I have problems extracting max value headsup

[sthief09]

this is not a particularly interesting hand, but it's one that illustrates a problem that I'm having

I was in AC with the gf and slipped out at around 1 after she had passed out to play some poker. I got seated at the 40 game at the borgata around 2:30am. for the first 4 dealer pushes I was involved in 4 hands. 3 times I raised preflop and checked and folded. one time I cold capped in a straddle pot and called down and lost headsup but no one saw my hand. then I won 3 nice pots in 4 hands, showing down QQ twice in a row (both times the hand played itself), and T7s where I made a slightly loose flop call, a slightly loose turn call, and accidentally checked a 4 straight board when I backdoored a flush, but got a check-raise in.

so I guess my image is really tight, somewhat weak, but not overly aggressive.

my opponent in this hand was pretty LAGgy preflop. if I had to guess what he'd be in PT it would probably be 30/20 at a full table. he handled himself well, was very confident, and rarely called postflop, so even though I hadn't seen him show anything down (just T9o which he open raised with in MP and missed an easy river value bet), I'm assuming he plays well postflop

I don't remember how many players were in, but I opened with J9s a little too far off the button than I probably should have and got called by the LAGgy guy from the BB headsup.

the flop came J74 giving me backdoor clubs

he bet into me. I was actually pretty surprised and had my 4 blue chips out to bet when I realized he led into me. I decided to just call.

if you've gotten this far, what should be my plan here. should I just be raising the flop? what should be my plan on certain turn cards?

the turn came the 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] giving me a flush draw

he bet again and I had an easy raise.

but waht worries me here is that I actually debated in my head whether I should bet the river. this is an easy bet on most cards, yes?

the river gave me a flush and it played itself, but I'm concerned with the flop and turn play. I don't know if I give opponents too much credit, value them bluffing too much, undervalue my own hands, or am just scared of getting 3-bet and having to actually think and play poker.

[alta_chuttes]

its easy, he leads lots of stuff on flop and turn

[sthief09]

I think this is too simplistic

[goofball]

I think you should just raise the flop.

[joker122]

I was in AC this weekend as well, almost exclusively in the poker rooms of the borgata and taj. everytime i tried to get into the 20/40 game something seemed to go wrong - that pisses me off because we probably would have met and played some pots together. did you play any 10/20?

as for the hand, i really hate when they check the turn to you here so i get my value raise in on the flop. also, i think you'll get called down by more marginal hands if you raise the flop rather than the turn.

[cartman]

In my opinion it is important that you raise the flop. There are just too many turn cards that can spoil your plan to raise the turn (or at least cast serious doubt on it). If you get 3-bet on the flop, you have fairly inexpensively found out that you are probably behind. I also think that the river is a clear value bet regardless of the card.

Cartman

[sthief09]

I'm not so sure I would've raised the turn. I think I probably would've ended up raising any river. I thought the chances he was trying to run me over were high

[sthief09]

yeah I was frustrated too. I got to the borgata and saw a seat in the 40 game. I go to sit down but they said it was locked up. so I put my name on the list and sit in a 5 handed 20/40 game. I played 3 hands before that one broke and had no where to go. then I see an open 40 seat but they say it was locked up. the player was clearly a regular so I wasn't about to make a fuss about me being on the list. they had open 10/20 seating so I played for an hour or so. then I played 40 for 5 or 6 hours and had a few beers and playes some 10/20 until 9 or so, and got in 3 hours of sleep before we had to check out

[sthief09]

after playing with me for 4 hours, he had no reason to think that I'm anything other than weak-tight and straightforward. I felt calling signaled to him that I was ready to fold, while raising signaled I liked my hand. I wanted him in the hand. the pot was small. I didn't want him folding. if I'm willing to get dirty on the turn and raise a K then I think I can smooth call the flop. I don't know if that was my plan though.

the reason I'm arguing is because I want someone to convince me that something is definitely right. I'm pretty sure that had I not backdoored my flush I'd be kicking myself for missing value

[Danenania]

I agree with a flop raise but do it quick. Try to give the impression that you are being stubborn with an AK/AQ or mid pair or something that he might think he can try to blow you off later on. I also agree with whoever said that a flop raise will get you called down by many more weak hands than a turn raise. This disparity should grow even wider if you have a weak/tight image I would think.