A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

Villain is just terrible. He's playing almost all his hands and plays them pretty ABC postflop except for being absolutely in love with checkraising when he makes a draw. Will call down extremely lightly, especially in the face of preflop aggression ("I have a pair and I put you on AK!"). I have gone after villain's blind before and he seems to be aware that he is in a stealing situation. SB is new to the table; this is his second hand.

Canterbury Park 6/12, full game

Hero is in the CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Folds to hero, Hero raises, Button folds, SB calls, BB (Villain) calls

Flop (3 players, 5.5 SB):

T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, Villain calls

Turn (3 players, 4.25 BB):

8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

SB checks, Villain bets, Hero raises, SB folds, Villain calls

River (2 players, 8.25 BB)

Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Villain checks, Hero...

Valuetown? I think villain's range, even after the turn bet/call is very wide. It could be a flush or straight draw, a 6 or a T. However, I think the T is pretty unlikely; he knows this is a blind steal and I feel like I would have heard about this on the flop. I'm not ruling it out though. I'm concerned the Queen hits too much of his range to make this a bet.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

Interesting hand...
Preflop: If we are into a player who defends too much you could consider limping this because this is a hand with good implied odds and we don't care too much about making it multiway. In the end of the day I would prolly raise it too, but what I am saying is that diffence in ev in the two plays shouldn't be big. Much ev from a raise comes from taking the pot right away.

flop: Well, this is a mandatory bet on an uncoordinated board.

Turn: does he peel flop easy? A draw for him is unlikely as he would prolly have checkaised and if he doesn't peel often we will have to put him on a pair with his turnbet. Would he bet toppair or checkraised on the flop. He should have checkraised if he was aware of his image, but now you say he is bad. But what about SB? Well he will tell us if we raise the turn and given that we can conclude that villain hasn't got toppair we can safely raise. We will be ahead most of the time so this is not for freeshowdown but a valuebet.

River: Easy valuebet. He doesn't have the T and we only fear two pairs or better or the Q have hit. If he raises we are behind. So it is b/f.

Note: That this play is done on the assumtions on your reads on villain on the flop and that he doesn't hold the T as he should have bet that on the flop. If he has the T he may be smarter than you thought.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

If he loves checkraising draws (and this turn just placed a diamond and straight draw on the board), maybe you should consider three-betting the turn, since this forces him to either:

1) Put in an extra bet when he is behind.
2) Fold when he may have more outs against you than he realizes.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

OP does the villain usually give up when he misses his draw?

if he'll fire again on a blank, i think a calldown is ok. if not consider 3 barreling the turn. you could probably fold to a 4 bet.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

I don't understand your response (or Kit's). I did not get checkraised on the turn. He donked me, and I raised him. I'm sorry to confuse you with the bit about checkraising when he made his draws.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

given his description, trying to "steal" his blinds isn't a very prudent play.

in this case i would consider this a valueraise, however. also, just because i wouldn't classify it as a blind steal doesn't mean isolating this guy with position isn't a profitable play. since he calls down so light you can valuebet this guy to the ATM.

so i like pf, i like the flop. as for the turn/river lines, i have a question. if he picked up a draw wouldn't he checkraise? or did i misunderstand his tendencies?

if he will donk a draw, i like the turn raise. but if you think he's donking a draw most of the time, that detracts from the value of a river bet since he's only calling if he completes the draw.

if he doesn't donk draws and tends to checkraises them as you said that means he probably has a made hand of some sort. he didn't bet the flop so that would seem to indicate that the 8 improved his hand in some way(i.e. a pair). if it's not uncommon for him to peel the flop without a pair, it makes it less likely he turned two pair and more likely that we have the best hand. based on this the turn raise is good as is a river valuebet.

if these assumptions are off(i.e. he would donk a draw on the turn rather than checkraise) as i stated before i don't know that i would valuebet the river with 3rd pair. without more of a read of how he plays small pocket pairs, etc. i just leave it at "it depends".

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

[ QUOTE ]
so i like pf, i like the flop. as for the turn/river lines, i have a question. if he picked up a draw wouldn't he checkraise? or did i misunderstand his tendencies?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry the OP is a little ambiguous. He checkraises when he gets there, not necessarily when me has a draw. I wouldn't put it past him to checkraise just a draw; I've just never seen it. He could easily be donking a straight draw or diamonds into me.

Re: A8s blind steal against crappy BB
 

If he donks a draw and c/r when he gets there, I check ebhind on the river as 9J just got there & Q's were in his holdings if he was to donk a gutshot.

He could also have been donking a diamond draw that included a Q.