A6o heads-up battle

[Nightwish]

Here's my thinking on this hand. When he check-raises the flop, I'm giving him ZERO credit for a hand that beats me. These ridiculously aggressive types could be doing it with just about anything. So I 3-bet. But when he caps, I have to sit up and take notice. He has something. The only question is what. Right now, I cannot rule anything out, including a monster like AA/KK/QQ. Actually, the only hands I'm ruling out are small-to-medium pocket pairs because he would have raised with them preflop.

But then again, I flopped a good hand for HU, so I'm not folding either. So I call his turn bet to see what he will do next.

I fully expected him to bet the river, but when he checked, that changed everything. There is now no way he has AA/KK/QQ/JJ. He doesn't have a 3. And there's no way he has a flush. If you do think he might have those hands and is trying some fancy play on the river, think about it from his perspective. He knows he has me under his boot in calldown mode. He knows I am worried about what he might have. So he must know that checking the river will usually mean that I will just check behind and pray that my hand is good. So this means he doesn't have a monster.

And then it hit me like a brick! He must have the same hand as me! (There's also a smaller chance he has K6.) So I was all ready to bet.....when I started having doubts again. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] What if he has a J and is now hoping to induce a bluff with a hand that has value but is not that strong? What if I'm wrong about him not having 77? So I thought, and thought, and finally checked.

He showed A6. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Incidentally, I think his limp preflop was a major mistake. He cannot give me a free look at the flop in the BB.