AQT8ds 3b ip, top 2

i think so too. sadly u dont have any blockers to straights here but still you flop top two in 3bet pot. he can have straights of course. it would actually suck if he c/r flop since u still got a bd fd. definately a tough spot. but as u said to him u look really weak here so that could bait him into bluffing with draws here. if i were in villains shoes and had kj here i wouldnt pot the turn. that looks so fucking strong and i think a lot of times u wont have a fd here. so he should be pretty save. considering that he will get it in even if he bets like 75% on turn. when u talked about bluff with blockers i was thinking yea thats really likely here. his pot bet makes it kind of hard though. would like to hear other opinions on what they do on the flop here and plans on villains actions.

Excellent 3-betting hand, just bet the flop, you have some blockers for his straight too.

If there were looser players in the blinds I would be inclined to flat and let them into the pot. I don't see much point in betting the flop. We can't really get much value from worse hands. We can't even really protect against draws because what spades do you expect villain to have that don't smash this board? Maybe every once in a while he has something like 9876 w/ spades that is going to fold but otherwise most of his spades hands are really going to connect with this flop. And our backdoor hearts are quite valuable here because if we turn a heart draw, and villain bets, and we call, it's going to be pretty difficult for him to bet the river again with a hand that we beat. So we can collect some bluffs that way. And if villain does have a hand like 9T, maybe 9T86 for example, then the best chance to make money off him is for us to check and a ten to peel off.

Basically this is a board that both you and your opponent are expected to have smashed very frequently. So I like taking the cautious approach and checking back the flop. I do not think we should start bluff catching on the turn. If I wanted to take a stand against an opponent who I suspected might be trying to run me over a little bit, I'd rather start a call down in another hand, on a more lockdown board after having say checked back a medium flush or weak trips. Of course in tougher games it is important to demonstrate from time to time that you will not simply break to pressure and bluff catch in some situations.

When you check the flop, you rarely have KJ/J8. If you fold top2+bottom gs, then basicly you are folding almost 100% to blank turns. You need to protect your flop checking range and I think this hand falls to that category. Not the greatest spot but if you had a stronger hand you would often bet it on the flop. So as you are at the top of your range, I don't think you can fold this one.

Originally posted by Kyyberi
When you check the flop, you rarely have KJ/J8. If you fold top2+bottom gs, then basicly you are folding almost 100% to blank turns. You need to protect your flop checking range and I think this hand falls to that category. Not the greatest spot but if you had a stronger hand you would often bet it on the flop. So as you are at the top of your range, I don't think you can fold this one.

Agree. This makes a lot of sense.