Blind Steal Hand
 

Stars 30, Villian is a strong tag, posting this from memory, but I did not use any specific reads for this hand. Assume that he is somewhat tricky and will fight for pots in this siutation.

6-handed, folds to Hero in SB with 54s, Hero raise, BB call.

flop: J73r
bet, call

Turn: J, giving me a spade draw
Hero bet, BB raise, Hero?

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

preflop might be bad vs a strong TAG, I'm not sure
maybe c/r turn? I'd expect villain to bet like 100% when checked to and you might get him off some weak showdownable hands depending on your image.

you also don't mind getting a free card. if you are known to screwplay in blind battles he might try and race to showdown or or make a bad 'value check' with Kx Ax or small pairs

it feels like you're getting raised here most of the time when you bet, either by a slowplayed pair (good board to sometimes slowplay and pick of double barrels imo) or as a rebluff

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

Do you ever think about c/r'ing the turn here? Probably crazy, but it occurred to me because of all the weak draws/loose peel hands he could have.

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

I actively look out for places to screwplay the turn, but I almost always have a hand that I'm showing down. It seems like I get looked up very often too.

I like that suggestion tho and now that I think about it, I would expect villian to bet most of his range. This session was from last night, but I believe i've c/f this spot once or twice with some nothing hands.

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

I'm curious, if you are in villian's spot vs a standard tag, how often do you play Jx like this? I almost always raise the flop......

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

thinking about it more I would always raise Jx on this board vs a perceptive player because there are a lot of gutshots I'm going to be raising as well

if the board was a bit more ragged I'd call sometimes depending on how I expect villain to play the turn

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm curious, if you are in villian's spot vs a standard tag, how often do you play Jx like this? I almost always raise the flop......

[/ QUOTE ]

In this exact spot, I would raise the flop. I think his range is weighted away from the intermediate stuff. This tends to be pretty true of most tags who will raise middle of the road hands early or not at all, but will often play big hands and bluffs aggressively on big streets.

We should also consider that there aren't many good Jx's in his range and that he probably tosses like J3o ect pf.

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

I think you should fold this preflop against a good tough TAG unless you have a very tight image. Given where you are, I'd usually just call the turn and check/fold unimproved and usually check/raise if I hit my flush or straight. If I had a really good image or a really good read that the TAG was likely to be getting out of line with a hand without showdown value, I might 3bet the turn, but I think you're getting looked up almost every time in general unless he plays a gutshot like this (and even then he's probably peeling and calling if he pairs up), so it's going to be an expensive bluff.

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

cr turn, once you're in the hand have to play this like a nutter. You're not winning a SD 5 high.

Re: Blind Steal Hand
 

So, I decided to 3-bet the turn on this hand, which sweetjazz mentioned, but he said he'd need more of a read to do it. Personally, I think this is a great spot for the 3bet semi-bluff because he will be playing back at me on this board so often. Just the fact the he is a tag is enough for me to believe the 3bet has a positive expectation.

The decision is whether a c/r semi-bluff is better. In retrospect, I think it is because he will probably bet a larger portion of his range that can't showdown vs the portion of his range that raises a bet and can't showdown.

I don't think meekly c/c'ing or b/c'ing is ideal at all.

Anybody else love/hate a turn 3bet?

How would you play A2o in my position?