This week, I posted the following hand on the blonde poker 'Poker Hand Analysis' board:
Relevant Notes:
We have been battling for about 55 minutes, just on this table. Both villains and heroes stack comes from heroe's money, Hero dropped 2 buy-ins early on, one with a flush draw vs a set, and the other with Q-Q vs top 2 on a 7-8-3 flop. Hero has steadily chopped at villain's stack to recoup some of the money, to where the stacks are at the moment.
Reads:
Villain: $976
As is typical in HU poker, villain is very active in opening from the button, roughly 80% of the time the villain has opened, and defends against a re-raise from the big blind with impunity. He tends to make thin calls when he thinks he is ahead, but also has shown signs that he will slowplay if he thinks hero is going to launch into the pots. Overall impression of him is that he a typical probably-winning HU player, that has a problem with folding when the pots get large and channelling his aggression.
Hero: $624
Hero has been re-raising from the BB with a high frequency, almost too much to be profitable, which has led to playing too many inflated pots OOP. In the last 10 minutes you have been a lot more passive from the BB, just calling instead of re-raising, and this has enabled you to control the size of the pots a bit better. Your play from the button is similar to villain's, but you defend a re-raise with a lower frequency. Villain has told you in chat that he sees you as a “calling station donkey” and that you will be “broke in 2 weeks if you keep on playing him”.
Onto the Hand:
Hero has 
Villain makes it $12 from the button, and the action is on hero.
Action, hero calls: pot ($24)
Flop comes down: 
Action: hero, checks, and villain bets $23...
The action from the flop goes as follows: hero checks, villain bets $23, and hero raises to $93, and villain calls. The reason why I dint go for the lead/3-bet allin is that the stacks were a bit deeper then normal, and I didn't think that our equity would be very good if the action went: hero bets $20 (or so) villain raises to $90, and then hero slams it in.
If the stacks were 100bb, then I'd have liked that move a lot more. I also in the depths of my mind thought that if we c/raised, there was a chance that villain could re-re-raise to say $200 or so with complete air, as this is a great flop to represent a hand from the BB, and he knows that, so he could try and "re-steal" the pot from us, and then we could shovel it in.
Also if a scare card does come, it increases the frequency with which our opponent is likely to try and steal the pot, which further increases our equity in this spot. Of course, it also leaves us looking like an idiot the times he turns the hand and we call a stack off with a ragged 2-pair!
Anyways, onto the next stage:
Hero raises to $93, and villain calls.
Turn comes the Ace of spades, to give a board of 
, pot $210 roughly (hero has remember)
Action is on hero: hero checks, and villain bets $155.
River came the 
, for a final board of , action on hero...
What next?
The Response
boldie: "I don't like the way this hand has been played tote... Hero has given villain time to out draw him here.. the check call on the turn doesn't make a lot of sense to me and now you're behind to well..everything he bets with really. If you don't stick them in here he's not going away if he bets and with a very lowly two pair on this board you don't want any callers, so check raising is out.
You could lead out for all your chips here. and hope he would fold 2 pair or better if he thinks you have the 2 (which your turn call could very well indicate, but it really would be making a play more than anything else. It depends for me, I would probably lead out here (70% of the time) hoping he can fold 2 pair plus or check fold if I think he can't. I just really don't like the way the turn was played, not leading out gives the pot up I think, so stick in 250 ish on a bluff."
WellChief: "Your hand is a bit under-represented here, but it is still kind of a bluff-catcher given the board. That said, I think an opponent like this will bluff a high %age of the time, especially given the turn card and your check-call. LAG's normally can't stop themselves betting when scare cards come and weakness is shown. I would check-call the river. Opponent could easily have a hand like 4-6, and your hand looks something like that too. With heads up action though the flow of the action is so important, so only the hero can make the best judgement here."
snoopy: "Come Turn and River, I would normally say check and try to induce a bet from a missed open ended straight draw, but given he could have a set or a big two pair, I think you may have to try a block bet and bet half the pot."
The Reveal
The action on the river went check/check, and I scooped the pot vs. T-6.
Conclusion
When the stacks get deeper and you are OOP against pretty aggressive players, one of the keys to playing profitably is to try and widen their range of hands as much as possible, because obviously the wider their range, the greater your equity, and when it came to the turn action, I didn't think that pushing was as beneficial as calling because I couldn't see him folding a better hand, and there wasn't much chance of him calling with just a naked ace (although it will happen some of the time)... so check/calling lets you improve your hand against better made hands, and lets worse hands continue the bluff on the river. Naturally sometimes they will outdraw you, but the wider someone range when deep, the better, generally speaking.