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$5 Spin & Go on Pokerstars. You are currently heads up at 15/30 blinds.

Your opponent is someone you've encountered a few times before; you have him provisionally categorized as "competent reg" -- plays a reasonable number of hands, with a reasonable degree of aggression, and with sufficient variation so as not to be too transparent/predictable.

Villian (SB) has 1001 chips (33.37 BB)

Hero (BB) has 499 chips (16.63 BB)

Preflop - 2 players, Pot: 45 (1.5 BB)

SB limps for 15.

Hero holds J♣8⋄ in the BB and checks.

Flop - A♥T♥9♠ - 2 players, Pot: 60 (2 BB)

Hero checks, SB bets 30 (1 BB / 0.5 pot), Hero calls.

Turn - Q♥ - 2 players, Pot: 120 (4 BB)

Hero has hit his open ender, but the flush has also come in.

Hero checks, SB bets 105 (3.5 BB / 0.875 pot), Hero calls.

River - 9♥ - 2 players, Pot: 330 (11 BB)

The river is particularly ugly for Hero's straight, bringing the fourth heart and pairing the board. Hero has 334 remaining in his stack, i.e., one pot sized bet.

Hero checks. SB shoves.

Questions

When Hero stops cursing, should he call the shove?

Should he have played the turn differently?

1 Answer 1

5

TL; DR - I shove the turn.

Personally i would have taken a more aggressive line than check calling the flop, but Hero's flop line is reasonable. On the turn it gets abit dicey, H has a strong hand on a board that easily runs bad. If H calls the turn, would H call a jam if the river was a J? A heart? If V had a strong hand like two pair, would he value bet many rivers? A shove allows you to get it in good against weaker hands, make drawing hands pay, and saves you a hard decision on the river.

On the river H has pretty much a bluffcatcher. V is likely not betting a 9, and is repping at least a flush. That means that V is probably going to be checking behind quite a few pairs (trip 9, A pair, Q pair), although may turn his weaker pairs (10s) into bluffs. Personally i structure my bluffs to have some equity so that its playable when called, so its hard to find a bluff that didn't get there by the river. You're hoping Villain will be taking this line with trash like 67, 68, 78 no hearts?

Facing a pot sized bet i think i would fold the river. Its more likely that Villain will underbluff in this spot, and even if he was bluffing, i think there are much better hands to call down with than a lower straight.

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