Problem over repping hands or The Anti-Value Bet

[nawhead]

I may have been off my game last night, but I spotted a fairly common leak I have. I don't even know if it's a proper leak. The problem is that I have a tendency to over represent my hand and end up making villains fold when I was probably ahead of them.

An example: I raise in late position with JT suited. One limper calls. I flop top 2 on a two-tone board. Great. It's checked to me, I continuation bet, villain calls. I think villain might have a medium pocket pair or maybe they paired up or picked up some kind of draw. I'm in good position so I'd like to make some money with this hand. Turn is a King. It's checked to me again, I "value bet" cause I want to get money in the pot when I'm ahead. Villain folds...

I don't know if I should have bet. But then I don't like slowplaying weak hands like 2 pair. Even though I didn't want villain to think I turned a pair of kings, I had to bet, right?

What do you do when scare cards come out when you have a strong hand that would probably win at showdown? Just double-barrel and hope villain thinks you're double-barreling with ace high? Check to induce a bluff? Too general a question?

[Loc0Loc0]

I'd like the play of check/induce on a dry board. But you don't want to do this with a wet board. No need to give away freecards on draw heavy boards.

[Abelardo]

On the hand example there's nothing you can do, generally I think it's a bad idea to slowplay 2 pair hands and in this case it could've been a disaster, not much you can represent by checking anyway with that high card board and the free card could've been fatal.

[BobAllinSki]

I like the term anti-value bet, Im' gonna borrow for use it in my notes, I've been looking a term for the kind of villain you describe because I allways end up writing 3 lines explaining how they bet mediocre hands into scare cards as it tends to cost me when using scare cards to induce bluffs on my own more mediocre hands.

The situation you mention seems to me a spot that could be still value bet but I get what you mean, its a difficult area, its essential in nl to be able to seperate slowplaying and pot control, slowplaying is trying to trick your opponent into making a big mistake for a lot of chips or to improve to a second best hand, slowplay situations are usually situtaions where you want to get it all in. On the other hand pot control situations are spots where you know that if you get a significant portion of your stack in the middle you will be in bad shape so you play in a way that widens your range in villains eyes and keeps the pot smaller, so you can now get a smaller chunk of your stack in against a weaker range of villains holdings.

The first thing you need to know when opting for pot control is how much you can get for value, if you can stack villain with bottom 2 then go for his stack.

Another thing is how aggressive is your villain, if he is aggro then your attempt to pot control usually passes control other to him, it can be tricky when you check an overpair on the flop for pot control only to face 2 overbets on the turn and river, if villain is a bad lag its great, if hes a good lag its painfull.

Pot control when draws are on the table is tricky, its easy to think in terms of your hands % chance of winning when choosing when to bet, but if your opponent bluffs correctly your opponent when in position can be a significant $ favourite despite been a % dog, sometimes is can be correct to not 'protect' your hand if your opponent is good as you just magnify his $ edge. Against weaker opponents if you can make easier decisions later (i.e. they bluff to much / not enough) then your % edge come closer in line with your $ edge and protection begins to have more merit, the same is true as when your in position.

Pot control out of position is so difficult, all your attempt at pot control usually achieves is give control to your opponent which is part of the reason why position is so important.

Anyhow, just some random rambling on the antivalue bet and pot control, would be interested to hear what some of the better players have to say.

[Supwithbates]

2 things to keep in mind:
your board has a 2flush and KJT, opening up a lot of draws. Slowplaying here is stupid, you have to bet the turn again.

It sounds to me like your biggest leak is a lack of positional awareness. By this I don't mean that you're not considering position when making decisions, but that you're not modifying your own expectation for a hand based upon position. When you enter a hand and it goes to the flop, consider your position before even thinking about whether or not you hit. Get it into your mind that you can't expect to win many big pots out of position, as it's much more difficult to force your opponent to make a mistake if he has position on you.