ITT Julian Thew takes us to the streets @ BBP Live

[mulhuzz]

hate the river lead, c/c way better once you've taken this passive line.

snap fold as played.

yah. only point in leading the river is to bet-call, and that's horrible obv.

[Mondeoman]

I dont mind the preflop, the flop or turn play.  If you check call the river id say you played it fine.  My questions/thoughts are:
1)  What are you trying to achieve with this river "blocker bet"? 
You're going to get raised by all hands that beat you and hes going to call behind with hands like AJ where as if youd checked to him he probably would have value cut himself.  This blocker bet may dissuade him from bluffing you on the river and will also allow him to bet much bigger on the river as a bluff i.e. if you just check the river i doubt very much he goes all in.
2)  Did you think what you would do if he raised before you bet? 
If you're betting to induce a raise then fine, if you're betting to fold then fine (well not really fine but at least you know why you're doing it)
3)  Do you think there is fundamentally a problem with playing your hand face up versus a good player? 
My view is players often bet to "find out where they are".  the problem is good players know what question your asking and will give you an answer that suits them (it wont necessarily be the truth).  Here you've basically said hey Julian i have a good but not great hand here, please dont raise me as i wont know what to do if you do. 
4)  Would you ever "blocker bet" with a super strong or a bluff hand?  If you never do this with strong hands youre open yourself up to getting f*cked with.

[MC]

If you're going to check the flop, then surely your line on the river has to be check-call?

[GreekStein]

checking flop is fine/sexy.

why

[SuuPRlim]

If you're going to check the flop, then surely your line on the river has to be check-call?

or chk fold. as under-repped as your hand is OTR I feel pretty confident that a tournament player as experienced as Julian isn't going to value-slice his own wrists with many worse hands, I think it's only AJ and there is some % chance he knuckles that back.

Oh just realised this is a 6max tourney? Yh he prolly Vbets AJ, maybe AT (although IDK how often he bets AT otf without initiative) and A8downwards less likely still. Honestly I think c/f might even be better but id have almost certainly chk/called and cant see it being that bad

[SuuPRlim]

checking flop is fine/sexy.

why

IMO I like leading more, as traditionally speaking you rep more airballs by cbetting this flop, i mean this is a flop that the PF raiser is expected to bet a high %, checking is cool or "sexy" from like a theory perspective cos you can take 'safer' more passive line with weaker parts of your range when you have AK in your range by the turn in this spot, so its harder to get barrelled off weaker hands and makes bluffs a lot harder.

problem is when you actually have somewhere near the top of your range ike you do here you get into sucky river spots like this where you never have air (so your villain less likely to bluff/more likely to chk marginal stuff back) so your oppo's perceived range OTR is kinda polarized in a spot where your hand is hugely under-repped and that makes it really hard to fold.

[pleno1]

checking flop is fine/sexy.

why

people are 3barrelling alot atm in poker imo when they put someone on a weak range. cbetting into 3 looks semi strong and doubt we get many floats utg vs 2 players. cant see many aces in either of their ranges, so think best way of getting multiple streets is under reping our hand and getting somebody to be creative. its live ffs its boring and people like to spew.

i dont like river lead as we never do this with kk and looks like we have an ace, and utg we should have big aces.

[smashedagain]

@ lildave. Julian never knuckles back. More like a gentle open palmed caress of the felt in the gentle manner that befits the nicest guy in poker.

[Pinchop73]

Really appreciate the replies. Now see how cheap the river COULD have been, fml.

I open folded (I know, tw#t), and Julian snap shows  .

[action man]

arent blocker bets a fold when raised, and induce bets/calls?  completly butchered hand, made it too complicated this early, just cbet and take it from there

[Pinchop73]

I felt that betting the flop would not extract maximum value from the hand. I just absolutely butchered the river and I can see how awful a move it was. With a c/c otr I get way more value than a cbet/b/b line. Just my opinion. I can't see me getting three streets out of Julian unless he has minimum 2p.

[cambridgealex]

He showed you the bluff?!

So mean!

[Pinchop73]

He loved it too! :p

I think he was only doing it as BadBeat had just come to have a chat with him.

Humiliated me he did.

[cambridgealex]

Julians had more pha threads made about him in blonde than anyone ainec.

[GreekStein]

People worry too much about balance when there is NO need for it here.

checking flop is fine/sexy.

why

people are 3barrelling alot atm in poker imo when they put someone on a weak range. cbetting into 3 looks semi strong and doubt we get many floats utg vs 2 players. cant see many aces in either of their ranges, so think best way of getting multiple streets is under reping our hand and getting somebody to be creative. its live ffs its boring and people like to spew.

i dont like river lead as we never do this with kk and looks like we have an ace, and utg we should have big aces.

Overthink a simple spot much?