EPT Barcelona, Bluffing and Catching bluffs

[Ansky]

I'm going to post a bunch of the big bluff/bluffcatching hands I played in Barcelona, tell me which you think were good/worked, which were bad/didn't work.

Hand 1.

Early on in day 1, 2 to my left is TerrorOfSweden, aka TheTerrorist, aka Mohhamed Kouseri or some [censored] like that. In the first 2 levels he was playing batshit insane, like 90% vpip, never folded to rr preflop, overall just absolutely insane, calling most cbets.

Stacks are roughly 25k effectiveI raise K8ss to 450 at 75/150 in mp, ToS calls, bb calls. Flop is 467r, check, I bet 900, ToS calls. turn is a 4x. I check, he bets 1500 and I make it 4500.

Hand 2.
I raise 64hh at 100/200 from the button to 600, ToS calls.

Flop comes Aj4 w/ 2 spades, he checks calls 800. Turn is a low spade, check check. River is a K of spades, he checks I bet 2k.

Hand 3. 200/400 blinds w/ a 50 ante. I might be chip leader at this pt w/ like 70k. Guy to my left is a real nice Romanian dude, who was real bad at poker. Seemed to play real tight in all the wrong spots, and real loose in all the wrong spots. We had been chatting it up and he really seemed to think i was awesome. Overall he has shown himself to be aggro when in the pot if he had top pair or better, and real passive w/ bluff catching hands.

I raise the button w/ 92o to 1200, he flats in the sb ( he has like 35k).

Flop AJ2 w/ 2 of some suit, he checks I bet 2000 he calls.

turn is a brick, 6 or something, he checks I bet 6000.

Hand 4.
New table, I am chip leader of the tournament at 300/600, w/ like 90k. 4-5 limpers I check w/ J5o in the bb.

Flop comes KJ7 w/ 2 spades. checked to aggro /active guy who looks around at everyone, appearing to gauge their interest in the pot, and he fires out like 2500 (he was CO iirc). button folds, I call, rest fold.

Turn is a 8 of spades, I do not have a spade. I check, he looks at me for prob 5 seconds, looks at the board, checks his stack and pulls out 7k, I call?

Hand 5. I raise 33 utg to 1800, folds to bb who calls. Flop is 47T w/ 2 spades. He check calls 3k.

Turn 4x. ck ck. river Kx. He quickly pulls out 6k and slides it into the middle. I call.

Hand 6. First hand of day 2, I raise emp 8 handed to 2500 at 400/800 w/ a6ss. (I had 105k) Folds to sb-- young aggro danish online pro (who i didnt know at first) looks at me, looks at my stack looks at his stack, then finally looks at his cards, and instantly cuts out 7500 and sticks it in hte middle, he has ~23k after the 7500.

I shove.

Hand 7.
Same villain as before, I raise 66 ep to 3600 at 600/1200, mp calls, villain calls in sb.

Flop 24K w/ 2 diamonds. He checks, I bet 10k, mp folds, bb calls. Turn 4x, he checks I check. River T of diamonds. He checks after 7 secs or so, I put him all in for 45k.

Hand 8. Very active swedish dude is to my left. At some pt a baller swedish dude who is friends w/ lodden came over to tell us how awesome swedish dude at my table was, and how he was like the next coming of euroLagtard #393.

I open raise A5o in the CO to 6000 at 1k2k, he calls on the button (he has 3bet me several times, and once 4bet me when i limp raised from the sb--i folded every time).

flop is A63r. I bet 10k, he makes it 28k leaving himself 18k or so more. I put him in for the rest.


I pretty much have decided which ones I think are awesome and which are dreadful, but I want to hear other opinions.

I learned more about live pokre than I ever could have imagined w/ this trip, and I'm pretty sure it doubled my ROI for my next live tournament.

[Ship Ship McGipp]

hand 1 i have no idea, i would assume it worked because i think he bets a [censored] ton of his range, so all oesds, weird one pair hands like a 6 or a 7, and your CR looks crazy strong

hand 2 is a spot i always bluff in, is that bad? he prob doesn't know the cts theorem

hand 3 with the relationship you and your buddy have i only like it if you are going to bet the river, i assume you are shoving riv (usually), so i like it he oflds most jacks this street and most aces next

hand 4 i usually just fold, in fact i'd rather CR small to like 5800 than call

hand 5 seems like the easiest call ever, i make it nearly 100% of the time against unknown

hand 6 i don't think he's 3-bet folding very often with that stack and your presumed image, haaate

hand 7 seems okay, would be a hell of a call for him with KJ/KQ, the turn pair is obv good for your line, etc but rly comes down to how ridic your image is, bc if it's sick crazy then this is a turbo "gawdamn i made top purr vs the krazy kid i cawl" obv what it do

hand 8 is obviously a must do, i think with his stack and raise size he's always weak, but i would check the flop like 70% of the time

[Mench]

Hand 1: Are you two barrelling your real hands on this board, like any overpair, set, etc. because although he is floating a ton I don't think I like your line.

Hand 2: How thinly can you v bet him. I think also depends on how hand 1 panned out. From what others have said he can look people up real light I think, but I'm still a fan.

Hand 3: I've found live that when I develop a nice rapour with a bad player / nice guy they tend to get call happy. Don't know your exact experience with him but If he can 'put you on AK, etc' and can fold his random Ax suited here I like a lot. Though sometimes he will have AK AQ himself if he is aggro post and not pre. But I liked this one.

Hand 4: I just hate this as it leaves you playing more guessing games on the river and I really never want to call a 3rd barrell on this board, in a limped pot with this hand.

Hand 5: I like, spades missed, straight missed, and hes not good enough to bet Tx here though Kx spades got there I think you are good a lot here.

Hand 6: I like

Hand 7: He can fold a king, I like.

Hand 8: I like this if he is aggro. Not many of his flatting hands hit this board that hard if he has been 3 betting you.


Thanks for this study break, good way to not write my paper. Curious to see how it all turned out.

[luckychewy]

1 - seems okay. i think it worked.

2 - don't like it, i think it's such an obvious bluff card he might not even fold ax no spades. i don't think it worked.

3 - given description(tight in all the wrong spots etc.) i like it. probably folds a jack fairly often and sometimes mayyyybe ax if your image is good enough. i remember bond saying talking to people live is the nuts cause they give u infinity respect. i think it worked.

4 - i think the look around on the flop might have been him not knowing action was on him and looking around to see if anyone bet in front of him. i prob just fold the flop 5 ways and would fold the turn once i called flop.

5 - good call.

6 - if you are sure he looked at your stack and his stack before he looked at his hand i like it. marginal i guess but it seems okay. one thing to consider imo is that if you lose this pot and others are paying any attention, you still have a huge stack and a bad image now on the first hand of the day...not a good combination for running the table over.

7 - like it a lot.

8 - i would not bet/fold the flop and would be pretty happy b3b vs. a very active guy who only has 18k left after the raise on such a dry board where no one is liable to give the other any credit. so i like this one too.

[Bond18]

Hand 1: Not really sure, if he's floating the flop a ton it can't be to bad because he anticipates your giving up on this board a whole hell of a lot.

Hand 2: Don't know, do people call this in live? Seems like he would check call a ton of low spades here. Meh, not liking this one as much.

Hand 3: If he's been aggro with top pair like hands, i think its absolutely mandatory to double barrel the turn.

Hand 4: Don't like it. He's firing into multiple people, gets stationed, and keeps going. I think even from an aggro guy you get shown a better hand way way to often.

Hand 5: I don't know what BB is like, but he expects that K to be scary for him so he's checking a T. And he doesn't have a K unless he has specifically KT, or AKss. I like this call a lot.

Hand 6: Not really sure. Kind of a small raise from him and in that position, makes me think its strong. Also that it's hand 1 and you don't have an aggro image, meh, I'm not sure i like it so much even if hand 1 seems like a good time to many thinking players to 3 bet light.

Hand 7: I don't know, but i don't see him checking diamonds here. I think i'd need to know player a little better, i need to know if he check calls 55-99 here on this flop. I can't really decide on this without being at the table.

Hand 8: If he's been 3 betting you with success, i rarely see him cold calling a good ace here. However, looks like stacks were a lot better for calling than 3 betting, so i'm not sure. On this flop vs this player, i'm not folding. Good shove IMO.

[registrar]

I think #7 was the one that intrigued me at the time. He's got a pair, a king or a flush. He probably doesn't have a flush, he probably doesn't have <KT, he probably doesn't have JJ-QQ, so you're trying to get him to fold 77-99. I don't think he folds KJ+ very often, if ever. Perhaps way the previous hand played out are relevant.

[mrjetguy]

I'm lazy so I'll just talk about hand 1 for now. I think this is a good spot to make this move, however I would like to see a bigger c/r. If he is at all suspicious it's not that expensive pot odds wise for him to call the c/r and see what happens on the river. So I'd prefer making it 6000 or so.

[Clayton]

hand 6 i like a lot versus dmmikkel, hand 7 not so much because i think dag will call with just a king.

i think this also applies with just about any young Scandinavian "pro"

[stevepa]

Haven't read replies yet...

Hand 1: I think I like this one, although I think a little bigger is better.
Hand 2: I can't really explain why but I feel like this is never going to work.
Hand 3: Good 2 barrel.
Hand 4: Against people who are capable of 2barrelling I prefer just folding the flop. Turn call seems slightly insane.
Hand 5: I like.
Hand 6: Meh, undecided but certainly don't hate it.
Hand 7: I really don't like this one. It just looks so nuts/air I think you get looked up here too much.
edit missed Hand 8: I like and I like cbetting here as I think he'll raise you with air reasonably often.

Steve

[Todd Terry]

Hand 1: I don't like it on this board, I just don't think your line will make sense to Villain. What are you trying to represent? It could have worked.

Hand 2: I don't like it, I think you're getting called by any hand that has you beat. It didn't work, unless you already had the best hand, which is possible.

Hand 3: Good, especially against this villain. Worked.

Hand 4: I'd have to know your plan on the river to know if I like this.

Hand 5: I'd fold here. The check/call, check/check, bet line is more often a huge hand than a busted draw bluffing live in my experience. A thinking Villain believes he's getting called here if you have any hand at all, which makes it a bad spot to bluff, which consequently makes it a bad spot to bluff catch IMO. Didn't work.

Hand 6: It's the first hand of the day, you raised from EP/MP, I'd give him credit for something and fold, plus I think your FE is marginal at best. Maybe worked.

Hand 7: Unless you've made huge value bets on the river prior to this, this bet could easily get called by someone who says "Why so big? He's trying to push me out of the hand." I'm not sure your line is consistent with having hit the flush, but it could be. Worked if he doesn't have a lot of guts, didn't if he does.

Hand 8: This is a tough spot. You figure he would have 3bet you with an A, but you also figure he's not putting in most of his stack if he can't beat A rag, but he also could have left 18K behind because he's bluffing and didn't want to risk his entire stack. It's an extremely bad play by him if your hand is good, since there's a good chance you have an A, so I'd fold here. Toss up as to whether it worked.