Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

And I almost never do it (slowplay), but in retrospect, I feel like slowplaying might have been optimal here.

Villain in this hand is running 50/20/2 over about 50 hands. Laggy for sure, but more towards the fishy, badish side than the maniacal, at least somewhat tricky side. My thinking at the time was that if I check here I get a bluffbet a HUGE amount of the time, and by leading I may merely fold out a lot of his range that i'd otherwise get that $ from. Once he bets, i'm not really sure why I decided to raise. I guess the on-the-spot decisionmaking was something like, my line looks super fishy and I may get a call from a worse ace thinking I am on the draw, and that a medium-highish PP that has a club in it may find a call in him cause he sucks.

In retrospect, I almost always have the best hand here and always have the best draw, and i'm thinking I might have been able to extract more value by calling and playing the hand super passively, as there are very few cards that "scare" me and many will make his hand second best but strongish.

Thoughts?



Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.25/$0.50 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker Hand History Converter)

Hero (SB): $49.50
BB: $38.10
UTG: $49.75
MP: $32.00
CO: $223.25
BTN: $17.50

Preflop: Hero is dealt A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (6 Players)
2 folds, <font color="red">CO raises to $1.00</font>, BTN folds, <font color="red">Hero raises to $4.00</font>, BB folds, CO calls $3.00

Flop: ($8.50) A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 Players)
Hero checks, <font color="red">CO bets $8.00</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to $24.00</font>...

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

Bump it?

I think my title must suck, nobody wants to read my thread.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

how are you going to get his stack in when a club turns?

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

if you really think he'll double barrel at you, i'd just call. otherwise, I'd check/raise.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

I hate slowplaying here, b/c his raising range is HUGE from CO and you are both deep, so he could easily call IP w/ PP, SC, any AXs etc.

I love the c/r, because if you bet out he will not call/raise with a worse hand (well, i don't know if or how much he sucks) if you call he might shut down when a club turns. I play for stacks here.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

if you put NL50 in your title you may get more responses from people at that level. Plus some content to the hand maybe (TPTK + NFD).

Problem is you 3b PF. You can't expect a c/r to work and villain may shut down on a club turn. I would just bet out, hope to be raised and play for stax.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

I'd bet a "scared" type amount on the flop. You don't care if he has a draw(you have the best one) so you don't need to price it out. But you still need to get value as well. A c/r will just indicate to him that you're really strong. I don't hate it, but I think betting out will get a good average 1 street of value if that's all you're going to get -- and more out of more of villain's holdings.

If he's not smart and aggressive, a weak bet will look weak to him and you can hope for a raise. A smarter aggressive opponent and the exact opposite might be true. My own guess is half pot bet is good.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

A 50 hand sample isnt very big, but if you're pretty sure already that villian is laggy and fully capable of making big bluffs, then those are the kind of players its good to slowplay against.
I dont like your flop line though. Seems very strange to re-raise a PF min-raiser and then check-raise the flop. Thats looks like a move somebody with a bad case of FPS would do. It certanly isnt slowplaying. I guess you're representing a monster. Your hand is good, but not a monster.

Villian has a big stack which together with the 50 hand sample size indicates he has been gambling a lot. Against those players I like to play my big hands strong hoping that he's ready to gamble with a draw or something. Generally if I flop a monster I dont stop raising.

In this case I'd play it straight forward by leading out. If he raises I'll most likely push because with only 100BB's Im not getting away from this against a LAG after I call, so I want to get it in on the flop rather than the turn because if a non-club turn falls my equity drops like a stone should he have a monster.

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

If the check-raise ends the hand, that's fine - maybe you got a PSB out of him you wouldn't have gotten if you hadn't checked. But not even donkeys stack off with mid-PP when a monochrome ace-high flop comes, even if you check the flop to them.

If the check-raise doesn't work, then I think you almost have to be up against a made flush, a set, or at least top two. You have crazy outs against all of those hands, but you're only ahead of his not-felting range. (If all the money goes in, you can expect to start out behind.)

Re: Slowplaying is rarely correct...
 

Looking to check-raise in this 3-bet pot is a mistake I think. He might just check behind and shutdown and we will never get his stack in. If he likes to bluff, hope he bluff-raises our c-bet so that we can get the money in.