Follow up w/ "OOP play"

I just want to go through my thought process on a hand that happens very often, I mess up these situations very often in the past but I'm now slowly improving.


Villain is 19/17/2 over a somewhat small samples of hands. No history. My image is on the loose side, I expect people to only make a play at me around 10% of the time.

POKERSTARS GAME #13730893917: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($2/$4) - 2007/12/08 - 14:55:14 (ET)
Table 'Loreley III' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Chris67vw ($455.65 in chips)
Seat 2: Nebbie512 ($419.10 in chips)
Seat 3: VILLAIN ($526 in chips)
Seat 4: TheDegeneral ($457 in chips)
Seat 5: ienjoymoney ($74 in chips)
Seat 6: Gyllve ($84.85 in chips)
TheDegeneral: posts small blind $2
ienjoymoney: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Nebbie512 [Kh Ks]
Gyllve: folds
Chris67vw: folds
Nebbie512: raises $12 to $16
VILLAIN: raises $35 to $51
TheDegeneral: folds
ienjoymoney: folds
Nebbie512: calls $35

I pick up KK pf in the co and gets a 3bet from the button. He has not 3bet me once yet, so I saw no reason I would 4bet him light hence if I 4bet him here, he'll instant fold his weaker hands. I think the standard is definitely just call with no history.

*** FLOP *** [9c 7s Qh]
Nebbie512: checks
VILLAIN: bets $71
Nebbie512: calls $71

The flop is okay, at no point in this hand that I don't think about getting my money in. He makes a pretty decent sized cbet. I don't know his tendencies, but it could mean a lot of things. It's such a dry board though, I think if he has set of Qs, he would have bet slightly smaller or check behind. He can definitely have AA sometimes here, but I'm stacked anyways.

The interesting thing about this part is that I'm thinking how to maximize my value against his range, particularly the weaker holdings. If he has air, he's folding to a raise so I don't want to do that on a board this dry. If he has a good but not great hand, he's probably still consider folding given our lack of history. So calling is definitely the best play, of course I'm allowing 2 cards to possibly draw out on me. And I decided to tell the story of "I have a decent hand, but I'm not sure where I'm at yet, I'm going to fold to another bet if you make it." So I actually timed down a bit before making a "reluctant" call.

*** TURN *** [9c 7s Qh] [4d]
Nebbie512: checks
VILLAIN: checks

Again, I wanted to discourage him from betting because I have a "weak" hand. I timed down so I want to get to a free card/showdown. He checks behind, which is fine, this turn didn't change anything.

*** RIVER *** [9c 7s Qh 4d] [5h]
Nebbie512: checks
VILLAIN: bets $404 and is all-in
Nebbie512: calls $297.10 and is all-in

This is where the juice is. The river did not change anything, he could have sucked out with 2Ps or whatever but I can't worry about it now. Remember what I'm representing, a very weak hand that wants showdown. It would not make sense for me to bet here with my hand. So I took a bit of time, and checked to him. Think about villain's range that I beat here here. He could have air, Qx, TT-JJ, 1P. All of these hands with exception of Qx will check behind most of the time and fold if I led the river. Don't forget my story also, if I lead this river I almost always have a hand no less than AQ, he's definitely folding hands that I am slightly ahead against. So there is absolutely no value in leading this river because of 1.) my story would not make sense. 2.) his range gives me no value.

In order to maximize my value, I need to let him bluff his weak hands, value bet his worse(Qx)[ thinking I will call with JJ, middle pair, etc..]. There is very little chance in villain hero calling me, I went with my line and I got paid off.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
VILLAIN: shows [7h Jh] (a pair of Sevens)
Nebbie512: shows [Kh Ks] (a pair of Kings)
Nebbie512 collected $841.20 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $844.20 | Rake $3
Board [9c 7s Qh 4d 5h]
Seat 1: Chris67vw folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Nebbie512 showed [Kh Ks] and won ($841.20) with a pair of Kings
Seat 3: VILLAIN (button) showed [7h Jh] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 4: TheDegeneral (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: ienjoymoney (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Gyllve folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Notice villain did not just bet, he overshoved the river. He put me on exactly what I was representing and he knew that I could easily make a hero call with my weak holdings if he made it smaller. I don't hate his shove at all because that increases the likelihood I let go of a lot of my ranges because he was surely behind.

This is the power of playing one hand yet holding another, and of course, making good OOP reads on villain's range to maximize your value. Keep in mind that OOP reads is almost always a somewhat wide range, not a particular hand because it's harder to read hands OOP.