93o in the Big Blind (1 Viewer)

I think in this situation we are absolutely beat. SB was happy to just check/call the whole way and then comes out firing on the river? Sure, most times we are going to have the best hand, but I just don't think we do in this spot. If we break it down in terms of what we can beat, we can find a fold much easier. We have the worst possible 9 and I don't think anything worse than our hand is value-raising here. If SB is bluffing then he picked a really strange time to do it in my opinion. This raise is screaming for a call. I think we have to fold.





Plus, we never win in Dr. Strange's posts.
 
So, I think it's $25 to win a $83 pot. ie we need 30% equity to break even. The only split pot is villain also holding 93 which we can safely ignore. So we need a 30% chance he's bluffing or value raising worse. SB is a winning player; he should have button on a q and you on 9x (maaaybe kq) by now so it's really hard to see him value-betting worse. Very hard to credit him with a bluff here either. Easy fold.
 
According to your description of SB, this could easily be J-10. Check/call, check/call, then check/raise river?

If SB really does have some bluffing tendencies I'm calling. It's hard to imagine he would slow play a flopped full house or trips until the last possible option.
 
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*** The End ***

Hero ponders a bit. A line like Check/call, check/call, check/raise is highly polarized. Hero decides SB has a monster and folds even given the nice pot odds he got offered.

Button gives a speech about how Button and Hero both have Queens but they can't beat a nine and then folds. SB shows us :qd: :9d: for the flopped full house.

DrStrange
 
Here is Hero's thinking and my after action thoughts.

Hero's 93 might look pretty, but it really isn't that good. Everyone at the table sees the threat posed by the paired boards - hero does not have a "big surprise" type of hand.

Hero's goal for the hand was to extract value from weaker hands while avoiding getting value-owned by better hands. Hero was not going to try to protect his hand vs the various draws.

Hero has bad position and a medium strength hand. That lead to the "slow play" option { though I was thinking safe play rather than slow play, hero isn't going to check raise unimproved }

The flop turned out unfortunately. The tricky trappy button is highly alert to slow plays and will be quick to fold. I use this once a session or so to steal a pot from him - check raise bluff and get a fold. The small blind has a huge range. I was happy to let button's bet get called first in hopes I would get some useful information.

I considered leading the turn. Button often bets his draws and then takes the free card. As it turned out, button made a small bet - smaller than I would have liked. But Hero can't check raise here and expect button to stay around.

Hero bets the river to keep button from checking behind with a medium-weak queen. Bet sizing was too small. Button would likely pay $10 (an eight bb missed opportunity) We would need to know how good button's queen was to decide just how high Hero could bet. I expect not much more than $10.

The check raise by SB crushed Hero's hopes. The only good thing was Hero didn't make a crying call.

My after-action thoughts:

I like to balance leading with trips and slow playing, but bad kickers / multi way limped pot / bad position are all indicators that lead Hero to take things slow. If I knew the main villain was my tricky-trappy friend, then I would lead out every time.

The turn gives Hero a chance to change his approach, but that is often less profitable than letting villain bet again if he has a one pair hand. There is some risk in giving a free card. I decided this choice wasn't obviously good or bad as both ways could work to Hero's advantage.

The river bet was too small (though the decision to bet seemed best). SB's check raise is alarming. More so since he has to think Hero has trips and is unlikely to fold to that bet size. Since SB wants a call and Hero's hand is about as weak as it could be this becomes a time to fold.

Thanks for all the points of view -=- DrStrange
 
I always love these posts from the good doctor. It'd been a long time since I put my two cents in to one of these, so I was happy to contribute. The reason I love these so much is because you give great insight to the players and this one really had me thinking. When it came to the river it was merely a question of "what can I beat?" I watch a lot of players not even taking this thought and putting it into action and end up calling in a situation like this one. It's crazy to think that trip 9's can turn into essentially a bluffcatcher.

I guess Kenny Rogers knew what he was talking about.
 
Asking the Good Doctor and everyone else a question...

What was the mindset of the SB through the Hand. Psychology plays are part of poker... But for the life of me I can't grasp how and why the SB played the hand as he did. Any insights?
 
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My only guess is that he didn't put anyone on the 9, and the way the betting went I don't really blame him. I'm not saying that he didn't possibly miss out on some value, but this is a case of slow-playing at it's finest. The Doctor said he was capable of bluffing at times. he could have gone for a bet on the turn in my opinion, repped a semi-bluff, and gotten called by worse.
 

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