Here is an interesting hand from a recent HU session.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com
Hero (BB) ($50)
SB ($27.55)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 8
, A
SB bets $1, Hero calls $0.50
Flop: ($2) 2
, 9, 7 (2 players)Hero checks, SB checks
Turn: ($2) J
(2 players)Hero bets $1.50, SB calls $1.50
River: ($5) J
(2 players)Hero checks, SB bets $5.50, Hero calls $5.50
Total pot: $16 | Rake: $0.50
This is pretty standard vs this opponent imo. Given the action the river is an easy call. The guy brought in for 20bb and was playing quite spazzy and obviously wasn't great, but was sort of competent, although spazzy. I thought that he would be calling the turn very wide, and so I don't like my bet, but I knew on the turn that on a blank river I could potentially bluff catch A high. The jack on the river is like the best card in the deck for me (apart from the ace). I check planning on c/c and he goes ahead and over bets it and I stick to my plan and call. You see given the action prior, when he overbets this river he is super polarized. He either has Jx the Ace high flush (sometimes) or he is bluffing. Now trips are hard to get and I thought that there is a non-zero chance that he is raising strong jacks like AJ or KJ on the turn. I thought any set/weak flush/straight is betting flop/raising turn so I discounted them. That leaves draws, all of them missed. I think he can have random 8x, Tx and any random club. Did I think he was merging his range with a random pair? Nah, he's not good enough to do that, and not bad enough to overbet a pair because with the two jacks he has two purrr. Is he turning 22 into a bluff here? I don't think so. Given that I thought he'd see overbets as signs of strength and would therefore more likely overbet bluff than value bet I called this and got shown Q8hh. Maybe results orientated, but I still think it was a good call.
