When My Bluff Plan Gets Rivered 🚈

Folding a top-pair tip-kicker facing action is considered a big display of professionalism at the lower stakes. If you have a solid table image, it’s a great idea to occasionally go and convince the AQ/AK-squeeze guys, that it’s time for them to make a big laydown. After all, sometimes you gonna have it or get there too.

Resorts World Casino, Manila

1-2 blinds, 200bb effective 

A couple of people limp, I overlimp on the button with 4♣️5♣️, SB completes and the big blind, tight player, makes it 6bb. It gets folded to me, I call, so does the small blind. There are many wonderful things I can do with this hand in position, and hitting the flop is only one of them.

Flop comes A❤️2♦️7♣️ and the squeezer bets 6bb. Good sizing on a dry board, I do expect this type of a player to have exactly AK/AQ here most of the time. I have a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw, a reputation of a player who “always has it” (little do they know, I don’t) and a plan to put a tight player in a tough spot with his one pair hand, whether I improve or not. SB folds.

Turn comes a 6♣️ and this card is a beauty.

I opt to lead for 17BB with the intention to blast it on most of the rivers, but check-raising would be a good, if not a better option. My opponent was certain to continue barreling with his top-pair and by raising the turn, I might have forced him to lay it down right away. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind my hitting the river and him getting stubborn with AK. 

The river is a K♦️and this card is a nightmare.

If an Ace would be an absolute worst card to continue telling my story, a King and a Queen were the second on the list of things I did not want to see. I am pretty sure this nit is folding Ace-Queen and decide to close my eyes and bet 45bb. I think it is enough to get AQ/AJ to fold while AK is obviously calling anything. Had the river been some irrelevant card, like a 10❤️, I would probably overbet 1,5x to push him off the AK.

He sigh-calls with Ace-King and it wasn’t a snap, it was a sign of relief when he saw he was good.

“I would be surely folding one pair to a player like you”, he said.

 “I would be surely tabling my 5-high then”, I thought 🦊

CONCLUSION 

I don’t hate my river bet because it would have got him off at least half of his range (which was AK, AQ and occasional AJ).

Using my undeservedly tight image (I am usually at the showdown with the best of it, but hey, I am not at the showdown too often) to exploit overly tight players and make them hate their lives with one-pair hands will be definitely incorporated into my strategy a lot more.

This Manila trip I was running so bad that even when I was bluffing, my opponents were hitting the three-outers on me to make it an easy call.