blonde poker forum

DTD 50p/£1 straddles in play.

I have arrived late intent on chilling for a couple of hours on Weds night, not in a chatty or 4-bet bluffing mood, just want to have a couple of hours of cards and go home.

This is two hours in, my image is super tight. I have been ultra opportunity dead, partly due to a young lad being hyper laggy. He is on around £750, having started with £200. I recognise him and he isn't flagged up in my brain as a poor player, so he must be decent, and his play so far would suggest this, despite a couple of odd moments which I didn't quite see the sense in. For one thing he knows how to straddle properly, a very rare beast at this level.

Anyway, as I say, 2 hours in, I have  Kc Qc on the button. Villain double straddles for £4, as he does every time. One caller, I raise to £15 on the button,  with a super tight image remember.

Villain flats, as does one other. I started the hand with £100 or as near as dammit.

Flop is  8d 2s 4h

Check, check.

Obviously I expect a c-bet to get through on this board and bet £30

Villain flats pretty quickly. Even oop he feels invincible it would seem. I put him on same as me type hand, two-overs, or a small pocket pair, or maybe even complete air. A genuine hand and I reckon he re-pops me, using his image properly.

Middle player passes. Pot is now c£110

I have £55 left and given the pot size feel  that the only way to win (and I should given my image) is to shove on a blankish turn which is what we get, the  Jd

Villain tanks for all of 7 seconds and calls with  5c 5h

So, is my line reasonable? I have played the hand with a super tight image totally consistent with an overpair.

Do I have a large enough stack to make this work (he was getting 3 to 1 to call)

Am I just levelling myself and should I accept that a lot of the time this play will work, as indeed it did against the same player about 45 minutes later?

Or, more worryingly, do I have a glaring tell? I don't normally get looked up this quick when I bluff, lol.

hes never foldign turn after calling flop, i'd make it a little bigger pre aswell and if at all possible sit deeper.

Flop is a dream for him, you cant call 5 5 pre and then fold to a continuation on this flop. He if calls the flop he is 100% always calling the turn.

Think you should check behind the turn and give up unless we hit a K or Q on the river

Fair points. The villain was the only real deepstack at the table, but old habits die hard and I usually sit with £100 to begin with while I feel out the table. Perhaps because of the mood I was in and having already topped up I hadn't thought of doubling my stack size.

I felt that £15 pre was about right to get two folds or maybe just one caller but obviously it wasn't..

Yes, true but a hyper lag doesn't always have 55 here; he was running like Usain Bolt with the shits and I could quite see him having any 2 here, so I felt rightly or wrongly (ok, wrongly) that given it was me he would have to fold for once in his life...

Didn't consider checking behind, which to those who know me will be quite a revelation.

I think a pretty major problem in this hand is your cbet is too big. On this board texture its pretty hard for ppl to have anything and 20/22ish should do the trick. Also gives him a far worse price to call the turn as well should you decide to shove. As it happens I don't like the turn shove on this occasion, as when he calls on that flop, he never has total air for sure, and usually has something he's definitely going to showdown with vs ur stacksize.

agree with stato c-bet is too big, I think in his mind when you cbet that size you're gonna  have air/overpair regardless of if that is the case of not, so lends SOME ease to his call down.

the turn jam, whereas only needs to work 1/3 - ir prolly wont cos he clearly has some sort of smoething and will be getting 4-1 on his call, so I don't think it's a good turn jam.

Cbet smaller to 18 then we're jamming £67 into £86 which is a tougher call for him, but im pretty sure from what you've said you'd be getting hero'd there as well tonight, cos the guy was in the mood for it it seems.

I prolly wouldn't cbet this flop for all the above reasons and given your image and hope that there is a AKQJ on the turn and delayed Cbet those card as I think now your range is WAY more credible as he knows you're going to have a ton of AJ/KJ/AQ/AK/KQ etc and whereas not that likely you could still have an overpair some % given how dry the board is.

Super tight image or not when you're on the button players will, rightly or wrongly, assign you a wider range. Also agree with WOOMERA (stato 1) that you c bet is too big.

I prefer £18. Then possibly jam turn or even check back turn, jam river

We have 25bb lets not get too deep into this one.

op obv has a tell imo

^this

Firstly what exactly is "straddling properly"? Is there a way of straddling incorrectly?

You've mentioned a couple of things in this thread that spring to mind:

Pre flop you say that £15 should be enough to get 2 folds.

On the flop you say that £30 should be enough to get the c bet through.

This tells me that at both stages you just wanted to win the pot there and then and weren't after value at all.

Given that assumption and the fact that you're only 25 bbs deep you might as well jam pre or jam the flop.

Absolutely no point trying to take a fruity line this shallow 'cause it ain't gonna work.

Also don't get too wrapped up in your 'image'. I promise you nobody gives a shit.

people never fold live, not to me anyways

I'd guess that 'straddling properly' means he's raising a lot from position when he gets multiple limpers?

If so, why not limp re-raise, or limp-jam?
 If we think KQcc is that strong that is.

I witnessed this hand as I was sat at the table and got stacked by the villain in one of his special straddle hands.

He was aggro and competent but he's never folding 55 in the double straddle pre.
He's never folding to a cbet on a 8 high, very dry board. All your repping is overpairs/air by cbetting, which as said, way too big.
He's not folding turn for 55 after calling 30 on flop espesh when hes ran like god all night too.

Check back the dry board. Bet/fold turn.

Thanx, some good replies