3bet pot, facing a donk on 4 card to a straight

Replay Poker Hand Review
1

HJ appeared to be a solid TAG. He open raises and is aggressive from the few hands I have seen him play.

Preflop:
effective stacks 120bb
HJ opens 2.25x, Heros in BU 3bets to 7.75x, HJ calls

I 3bet light with premium and bluffs like A5s or 67s. I haven’t been 3betting that much, so I figured I can get good fold equity. I’m not sure about his 4-betting range since almost no one ever 3bets light on RP, though I expect him to call with only playable hands.

Flop:
3c5h7c (pot: 17.0 bb)
HJ checks, Heros bets 8.5bb, HJ calls

Not the best flop for me. HJ would have gotten a good piece of the flop with his suited connectors, and a good portion of my hands are overcards. However, I still need to bet my pocket pairs to get value from worst pocket pairs, worst pairs, and draws.

When he calls, I assume has a pocket pair, set, or a pair + straight draw, or a flush draw.

Turn:
3c5h7c 8h (pot: 34bb)
HJ bets 18bb, Heros folds

Terrible turn card for me. His suited connectors that could have called on the flop improved to a straight or two-pair, turning my overpairs into a bluff catcher.

He has 14 combos of straights — 66 (6 combos), 56s (2 combos), 67s (2 combos), A6s (4 combos). But if he bets his flush draws like this, he can potentially have many bluffs — 89s - KQs of spades (5 combos), A2, A3, A5, A9, A10, AJ, AQ of clubs (7 combos), A2 and A3 of hearts (2 combos) — 14 combos in total.

I think that he understands that this card is good for him, and will donk with some bluffs too. However, I could be wrong, and I don’t know about his bluffing frequency. Some of his bluffs like A2 of clubs would probably check-raise on the flop; thus, he likely has less than 14 combos of bluffs. I don’t know if he’ll bluff all his flush draws. Also, I don’t know if he would bet his two pairs and set, knowing I would probably check behind.

I’m obviously calling with AdAs since it doesn’t block any bluffs. I’m on the border with KK and QQ without spades. Do you think it’s worth calling with these hands?

I am getting a good price to bluff catch, but if I call, I will probably face another bet on the river. If a blank comes on the river, and villain bets again, what would you call with then?

What do I do with my 67s? Since I 3bet light, interestingly, I do have the nuts some of the time. Do I reraise with them? If I reraise with 67s, could I bluff with some hands then? Or should I call to strengthen my calling range?

I personally would reraise it to charge his flush draws. What do you think?

2

The link you posted doesn’t quite match up to the hand description in your post. Should we be posting comments based on the link, or the description?

3

If you post your assumptions about V’s opening range and then the range you give him for flatting your 3-bet OOP, we can game this out on Flopzilla. Its hard to do much analysis without your range assumptions as they may be very different from mine or Coder’s or any of the other frequent posters here. For example, I wouldn’t give V all of the Axs as 3-bet flats OOP but you do. Do you have him opening all pocket pairs from the HJ or something like 55+? Does he have an open limping range? Once we know your assumptions, there are many people here who could help break down the hand with you.

1 Like
4

I think the hand does match. The first card was a 4c not 3c as aoeu stated. Presumably aoeu simply stated the wrong cards.

5

Fair. I was also reading some of the “XYs” as “XY of spades” in the original post instead of “XY suited,” and wasn’t clear how those were bringing in flush draws. This was compounded by @aoeu’s comment about being “on the border with KK and QQ without spades” - why are spades relevant while diamonds aren’t, as neither should unblock flush draws?

I have two related questions here. First, how strong is your hand? Second, how vulnerable is it?

On the second point, it’s possible V floated with a flush draw, either backdoor (suited with hearts) or front door (suited with clubs), and took the initiative on the turn by leading out. Don’t assume that because he check-called on the flop he can’t have a club flush draw. V will want to have some flush draws in his check-call range on the flop, since getting 3-bet and having to fold would be ugly. Deciding to lead out is actually kinda reasonable; this turn card does change the dynamics of the board, bringing both four to a straight and a backdoor flush into play. It might even make sense for him to play something like JcTc like this - he’d floated with a non-nut flush draw on the flop, on the turn picked up a gutshot straight draw to the nuts along with his flush draw, and could turn the hand into a bluff if a heart falls on the river.

If you’re holding 67 here, I’d be worried about either a club or a heart falling on the river. Since you’re only behind 96 at this point, it’s worth raising the donk bet on the turn for protection. Folding is way too nitty, and you may be able to deny equity from your opponent’s draws.

On the first point, most overpairs are in an awkward spot. From a hand strength perspective, you probably wouldn’t be 3-betting from the button with a hand that’s made a set, particularly to the size that you did (more than 3x the open size when you’ll be in position post flop). Low-to-mid pocket pairs generally flop poorly, so with this stack depth I would have looked to flat and set-mine instead of risk getting 4-bet and pushed off my equity. Unless you’re running a low-frequency play with 56s or 67s, you probably don’t have a straight or many 2-pair hands here, while as you correctly identified your opponent will have a fair number of combos with straights. As a result, overpairs are probably toward the upper end of your range.

What’s also significant is that you don’t want to have the ace of clubs or hearts, since those would block your opponent’s flush draws. I think JJ-KK are pretty comfortable bluff catchers, particularly if they contain neither clubs nor hearts, or only one of the two. If you’re folding off all of these, you’re probably not meeting your minimum defense frequency.

As @1Warlock mentioned, it would help to understand what your range looks like, and if you have an estimate of what your opponent’s range could be.