I played a few tables of 2/4 NL last night while finishing off the last tournament of a block I started in the early afternoon. I ran into another player who was intent on playing mediocre hands out of position against me, so I took the opportunity to experiment with some creative/aggressive lines and thin value bets.
The first confrontation we had, I opened for pot ($14) from the CO with Qh Jc, and he called in the SB. On a 9s 3c 2c flop, he checked and called a $24 bet.
The turn was the Ad, a good card for a second barrel. He checked and called $52. I didn’t put him on Ace, at least not a good one, and figured he could easily have a smaller pocket pair, a 9, or even a draw. He checked a 6s on the river, and I bet $120 into a $181 pot. My intent was to represent a value bet with a hand like AQ or AK. He tanked and folded suspciously.
The next orbit, I opened As Qs for $14 from the Button, and he called out of his BB. I was pretty sure I was good on a flop of 9h 9d 2d, and bet $18, which he called.
The turn was the Kc, and I saw no reason not to bet again, it probably didn’t hit him, and as he’d seen me bet a scare card in our last confrontation, I thought there was a good chance he would make a mistaken call. He checked and called $40.
He checked a 6h river, I checked behind, and his Ac 7c was no good. I made a comment along the lines of, “Guess I missed a river bet.”
The very next hand, I open raised to $14 with Kd Qd. This time the Button called, and my friend called from his SB. Figuring to have no fold equity against both of them, I checked a 9h 4s 8d flop, and it checked through.
The 7d turn gave me a flush draw plus the possibility of representing straights on the river. There was even a chance the bet was a semi-bluff and I had the best hand. My buddy in the SB bet $32, I called, and the Button folded.
A Ts river put 789T on the board. This actually wasn’t the best scare card for me, though, as it filled only the low end of the straight or a gut shot at the top. A 6 or a J would have been better. SB checked, which told me he had a hand with showdown value. I knew that he expected me to bluff this card and was looking to snap me off. I was also pretty sure that he knew I knew that. Mostly out of curiosity, I hit the bet pot button and fired $110. SB tanked and finally called me at the last second with Tc 8c. It was a good call by him and most likely a ‘bad’ bet by me. I was mostly curious to play with this nth level thinking dynamic, even though the current metagame made this not a profitable spot for a blatant river bluff. This also showed the guy that playing out of position against me was not going to be a walk in the park, which I’m not sure is a message I wanted to send. I’m pretty sure it’s a good situation for me when he’s check calling Ace-rag unimproved on two streets.
He definitely did back off after this and stopped defending his blinds so much. I played a few pots aggressively against others at the table, once 4-betting all in with T8s that flopped a flush draw on a 722 flop to win it right there, and once 4-betting KK pre-flop with 150 BB effective stacks. I was prepared to call a shove, but I might have been in bad shape had that happened, as the guy claimed to have folded QQ.
My last big pot with my nemesis actually occurred when he was in position. I raised Kc Th UTG, he called from the CO, and the BB called. The flop was Qd 3h 2c, a very good board for a continuation bet. Although they are harder to pull off, c-bets into multiple callers also tend to get more respect for that reason. In other words, each individual player is less likely to call you than he would be in a heads up pot, but the combined odds of at least one of them calling is higher.
Anyway, I potted it for $44, and my friend called. He had $642 to start the hand, and I covered. The only way he could really be strong on this board was with 33 or 22, as I was pretty sure he would have reraised QQ pre-flop, so I was prepared to triple barrel him. However, a Ts on the turn improved me to a likely best hand and slowed me down. In retrospect, I’m not sure it was a good idea, as it made it kind of obvious that I had something, but I checked the turn, and he checked behind.
The river 5c was a safe card for me. After potting the flop and checking the turn, it’s very unlikely that I would bluff the river. My line looks exactly like pot control with a likely best one pair hand, which is what it was. However, having shown the guy that I could bluff in spots where I knew my line would look like a bluff, I elected to go ahead and bet pot and see what happened. He folded pretty quickly to my $132 bet. It’s hard to say what he had, quite possibly something like A-high that would have folded the turn anyway, but I’m still not sure the turn check was good. Oh well, it was an interesting and profitable session of experimenting with some more aggressive lines.