Blind Defense - river plan?

deception5 · #1 07-12-2005, 01:28 PM

Had an interesting hand this morning in a battle of the blinds. Scene was Absolute 1/2 6-max. The big blind seemed tag-ish but was an aggressive defender. I had been 3-bet last orbit by him when raising from late position and I think he's always at least called my raises.

I am in the SB and dealt A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Folded to me and I raise. BB 3-bets and I cap figuring his range is fairly wide here and I want to charge him to draw against me/think I have a stronger hand than I do/make him think twice about 3-betting my raises.

Flop comes: K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].

I bet, BB raises and I call as I may have ace outs, bdf outs, gutshot outs.

Turn is a blank, say 4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

I check, BB checks.

River is another blank 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Pot around 6BB.

All obvious draws missed on the river. Bet or check?

My thoughts:

Bet:
May fold a hand like A6. May be called by a worse ace or even a missed draw with decent high card strength like JT/T9. May fold a small pocket pair (unlikely).

Check/call:
May induce a bluff. May give opponent a free showdown with a worse hand or a chance to bet a hand that beats me.

I bet.

Thoughts?

MrWookie47 · #2 07-12-2005, 01:37 PM

If A6 has the stones to raise the flop, there's no way he's folding. If he was semibluffing w/ JT, AT or something, you have him beat.

I think a check/call here is pretty clear with the nut high card.

McGahee · #3 07-12-2005, 01:40 PM

I agree - your hand has showdown value - use it.

Nfinity · #4 07-12-2005, 01:45 PM

I like Check Call, like was previously stated, showdown value.

Aaron W. · #5 07-12-2005, 01:49 PM

A check-call on the river looks best. I don't think he's folding anything you beat, but will fold other Ax hands that he has now given up on.

I'm wondering about the flop play. Why bet the flop? You know he's going to at least call with whatever he's got, and you don't know if there's actually value in the bet. A check-raise would make it harder for villain to keep up his aggressive blind defense and it costs the same.

deception5 · #6 07-12-2005, 04:28 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'm wondering about the flop play. Why bet the flop? You know he's going to at least call with whatever he's got, and you don't know if there's actually value in the bet. A check-raise would make it harder for villain to keep up his aggressive blind defense and it costs the same.

[/ QUOTE ]

Were you thinking of doing this instead of a preflop cap? My thought here was that given my preflop cap my opponent would potentially put me on a range which would hit this flop and fold to a flop bet. Also if I capped preflop my opponent would not necessarily bet the flop so I thought a check/raise might look suspicious.

Aaron W. · #7 07-12-2005, 05:45 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm wondering about the flop play. Why bet the flop? You know he's going to at least call with whatever he's got, and you don't know if there's actually value in the bet. A check-raise would make it harder for villain to keep up his aggressive blind defense and it costs the same.

[/ QUOTE ]

Were you thinking of doing this instead of a preflop cap? My thought here was that given my preflop cap my opponent would potentially put me on a range which would hit this flop and fold to a flop bet. Also if I capped preflop my opponent would not necessarily bet the flop so I thought a check/raise might look suspicious.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I've got 99, 3-bet preflop, and get capped, when you check to me I'm bet-folding a KQx flop. Your flop check looks suspicious, but either in a very weak or very strong way. A bet has a chance of making you fold JJ or TT (I may need to followup on the turn). But I'm bet-folding because there's no way I'm going to call down 99 against a check-raise on this flop because it really looks like you've got a monster like KQ, KK, or QQ (a check-raise on the turn is even worse). Whereas if you bet out, I might raise to try to freeze you up if you were on a steal with a weak hand and get me to the showdown cheaply.

I don't know. I haven't really faced many aggressive blind defenders, except when they had decent hands. I doubt you're ahead right now because too many bad cards fell. The best you can hope for is Ax, because just about every broadway combination has you beat, and you're chasing a bunch of pocket pairs (and a check-raise seems superior against those, see above).