QQ vs. TAG

[nepenthe]

Villain in this hand seems like a good, regular TAG.

Red Queens in the SB. Villain opens in MP, Button cold-calls, I 3-bet from SB, Villain caps, Button calls.

Flop: Q x x, rainbow.

Check, Villain bets, Button folds, I raise, Villain calls.

Turn: another blank.

I check/call.

River: low x pairing the board.

I bet.

[SteveL91]

I don't get the check/call on the turn; it just seems to be needlessly flirting with a check through.

[toss]

I don't quite understand your line. Want to tell us why you check/called the turn?

[sy_or_bust]

I don't like your line. You're missing out on at least one, and possibly 2-3, big bets against strong hands. The flop raise is good, the rest seems pretty poor to me.

If you bet the turn, AA/KK (at least) will raise you and you can 3-bet. If you're only called, you can often checkraise the river.

[crazymoose]

Check calling is strange. I lead out the turn or check-raise.

[nepenthe]

The only question I had after the flop was whether his flop call was smooth or scared. I checked the turn because I didn't think I'd lose any bets either way.

[chesspain]

I don't mind the flop checkraise, since it increases the likelihood of your getting some money out of the button, who probably is drawing dead. However, I hate the check on the turn, since AK will probably always check behind, since he will assume he is either behind or drawing to a split. But, AK is probably always peeling one off on the turn if you bet, but may not call the river UI. Furthermore, when you bet the turn, AA/KK will raise and call a three-bet, but may not attempt to three-bet a checkraise, fearing a cap.

Consequently, I bet this turn almost every time.

[nepenthe]

[ QUOTE ]
I bet this turn almost every time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. I know to a substantial degree of certainty that this player is not calling this turn with AKs however. I agree that if he had KK/AA, he was most certainly smoothcalling the flop to raise the turn. My check/call didn't allow him to do that, though, and I figured he might try to make up for it on the river given the way I played it.

[Piiop]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree that if he had KK/AA, he was most certainly smoothcalling the flop to raise the turn. My check/call didn't allow him to do that, though, and I figured he might try to make up for it on the river given the way I played it.

[/ QUOTE ]

So instead of allowing him to raise so you could 3-bet and then bet the river, you check-called because he *might* make up for the turn and raise the river.? Nah, thats rarely going to happen, just bet the turn.

[nepenthe]

Villain raised, 3-bet, call. AA.

I think I got out as many bets out of him as I would have had I led the turn, and I'm sure he proceeded to jot down a poignant set of notes about the play to boot. TAGs realize the c/c, c/c bet line as rarely anything more than top pair, and my play was a slight variation on that. Given that he is a regular in this game, the metagame considerations of making this play is probably not insignificant.