TPTK on monotone flop

[The Goober]

Hello. This is my first hand posting - forgive me if it's really boring, but it gave me some pause.

The game is live 4-8, table is 6 handed at the time. The table is transistioning from being tight-passive to a more typical loose-passive LL table. Villian is a pretty typical low-limit laggy player - plays too many hands, can be agressive pre-flop and flop, but tends to slow down a little on later streets. He's capable of folding a hand if its painfully obvious that he's beaten. He also tends to overplay AXo and small PP hands pre-flop. I have a pretty tight image and villian is probably observant enough to notice this. The BB has been playing pretty tight, but also seemed like the type of player that would call 2 bets if he was going to call 1.

pre-flop:
I'm dealt A/images/graemlins/spade.gifT/images/graemlins/heart.gif in the SB
everyone folds to villian, whose raises in the cutoff. Button folds, I call, big blind folds.

2 players, 5 sb
Flop comes: T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif
I bet, villian raises, I 3-bet, he calls

5.5 BB
turn: blank
I bet, villian raises, I call

9.5 BB
river: blank
I check, villian bets, I call

how'd I do?

[eric5148]

Why bet the turn?

Welcome to the forums.

[Evan]

I play it the same way.

[Evan]

Because he very likely has the best hand. Why wouldn't you bet the turn?

[mplspoker]

When he raises flop. check call from there on. Also, preflop call is very questionable. When he raises you on turn you have a serious problem - and should fold.

[Evan]

TPTK against a CO open raiser is a very strong hand. CO could have a wide variety of hands and we're beating most of them. Folding on the turn would be a big mistake IMO.

[Rubeskies]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, preflop call is very questionable.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is an obvious blind steal situation. The only question is call or 3-bet. Not to mention read is "can be laggy."

[The Goober]

I think I like the pre-flop play - villian could have been raising many hands that I dominate here and would probably pay me off with a weaker ace. I decided not to three bet because I was pretty sure I'd lose the BB either way, but now I'm wondering if I should have done it anyway - because I could get more money in with a likely better hand, and to make villian define his hand more.

As for the raise on the turn, it definately made me worried - not so much that he raised me, but that he'd *waited* to raise me. I figured if he was overplaying a flush draw, he would have capped the flop - it seems like laggy players like this guy don't tend to get tricky unless they've got a big hand (which is stupid, of course, because they're lags and will get plenty of action... but they do it anyways). I finally decided to call the turn because I thought he might play it the same way if he had the A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif and just paired his kicker - I had a hard time putting him on any other hand that I was beating. Was I just deluding myself to appease my inner calling station?

Results:
he turns up A/images/graemlins/diamond.gifK/images/graemlins/diamond.gif for the flopped nuts

[MastiffPaul]

This looks good. Heads-up play is a tricky little animal because it puts pressure on your ability to read an opponent. Your reads sound solid. But one of the disadvantages of playing against a LAG is that you'll give them action on their monsters. Perhaps you would have been able to get away from this hand sooner if you had 3-bet preflop, but that's a pretty iffy "perhaps."