keep bluffing you. I'd assume the opposite until I see that he's still bluffing.
They play wild vs the whole table not just me, making crazy bluffs nonstop, sometimes 0 equity, sometimes as semibluffs, yea sometimes they have it too. The worst was they would bluff rivers with marginal hands that has showdown value, yet they sometimes get called with worse cause of their image, sometimes I wonder if they were actual "thin value bets" lol
I usually get out of their way, unless it was like obvious bluffs for a cheap price.
When they x/r you when you have air, mix folding and calling, with the intention of stealing the pot on a later street. When you check back and they lead turn, you'll have enough hands that can call.
I actually thought about calling but I worried they would be fearless and just ship on any turn. lol
The way they play is wild. However, the one who spewed stacks vs me, 2 nights later, I saw him toning down 95% of his crazy plays. Not sure how he can adjust all of sudden in just 2 nights, he was getting paid too.
The 2 aggro young guy never toned it down. I just try to 3bet them in position whenever possible with any decent hand then it gets into these spots.
You need to mix up your strat against opponents like this. C-bet small with a more polar range of nutted hands and air, c-bet larger or check back with some thick value and good draws.
When they x/r you when you have a nutted hand, mix 3B'ing and calling.
This is a fine strategy.
If this was online, I wouldn't look into these spots too much since I'd just ignore it can call it variance or whatever. For live, every single hand counts especially when we only getting 25 hands/hr.
Thanks for your advice once again! Really appreciate your help these few days.
What stakes is this
It's very likely they aren't overbluffing and actually have some decent hands with backdoor equity or even good flopped equity.
Very unlikely you're getting exploited even though it feels like it sometimes..
It's 1/3.
Theoretically, they shouldn't even be raising on such flops. It's so hard to rep anything.
I snap fold against passive opponents in these spots no questions asked. But these young aggro opponents, it just feels like they're attacking my cbets on these dry flops. Maybe it's just me.
If it were a wet board, I'd understand they have semibluffs and strong ranges. Here, it feels like I'm getting run over when opponent has a very polarized range leaning alot more on the bluff side.
I just wonder if they're attacking my cbets because the sizing is too small and maybe because of the low board textures.
In this 1/3? Are these HU pots you are cbetting? On a low dry flop, you are just representing an overpair with a cbet. You can cbet less or play back at them with air if they are bluffing a lot.
Yes, it's 1/3 and these are HU pots.
They rep so thin, in those 3bet pots, I thought about playing back but they have 1/3 or 1/2 of their stack out there already. It's kinda spewy shipping on top, or calling flop then folding turn.
As for the SRP vs the maniac, he sometimes have them. He played his bluffs/value the same, he was stacking people left and right everytime he gets a hand because they all think he's bluffing. He shows them bluffs to get paid I guess. He would tone down a little after big pots. That specific hand, I thought about putting a min3bet on top but it doesn't rep anything. lol Yea, I can just call, but I worry he'd just barrel off his whole range on turn.
I wanted to wait for hands to play vs him because he was very passive with marginal hands and some draws, and just call down to hope to hit. Against his aggro lines, I took it cautiously.
At low stakes, even those most people don't play aggressively enough, the aggressive players are often the real whales.
If you raise or 3! and have JJ+, they will be in bad shape after making big raises on 872 or whatever.
At low stakes, even those most people don't play aggressively enough, the aggressive players are often the real whales.
If you raise or 3! and have JJ+, they will be in bad shape after making big raises on 872 or whatever.
This exactly. Just be sure to have a good solid 3bet range vs them and there is nothing they can do really.
And I still believe it's likely more just variance and that they're really not overbluffing you in these spots, especially if they know you're playing good ranges.
In a 3B pot, low dry flops like 752, 962 should be checked from IP around 50% of the time. Those are terrible flops for your range.
It is one of my favorite exploits because people WAY over c-bet with Ax in this spot, where the OOP has all the sets an most of the pairs. OOP can have most A2-A9, IP only has some (and many times none), OOP can have 5s6s more, midpair BDFD, BDSD is a very decent hand against a range that is mostly unpaired overs and has reasonable outs against AA, the top of your range.
So if I'm OOP and I believe you are a competent TAG, I'm x/r nearly 100% of my range if you bet small. I'm only calling with hands like QQ/JJ where I'm probably good, but usually dead if stacks go in. If you ship, I call with a pair+, knowing you have at best an overpair and I might already be good against AK/AQ that got sick of my constant betting.
So tighten up your cbets on these boards. When you do bet, go big (60-80%) favoring your pp for value and your air that isn't going to improve. Your AT-AK mostly check, get a free turn to bink and maybe induce a bluff from a weaker Ax, Kx etc. that is small enough to call down.
When OOP, punish those who cbet too often on boards that are bad for them.
If you raise or 3! and have JJ+, they will be in bad shape after making big raises on 872 or whatever.
Not sure that holds up, if you only call/shove JJ+ to the x/r, you are folding all you AT-AK, 16 combos and calling/jamming 16 combos. So you're folding 50% assuming you have a super tight 3b range with no AKo, weaker Ax suited, or any suited broadways.
You bet 1/3rd pot. So say $60 preflop, you bet $20, I x/r $80. I'm risking $80 to win $80. If you fold 50%, I'm printing. I could have 10% equity when called and my bet is mathematically correct. In reality, my range has about 21% equity against JJ+, 25% if you loosen up and call with AK too.
In a 3B pot, low dry flops like 752, 962 should be checked from IP around 50% of the time. Those are terrible flops for your range. It is one of my favorite exploits because people WAY over c-bet with Ax in this spot, where the OOP has all the sets an most of the pairs. OOP can have most A2-A9, IP only has some (and many times none), OOP can have 5s6s more, midpair BDFD, BDSD i
I get too used to cbetting these boards with my whole range as a habit from online. On such dry flop, nobody ever bluff raising them, at least very few or unless they're spewing aggro. It was easy taking it down or getting check/called.
I never knew people can have a check/raise range here on dry low flops. The standard play for their sets or whatever strong range they have was to either check/raise the turn or river. Some even donk flop/turns.
Yea, checking back good amounts of the time vs these aggro villains is best instead of 100% cbetting.
