Outdrawn - Bluffing with the best hand

[Major_Zucchini]

I'd like to tell a little story about a hand I played yesterday. It's still spinning around in my head and might have several points to discuss. I won't convert the HH because I want to give an insight into my thoughts:

It was early in a 9 handed low-limit cash game. Our hero was down to 91 BB when he picked up AJo in EP. The table was rather active Preflop so he decided to try to outplay his opponents and keep the flop small by just limping.

As expected the pot was raised from LP to 4 BB (now after 30 hands this guy is 53/30) which was a little bit suspicious. 3 BB seemed to be his standard raise. Our hero calls and the flop comes HU:

(Pot: 9BB) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Looks rather drawy... To find out where he stands hero puts 8 BB being minraised to 16 BB and causing him to make his first mistake by simply calling where 3betting would probably have been the right play. The turn arrives:

(25BB) 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

A blank! Should our hero bet out to avoid giving a free card? He checks being presented 6BB as a price for the river. Hero thinks for a second what this ultimate show of weakness might mean for the range of villain: AK? KQ? TT? A FD or astraight flush draw with KT didn't seem to be very likely.

Reviewing his weak Flopplay the decision gets clear. The pair of jacks might be the best hand but even if this is not the case it is possible to represent a set here. That's why hero pulls out another 18 BB out of his stack (Definetly a mistake shouldn't fit to the bet size of villain and should have made it at least 20 (=10$) for metagame [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ).

We all know that villain liked his hole cards but hoped for another flop. He fell into deep thought for a long time making his hand range smaller and smaller, eliminating power house draws (basically down to one hand) and our hero used the time to prepare himself to bet out the river aggresively no matter what.

Finally villain calls. The River comes for a final board of:

(61 BB) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Our hero hesitates for a moment than...

-to be continued-

Feel free to discuss!