$2 NLHE 6-max: worth bluffing at the micros?

[Jarud]

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.02/€0.04 - 5 players
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thoughts on this hand?
i mean i was targeting the type of hand he had and also some weak aces, maybe im bluffing to much im thinking of just taking bluffs entirely out of my game at these stakes.

 

[Casey55]

Not a fan of the pre-flop sizing, I usually go 3x + 1bb for being OOP. On the flop you need to bet larger, 1/3 pot I think has him sticking around with so much, he can float at a cheap price and see what develops. I dont like the sizings hero chose I think all the bet sizings should be larger. You also want to try and bluff OOP I think only when you hsve a good idea of your opponents player type. Write a note that this guy calls 3 streets with middle pair and value bet him in the future a ton

 

[J_Slice]

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.02/€0.04 - 5 players
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thoughts on this hand?
i mean i was targeting the type of hand he had and also some weak aces, maybe im bluffing to much im thinking of just taking bluffs entirely out of my game at these stakes.

I think the 3bet is a bit small. I usually go 3x initial open at least. Out of position in the small blind I usually go larger than that probably 4x at least. I'm perfectly fine with the villain folding preflop and a larger 3bet will accomplish that more frequently and will also get more into the pot for the times I am 3betting for value.

On the flop again I tend to bet larger I don't think he folds much at all to the small cbet. I could get behind a smallish flop cbet followed up with a larger turn barrel if villain likes to float ace high rainbow flops. On the turn if I'm still trying to bluff I think it has to be larger for the same reasons. I think I also find myself wondering what I'm doing in the hand and why I'm trying to bluff an unknown villain OOP in a 3bet pot.

Overall I think I typically just fold the small blind here vs an unknown villain. With reads or stats I may be more inclined to 3bet preflop but I still don't really like it. Others may have different opinions which I look forward to reading.

Bluffing at the micros can be pretty profitable but it is very villain dependent and if you are getting significant resistance they usually have it, at least in my experience at these stakes. Having a read that villain is able to fold and also being in position are pretty important factors to consider.

There are several loose-passive regs in my games though where I almost feel bad for isolating them preflop and firing half pot cbets and taking pots down like it's nothing. They run stats of ~30/10 with a fold to flop cbet >%65 with a decent several hundred hand sample. When they do fight back I make sure I have an exceptional holding to even think about continuing.

 

[Noroma]

First off, like others meantioned, 3bet is to small, go something like 4x or at least 3.5x. Make him pay so that when you 3bet your good hands he is also inclined to call.

Flop bet size is fine in my opinion, but I think these boards are difficult for barreling, since you would want at least some more equity, such as a backdoor flush draw, but the sizing is fine. If he has neither an ace or a pocket, he will have a difficult time calling even a smaller raise, so you fold out most combos that you beat even with a smaller raise.
But with these types of hands you need to have a plan, so you shouldn't just barrel on any turn, since him calling is a bad sign on a dry board where you 3bet and he called, so if you really want to barrel, you have to pick spots where it makes sense, so on any 5, 4 or 9 you should barrel, otherwise I would suggest to give up.

Turn: Changes nothing for him, you are not making him fold A10+, perhaps with a bigger raise you get him to fold 22 - KK, so if you want to bluff you need to make it bigger, and then give up on river. So by making it bigger, like 3/4 pot or full pot, you should make him fold the hands that have fold equity, and any hands that won't fold river will call, so by making your turn bet large enough you ensure that if river is called, you won't blow off more of your stack, since now some Tens - kings could call, which could be ridden off on the river.

River: I mean, him calling is pretty sick, but also good for you in the sense that you now know he is capable of paying good chunks of value.

I would still say you played this hand in a weird way, and although he called with something that should not call 3 streets of bets, you still could have sized it better throughout, and I think a bigger turn raise would do a better job of getting rid of non ace holdings. OOP is just a bad spot to be in on hands like these, and this hand of course only wins by bluffing, you had some small equity on the flop which turned into no equity on the turn, and against someone willing to call a lot you need to lay it down

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
3-bet need to be much larger out of position. Also if you always 3-bet this hand, you are probably 3-betting to much, so its probably only a partial, and then I would fold it the rest of the time.

Flop
I would C-bet a little larger to try to get some folds right now from hands like KQ or KJ.

Turn
Here you have a decision to make. You can either decide to give up, and then you probably dont have any bluffs in your range at all, since its difficult to find any bluffs, that have equity, and this has to be one of the worst hands, you can possibly have. If you decide to continue, your sizing looks fine. You want to sell the story, you have AK/AQ and are planning to go for 3 streets of value. And for that reason your plan should be to fire all three bullets if needed.

River
As I said already, I would fire the third bullet, since I made that plan already on the turn, and its literally impossible to have a worse hand than this. So if we are ever going to have a bluff, its going to be this one. But I dont like moving all-in. If I had AK/AQ, I would bet something like 60% pot, and then this is also the sizing, I want to use with my bluffs.

Not only does it give me a better price, but its also a far more convincing story. When you jam, you are essentially saying, you have a boat or a bluff. And to make matters worse, on this board your only realistic boat is AA, which you would probably not jam, because it strongly block him from having top pair. So your river sizing is basically representing a bluff, and he might have sniffed that out and completely owned you with this call.

 

[1player2]

Don't take bluffs out. Just got unlucky. If you are bluffing away buy in after buy in then yes tighten up. This hand seams reasonable

 

[VictorOd]

From my experience... usually no, don't bluff on that limits. Maybe only some contbets flop when you are in position. Otherwise probably only if you have notes or hud information about other players. If they are very tight, some bluffs might work.

 

[c0rnBr34d]

Yea not to beat a dead horse but the 3B pre is too small. I like 4x here. I'm also surprised that so many people want to make a larger flop bet on such a dry board. We have tons of Ax and big pairs here. We want calls when we have Ax and we usually want to pot control when we don't. If V does not have Ax they are not loving life vs our whole range when we bet 1/3 here as shown by this hand. All the times we have 99+ and Ax we own him. Turn we can either give up or barrel and given the board pairing I think our sizing is fine again. River I also agree that the overbet jam doesn't make sense. What hand do we have that wants to take this line? Also would like to touch on frequencies as mentioned by others. If we are always 3B this combo and usually triple barreling then we have too many bluffs. Having zero bluffs however does not sound like a good plan to me at any stake.

 

[fundiver199]

i mean i was targeting the type of hand he had and also some weak aces, maybe im bluffing to much im thinking of just taking bluffs entirely out of my game at these stakes.

I analysed the hand already, but to answer this more broad question, its not a bad idea to mostly take bluffing out of your game, when you play the lowest stakes in the room. Its not going to be, where the money is coming from, and especially not big multi-street bluffs like this. So it would be totally acceptable to simply fold this hand preflop and wait for a better hand and/or position.

But as I and others have said already, there is another mistake made in this hand, which might be bigger than the decision to attempt a bluff, and that is the river overbet. At these stakes overbets should be used almost exclusively for value in spots, where people are likely to be inelastic, like when you have a full house on a flushy or straighty board.

Now it is possible, that this guy was just a really simple level 1 thinker, where the thought process is something like "its difficult to have a pair, and I have two, so I call". But it is also common for beginners and recreational players to view big bets like a bluff and react to them by being the table sheriff.

Something like "this guy is a bully, but he is not going to push me around, so I will call him down with my 77". Here you need to remember, that you are playing for 4 euro, so nobody are playing with "scared money". To some its almost like, its play money. So maybe dont stop bluffing but pick your spots well and only use overbets for value at these stakes.