$25 NL HE Full Ring: Calling down a bluff catcher

[Station_Master]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Stakes

$.10/$.25

Table Format

Full (8-10 seats)

VP$IP

19

PFR

15

Currency

$

pokerstars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

NA: $0.00 (0 bb)
UTG: $36.02 (144 bb)
MP: $25.66 (103 bb)
MP+1: $25.00 (100 bb)
CO: $24.32 (97 bb)
BU: $18.80 (75 bb)
SB: $25.00 (100 bb)
BB (Hero): $25.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with J♥ T♦
5 players fold, SB raises to $0.62, Hero calls $0.37

Flop: ($1.24) 2♦ 6♣ J♦ (3 players)
SB bets $0.87, Hero calls $0.87

Turn: ($2.98) T♠ (3 players)
SB bets $3.75, Hero calls $3.75

River: ($10.48) 7♥ (3 players)
SB bets $19.76 (all-in), Hero calls $19.76 (all-in)

Not posted a hand for a while so thought I would share this interestng one. What do you think of this call down? Opponent was a Ukranian reg but I hadn't played many hands with him yet.

 

[blueskies]

I would have played exactly the same way. I might consider 3betting pre if villain opens from SB a lot.
Other than that, I would have played all three streets the same way.

No str or flush possibility. You lose to TT, JJ, 22 66, and 77 and you block TT and JJ. And it's unlikely he was over betting the turn with 77 and THEN caught a 2 outter.

If he has a set so be it.

Hopefully he's overplaying AJ or QQ+.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
Standard call. Dont see any reason to 3-bet a hand this bad, and you should hardly have any folds facing a small open in position.

Flop
If he went very small, maybe your hand would be strong enough to raise in a blind vs. blind context, but against this sizing its just a call.

Turn
Now you improved to top two pair, and normally this would be a good spot to raise. But facing an overbet I would most likely also end up just calling and see, what happen on the river.

River
As you even say in the title, your hand is only a bluff catcher, when he overbet jam river after overbetting turn. There is no chance at all, that an eastern european reg is taking this line for value with an overpair or top pair type hand. And my 7 years of experience with online poker tells me, that these guys are almost never balanced. They are trying to grind out a small monthly profit to cover their cost of living, and they do this by multitabling and playing in a fairly robotic way. Basically waiting for the nuts and then try to stack someone.

So when he takes this sizing even starting on the flop and certainly on the turn, and then jam the river, it just screams to me, that he has it. Most likely a set, but its also worth noting, that 98 was an OESD on the turn and got there on the river. So if the turn overbet is ever a bluff, it could be 98, which is then now jamming for value. Maybe 98 of diamonds, which was a combodraw on the turn. So while a solver would probably call here, I think, you are beat, and that you can increase your winrate by folding in situations like this.

In fact hands like this is one of the reasons, I got tired of cash games especially on PokerStars. For me it is frankly quite tilting to call here, because its "correct" only to get shown, that yeah he had it - once again. These guys are not fun to play against at all, and while they are also there in tournaments, at least stacks are then usually so short, that you can call down with top two without always losing, because their stack-off range for value is wider.

 

[kdmeteor]

I would filter my data base for River overbets to find out what the base bluffing rate is. Not saying there aren't other more important factors, just that this is a thing I'd do that hasn't been mentioned yet.

This sort of ties into what fundiver said; I don't care what GTO says in spots like this; I want to know what my opponent does, and if don't have stats on him, I'll look at what the field does as the best proxy.

 

[Station_Master]

I would filter my data base for River overbets to find out what the base bluffing rate is. Not saying there aren't other more important factors, just that this is a thing I'd do that hasn't been mentioned yet.

This sort of ties into what fundiver said; I don't care what GTO says in spots like this; I want to know what my opponent does, and if don't have stats on him, I'll look at what the field does as the best proxy.

This is where my free HUD (H2N) lets me down as I can't filter my database. I wonder if its moving to the paid version or PT4, but I hate paying monthly fees, if it was a one off I would be more tempted!

 

[fundiver199]

This is where my free HUD (H2N) lets me down as I can't filter my database. I wonder if its moving to the paid version or PT4, but I hate paying monthly fees, if it was a one off I would be more tempted!

I think, its a yearly fee. But yeah I was lucky to get in, when it was a one off fee only. I still think, its money well spend though, unless you put most of your volume on sites like GG Poker, where it can not be used anyway.

 

[Station_Master]

I think, its a yearly fee. But yeah I was lucky to get in, when it was a one off fee only. I still think, its money well spend though, unless you put most of your volume on sites like GG Poker, where it can not be used anyway.

I think you are right I will bite the bullet soon and start paying, just need to weigh up if H2N better, PT4 or something else.

 

[Station_Master]

Spoiler: Spoiler

Villain had 43cc and I won a nice pot. I was a bit torn on calling down or not, but just felt there were too few value combos to justify folding top two

 

[Station_Master]

I've posted a subsequent hand with the same villain here: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-game-hand-analysis-50/50-nl-he-full-ring-541137/

 

[fundiver199]

So he was in fact bluffing, and he overbet turn with just a gutshot. Obviously my population read was then wrong, or this player is one of the exceptions.

 

[kdmeteor]

I think, its a yearly fee. But yeah I was lucky to get in, when it was a one off fee only. I still think, its money well spend though, unless you put most of your volume on sites like GG Poker, where it can not be used anyway.

I also was lucky to have... actually not payed at all for PT4 since I got it for some promotion a long time ago. Idk how large the fee is, but I think PT4 has a ton of value even if you exclusively pay on GGPoker. you can't use it during the hands, but you can download the hands and use it after the fact.

 

[Aballinamion]

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

NA: $0.00 (0 bb)
UTG: $36.02 (144 bb)
MP: $25.66 (103 bb)
MP+1: $25.00 (100 bb)
CO: $24.32 (97 bb)
BU: $18.80 (75 bb)
SB: $25.00 (100 bb)
BB (Hero): $25.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with J♥ T♦
5 players fold, SB raises to $0.62, Hero calls $0.37

Flop: ($1.24) 2♦ 6♣ J♦ (3 players)
SB bets $0.87, Hero calls $0.87

Turn: ($2.98) T♠ (3 players)
SB bets $3.75, Hero calls $3.75

River: ($10.48) 7♥ (3 players)
SB bets $19.76 (all-in), Hero calls $19.76 (all-in)

Not posted a hand for a while so thought I would share this interestng one. What do you think of this call down? Opponent was a Ukranian reg but I hadn't played many hands with him yet.

I think that the title of this post is a spoiler. Most likely you won this hand because we have most of the possible combinations for this river with our top two pair. Nice hand.