Like Bazclef did with Minus the Bear, I am gonna give you all some good music introduced to me to listen to while thinking about this hand below. It is a band Bazclef introduced to me called Biffy Clyro, a Scottish Band that is pretty sweet. Dodgyken introduced me to some pretty cool music as well a while back, I may go ahead and post them for the next hand I decide to post! Anyways, this is like my favorite song by them at the moment.
Read on villain is that he is a competent reg. Given that, I know he is a winner at this level and is at least thinking about what I have in my hand as well as what he has obviously. The question I asked myself is whether he is thinking about what I think he might have? Meh. Here is the hand.
$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com
Stacks:
| CO | ($89.16) | ||
| BTN | ($230.55) | ||
| SB | ($175.00) | ||
| Hero | ($100.00) |
Pre-flop: ($1.50, 4 players) Hero is BB
1 fold, BTN raises to $3.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $12, BTN calls $8.50
Obviously a very standard 3bet.
Flop: 
($24.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $15, Hero calls $15
I check here and I am not sure if this is a mistake or not. I think it makes the hand easier to play for sure, but if raised I am in a really tough spot. He could be raising a lot of hands, thinking I do not have an ace and it is tough for me to rep anything, plus he knows I 3bet light, so it would be a really awkward to bet and then get raised, so I opt to check call.
Turn: 
($54.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $30, Hero calls $30
Here is the really interesting part of the hand. He fires a second bullet. I think on one hand, give that I 3bet and check/called the flop, he has to think I have a made hand, some pocket pair. Against a decent reg, my hand is truly face up at this point. He should know I have KK, QQ, or TT. Since he knows this, is he capable of bluffing this turn to get me to fold a lot of hands? I think he could be capable of doing so. On the other hand, he could be firing with an ace or JJ as well. I think it is a very difficult spot, as only an ace, JJ, or 33 beat me, and I think he basically never has 33 here for obvious reasons. I opt to call, as I think he could be trying to get me to fold hands like what I have.
River: 
($114.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $44, Hero folds
I doubt villain is ever bluff shoving the river, and I don’t think he ever value bets worse either, so I think while I hate folding given my stack size, I think I am basically never winning this hand here, so it doesn’t matter how much is in the pot and how much is in my stack. Pretty clear fold imo.
Final Pot: $158.50
BTN wins $156 ( won +$55 )
Hero lost -$57.00
I thought it was a pretty interesting hand. I would love some feedback on how it was played. Also, DWarrior got me addicted to this game called Fantastic Contraption. It is a pretty neat game. Here is one of my levels I beat, my designs are still kinda elementary, I hope to get some more interesting designs soon. Finally, one last Biffy Clyro song that is pretty sweet.
And I am not sure why this cracks me up, but it does.
August 16, 2008 at 9:13 am
You left out two really important pieces of information; how often villain steals and how often he folds to a 3bet.
I never check that and always go for a bet — it makes the hand easier to play imo. He very likely won’t be bluff raising you with flush draws as he knows you’d likely shove on him if you had an ace. If he has a pair like 99/TT/QQ, billain should be happier with this flop than an AJ2 flop — it means that there’s a less likely chance you can have an ace in your hand. Also, if he’s a winning player, I’d venture a guess that he isn’t calling 3bets here with a wide amount of hands with an ace in it (AQ, AJ).
Just bet it and play it out from here. Taking a passive line here, especially with the J on the board and two diamonds, is going to get you into trouble.
FWIW every time I see someone take your line on this texture flop, I’m taking a note on them and will be abusing that person with position as much as possible.
August 16, 2008 at 7:00 pm
To paraphrase malfaire:
“This hand is only interesting because you played it like a dumbass donk.”
And now I think he is right. Aces won’t be a big part of his range, that was my big mistake in my thought process on the hand. As for missing info, he steals often and folds often, not really worth looking up the exact numbers. He plays pretty straight forward for the most part.
So if we change the line here and bet the flop and get called, what is our line on the turn? What if we bet the flop and get raised?
August 17, 2008 at 5:26 pm
if he calls the flop, we get to play poker
Fold if I get raised. I probably check the turn if he calls, or I might bet.
August 18, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Yeah, even though I think he wouldn’t be raising with a large number of aces (we’re either bluffing there or crushing him with a better ace, so it’s in his best interest to play WA/WB), I think we’d have to fold. We just wouldn’t have the fold equity to come over the top and get him to fold any ace, I think — so few in the deck.
As for getting flatted in this spot, I think we can check/call a turn and evaluate a river. I’d believe that we’d often get checks behind on most of his flatting range on the river.
It’s still a tricky hand no matter how we play it, but I think it just becomes a lot easier when we’re OOP to bet flop.