I bluff my stack off against a player who turns out to be a calling station.
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Episode 134 puzzles me in a number of ways. In other episodes Jonathan states he does not have a 3betting range in BB against an EP opener. Against a LP opener he has a wide 3b range in SB and a wide calling range in BB so I can only assume he has a wide 3b range in SB against a EP opener, but why? Is the BB likely to squeeze an EP opener, if not, why not just have a wide calling range in SB. Assuming Jonathan has a wide 3b range in this spot should the villain call three streets with AK unimproved. Jonathan has 3 combos each of AA, KK, QQ (two of KK on river). I am note sure if he has AQ, 77 or 66 in this spot or even JJ but possible QJo and Q9s are part of the 3b range. Is he really betting three streets and getting it in for value with QJ or JJ. Suppose a T came on river would he value shove, Jonathan does not advocate turning second pair into a bluff. If villain has been observant he will notice that Jonathan’s 3b range is unbalanced AA, KK, AK and a bunch of suited connectors and 76s has only two combos. Even without the K on the river Jonathan’s range is about 90% bluffs and his shoving range is about 95% bluffs. If Villain has the nerve (say he is Negreanu) he might well call three streets with AK unimproved
From the small blind, especially if the player in the big blind plays well, you should usually 3-bet or fold most of your playable range. This is because if you call, the big blind will often call, giving you the worst relative position, meaning on the flop you and the big blind will check, the raiser will bet, and then you have to act before knowing anything about the strength of the big blind’s hand. If it checks through, you now have to bet into two people. While this T8s 3-bet is a bit wide, I think it is fine. This hand is not strong enough to call, meaning I should either 3-bet or fold it. It plays particularly well because when my opponent calls, it will usually be with unpaired big cards that I have a lot of equity against.
Stacks are 70bb. Jonathan’s value 3b range is what? QQ+, AK, his 3b bluffing range is what? QJo, Q6s-Q9s, 53s to T8s etc. Jonathan has no strong Q in his 3b range and would not play a weak Q in this manner nor even QQ he would play both so that he would get called by JJ. He has a lot of 7’s in his 3b bluff range but by the turn these are far outnumbered by the 54s, 53s, T8s etc. If the river is a blank say 2s should villain call with AK unimproved. It is easy to analyse these hands as an observer, but top players are top players because they can do just that and have the nerve to go with their analysis. So if villain has played with Jonathan a lot or has watched a lot of his videos, he should call with AK unimproved.
I certainly have some 7s in my range, but as you stated, very few Queens.
In one of Jonathan’s videos he called three streets with ATo unimproved.