Heads up Guessing

Hectorjelly

$25 tournament and its heads up. This guy is a maniac who tend to play depending on his mood, ie he is unpredictable and neither he nor I have any idea what he is doing. Since we have been heads up I havent hit a pair yet (ie each hand I havent flopped a pair), and havent been brave to call down with Ace hi even though its probably the best hand. Once he starts betting he wont stop and he tends to disregard reraises. He will fold if he thinks hes beaten, but top pair for him is the holy grail. All I have to do to get this guys stack is flop top pair but my stack is getting lower and lower. Bear in mind I have no idea what his hand is, he raises every hand.

Blinds are 200 400 and he outchips me my 2000.

He minraises from the button and I call with J8s. The flop is 9 T 5. He bets 400 and I call. Turn is 4 of my suit, so I now have a flush draw as well as my openended straight draw. Any J is probably good as well. He bets the minimum again. I call.

The river is a ace. He bets min and I go all in for 5k more.

Comments?

Spoiler since Ill be asleep:


He called immediately - not a second of a doubt - with 33

Lafortezza

I don't get it. Stick it all in on an earlier street when you have chance of Villain folding. He probably assume you're on a draw from your passive calling all the way, so when you try to bluff the Ace it's a fairly easy call.

ocallagh

Hectorjelly wrote:

$25 tournament and its heads up. This guy is a maniac who tend to play depending on his mood, ie he is unpredictable and neither he nor I have any idea what he is doing. Since we have been heads up I havent hit a pair yet (ie each hand I havent flopped a pair), and havent been brave to call down with Ace hi even though its probably the best hand. Once he starts betting he wont stop and he tends to disregard reraises. He will fold if he thinks hes beaten, but top pair for him is the holy grail. All I have to do to get this guys stack is flop top pair but my stack is getting lower and lower. Bear in mind I have no idea what his hand is, he raises every hand.

Blinds are 200 400 and he outchips me my 2000.

He minraises from the button and I call with J8s. The flop is 9 T 5. He bets 400 and I call. Turn is 4 of my suit, so I now have a flush draw as well as my openended straight draw. Any J is probably good as well. He bets the minimum again. I call.

The river is a ace. He bets min and I go all in for 5k more.

Comments?

Spoiler since Ill be asleep:


He called immediately - not a second of a doubt - with 33

i thought the same.. passive calling generally represents a draw! If you hit the flop you'd protect your hand and re-raise (unless you hit top 2 pair or a set). I think you needed to re-raise here and represent something off the flop; this gives you more believable options if you miss your draw. Your overbet on the river does nothing to suggest you have an A. No re-raise pre-flop and you're hardly calling down to the river to hit an A.. Plus, the size of your bet on the river was a sign of weakness.. if you had a decent hand (a set or 2 pair off the flop) you'd have bet less..

Hectorjelly

Do you think a bad player can put me on a straight draw from the check call action on the flop and turn? Because thats the only hand he can beat. No matter what the action was its not a fairly easy call to call with a pair of 3's on a board with 5 overcards and no flush draw on the flop. I could well be bluffing with a better hand than his.

Usually the call call overbet line is a monster that is unrelated to the ace, in this case I didnt think he would be good enough to fold an ace so I was gambling he didnt have one. I was hoping he had a hand like 33 or KQ.

I think this paticular opponent is more likely to call on earlier streets because he doesnt like to fold overcards in case they hit.

All that being said against someone who makes calls like that I should of been more patient.

ocallagh

u either had nothing or a monster.. but against the type of player you described they'll call regardless, just hoping u have nothing! I think patience against that type of player pays off in the long run even if u have to take a hit now and again when u get a bad run of cards

allin-king

Hectorjelly wrote:

$25 tournament and its heads up. This guy is a maniac who tend to play depending on his mood, ie he is unpredictable and neither he nor I have any idea what he is doing. Since we have been heads up I havent hit a pair yet (ie each hand I havent flopped a pair), and havent been brave to call down with Ace hi even though its probably the best hand. Once he starts betting he wont stop and he tends to disregard reraises. He will fold if he thinks hes beaten, but top pair for him is the holy grail. All I have to do to get this guys stack is flop top pair but my stack is getting lower and lower. Bear in mind I have no idea what his hand is, he raises every hand.

since when is top pair heads up not the holy grail

and i would of raised with the big drawing hand you had and put some pressure back on him than call hoping to hit and then pushing all in when you missed (i would have called with 33 as well, as your call, call & then all in screams of a busted draw)

Hectorjelly

allin-king wrote:

since when is top pair heads up not the holy grail

Top pair is a strong hand heads up but it can still be beaten.

allin-king wrote:

and i would of raised with the big drawing hand you had and put some pressure back on him than call hoping to hit and then pushing all in when you missed (i would have called with 33 as well, as your call, call & then all in screams of a busted draw)

I make overbets on the river quite often , sometimes I have a big hand and sometimes Im bluffing. When Im called its nearly always because I have underestimated my opponents hand, not when they call with an underpair to the entire board. Calling with 33 there is nearly impossible because there are very few hands that it beats, I could of picked up any pair along the way and be ahead, or I could have A9 or A5 and hit two pair on the river. Its very easy to look at the hand afterwards and say oo yeah thats obvious its a bluff; but theres no flush draw and you know the results.

Also moving in on a earlier street is all well and good, but this opponent is more likely to call in the hope of hitting a 3. The river is about the only place you can get him to lay a hand down on. Semibluffing only works on average or good players.

Daithio

Hectorjelly wrote:

Also moving in on a earlier street is all well and good, but this opponent is more likely to call in the hope of hitting a 3. The river is about the only place you can get him to lay a hand down on. Semibluffing only works on average or good players.

patience! if he calls as much as you say... just wait

mewso

I'm going to stick my neck out and say it was a good move on the river HJ and you got called by an idiot. I doubt he reasoned it out. Not much you can do there.