Clatterpinch prefaces this hand by saying: โI have a question about a hand I played the other day at full ring 25 No Limit on Bovada. I feel like I played this hand fine, but was wondering if there was any improvement to be had.โ
In this hand there is an open-raise from EP2 and he is a 67/0 over 6 hands. Hero obviously decides to isolate and I love the fact that weโre doing that, just wish the size were a bit bigger and probably go to something like a 1.25, 1.50, totally for value here. We end up facing a small 3Bet from the cutoff, who is a 21/9 with a 3Bet of 8% over 115 hands and it folds to EP2, who decides to call. The main points here are choosing the best line when facing a 3bet and then playing postflop well.
Some people may get here, theyโre going to look at the cutoff 3Bet percentage of 8% and theyโre going to say, โWell, heโs obviously 3Betting a non-nitty range, so Iโm just going to come over the top and 4Bet,โ or โIโm definitely giving action,โ or whatever it is.
I just want to point out real quick that that 8% 3Bet is likely just a single 3Bet over that sample size, so itโs probably not a situation where he has an 8% 3Bet range when he 3Bets here. In fact, I would say that thatโs probably very liberal of a thought process. He is running 21 VPIP itโs a pretty big gap in the VPIP/PFR, which means, I assume, a decent amount of passivity. A single 3Bet over 115 hands doesnโt seem like a lot to me, so because of that, Iโm not going to freak out and say, โOh my god, he must be 3Betting really 8% of hands here.โ I highly, highly doubt thatโs the case.
โOh my god, he must be 3Betting really 8% of hands here.โ
We are getting roughly 5-1/2 to 1 on a call, we are closing action, we get involved with a fish in a single SPR pot, which is going to be pretty easy, so Iโm okay calling here going from there. We end up flopping top air, top kicker. Check, check, pot size c-bet from the cutoff, fold, and here we are.
I just want to say a couple of different things here. First and foremost is I really start making my decision now, simply because if we call, itโs going to be about $15 in the middle, about $30-something back, so thereโs not going to be a ton of play and flexibility left and weโre getting closer and closer to commitment. The closer weโre getting to commitment, the more we want to create that plan early and obviously we want to make sure that itโs going to be a profitable plan.
The second big thing that I want to talk about real quick are the combos. If we look at this, and letโs just say we thought the cutoff pre-flop was 3Betting like queens-plus and AK. Letโs just assume that for a quick moment. If we think about that, how many combos of huge hands can he have here? Thereโs one combo of queens left; because we have an ace in our hand, it blocks his six combos of aces down to three, so weโre up to four combos. There are six combos of pocket kings, so weโre at ten combos of nutted hands. If we look at ace/king, there are how many of those? We have an ace in our hands and weโre going to block that down, that blocks it down to 12 combos.
- Not sure how to use combos? Watch my free video on poker combos here
Assuming that we think that he would c-bet that entire range, which I think is decently fair to say, that puts us in a situation where weโre doing plenty fine. We have equity for the times that he does have kings, obviously thatโs great for us. Other times when he has ace/king, weโre obviously ahead now and he has very few outs, so thatโs obviously great for us as well.
Itโs just really, really difficult for someone to have the nuts, so because of that, Iโm not folding here and Iโm pretty much calling with intentions on getting a little bit stickier. Iโm not super thrilled about going stocks or especially deeper stocks with 140, 150 big ones to start against a passive fish when I have something like top pair, but by the same token, there are plenty of situations where itโs going to be totally good. Again, you have to make that decision early because weโre getting closer and closer to commitment as this hand rolls out.
One final note that I want to talk about right this moment is twofold. One, if he decides to maybe not c-bet ace/king here all the time, obviously thatโs going to skew his range further and further against us, which is not going to be good.
The other thing to consider is that obviously QQ+/AK is like the nutted side of a 3Bet range. If he ever 3Bets other things, jacks, tens, all that kind of stuff, all weโre doing is adding more and more combos that we do better and better against.
I always start by looking at a worst-case scenario and QQ+/AK is definitely kind of the worst-case scenario as far as a 3Bet range is concerned. If weโre doing fine there, weโre doing even better as he widens up his 3Bet range. At least keep that in mind as well.
A jack on the turn, not the greatest card in the world, but not the worst card either; we check. He decides to bet and at this point weโre getting just shy of 3:1 on a call.
- Not sure what the heck 3:1 means? Learn about pot odds with this simple video
Iโm going to let you in on a little secret here. I ask myself one question and itโs a very, very important question when I get to this turn in a 3Bet pot like this. My question is simply this: Would he continue betting ace/king? If heโs going to continue betting ace/king, again, weโre having that similar conversation that we did on the flop. Itโs very difficult for him to have a big hand here, there are a decent amount of combos of ace/king in there and because of that, I want to call and continue giving action.
However, if heโs the kind of person that is just going to check behind ace/king, heโs like, โOh man! He just called me on the flop, the turn doesnโt do anything so I donโt think I can get him to fold anymore.โ Then heโll knock back with ace/king, then all of a sudden his turn betting range might be a little bit too strong for me. Again, we have to make that decision right this moment.
The more aggressive that someone is, the more Iโm assuming theyโre going to continue banging away with ace/king and the more and more comfortable Iโm going to be giving action, just like hero did. However, I at least want you to understand that if you think heโs really the kind of guy thatโs just not going to fire again with ace/king, that check folding the turn has a lot of validity in it. If we call here, we have whatโ35 in the middle, 21 effective going into the riverโweโre getting a good price on a river shove and weโre probably going to have to call that. At least keep that in mind, again, the closer you get to commitment, the more of a plan you have to have.
As played, once hero calls, Iโm pretty much in check call mode, unless of course that happens. That is by far and away the worst card that couldโve rolled off and we actually end up getting a little lucky in this instant, the cutoff decides to check behind with actually that exact hand.
We end up losing this pot, but ultimately, thatโs not whatโs important. Whatโs really important is that we played all the streets leading up to it well. Iโd say pre-flop looked fine. Again, size couldโve been a little bit bigger on the isolation, the flop looked okay, as long as youโre making that plan early. The turn looked okay, as long as you were planning on check calling rivers, except for maybe exactly that one. Other than that, everything looked okay.
Again, the thought process of what goes into making those calls on the flop and turn are really, really important. Just make sure that youโre always thinking ahead, thinking about ranges, and making sure that your hand is performing well against a range rather than just, โOh my god, I have top pair, top kicker.โ We want that thought process to be a little bit more deep and involved.
