77 against a habitual bluffer

[Bob T.]

Ok, here's one hand from my single tabling experiment.

Online 5-10 game. Folded to the CO, who open limps. All else aside, this is almost a one play read on the player. He is either playing weak loose (most probable), or tricky with a big hand (less probable). I had alread pegged him as loose, so that made that read even more likely. The button folds, and I have red pocket 7s. I raise. The BB, a loose player who likes to take stabs at pots once he gets involved calls, and the limper also calls. 6sbs, and three players to the flop.

Flop K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

I bet, BB calls, and the limper folds. Given that the BB didn't raise to put pressure on the LP player, I think that he either has a monster, or he completely whiffed and is taking one off. I've seen him raise the turn, and fold to a three bet, and earlier, I had bottom pair and a flush draw, and he raised the turn, and I decided to call him down on the river, and he had a semibluff that missed. So, I know that he likes to raise the turn as a bluff.

Turn, 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] I bet, and get raised. I have a heart, and I have an actual pair. I don't think that his raise, means that he has a made flush, because I think he would have raised the flop with any real draw. I think that he probably just acquired a draw, so it might be a backdoor flush draw, or it might be a straight draw. I can't see three betting here, because against this player, I want to get to a showdown, and I really don't want to spend a lot of bets to get there.

River 5 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Now Clarkmeister's theorem says to bet here, but in this case, I am pretty sure that my opponent is going to bet a lot more hands than he is going to call with, and that he will call with every hand that would beat me, so I check instead, he bets, and I call.

He had Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] for King high, and MHIG.

After that, he called me a moron [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] but, I had seen him take a shot at most pots that he was involved in, so I didn't really give his turn raise that much credit. At the same time, I didn't really want to get into a raising war with my pair of sevens, although given his hand, that might have been the best play, not giving him a chance to hit his 5 outer.

When you get raised on the turn, third pair, and fourth pair on the river isn't usually good. But, given his earlier play, I strongly suspected that my mediocre hand was going to be good often enough that calling down was the right play here.

Maybe he's right, and I am a moron, and more often than not, I think that I am going to fold to the turn raise, but here, given that he didn't raise the flop on a coordinated flop, which he probably would do to get out the CO, if he had a made hand, or a strong draw. I just felt like his play reeked of someone who thought that he might be able to steal a pot, without cards.

Good luck,
play well,

Bob T.