NL100: Top Pair weak kicker facing Turn barrel

Question

$1.00 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

SB: 100 BB (VPIP: 24.00, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 4.40, Hands: 230)
BB: 105.84 BB (VPIP: 19.14, PFR: 14.90, 3Bet Preflop: 10.77, Hands: 311)
UTG: 113.12 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 223.12 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 42.86, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
CO: 133.76 BB (VPIP: 19.83, PFR: 13.22, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 123)
Hero (BTN): 263.16 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T:diamonds: 9:hearts:
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.48 BB, fold, BB calls 1.48 BB

Flop: (5.36 BB, 2 players) 5:hearts: 4:hearts: 9:spades:
BB checks, Hero bets 2.68 BB, BB raises to 9 BB, Hero (???) calls 6.32 BB

Turn: (23.36 BB, 2 players) J:hearts:
BB bets 18 BB, Hero ???

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No specific reads on Villain. I'd like to know what people would do on the flop, as well as the Turn. Thanks.

Answer 1

Interesting, tough hand. I think I would fold here. I'll assume there isn't any relevant history with the opponent as that may change your strategy here.

I think everything is pretty straightforward up until the flop where you are faced with the check-raise. I think a call here is good, but I'm uneasy about it as it doesn't lead to the rest of the hand playing out well too often. A reraise effectively turns your hand into a bluff when it actually has value, but you're getting 3 to 1 odds with top pair, so call is good.

I would fold the turn. The opponent has called a raise, check-raised a flop, and bet again--that's showing quite a bit of strength and you have a mediocre hand. So the scenarios in which you win are either you're facing a bluff (or semibluff) or you're up against a better hand and you improve to beat it. If you are up against a better hand, your outs are pretty dubious. Hitting two pair, three of a kind, or even another heart on the river will still lose a decent portion of the time against his "good" range which is mostly a set, a flush, or maybe a pair of nines with better kicker (and maybe higher heart).

Assume that there's a good chance he's bluffing: you still don't have a good play going forward and it's going to cost a lot to find out. If you call, do you really think he'll check the river? If you raise, it will be effectively for the rest of your stack because you can no longer really fold, so is it worth it? After all, a raise here by you plays the same way as a bluff since only better hands will call. Wellll, maybe he'd call with a worse hand but one that has equity, and maybe you have some outs, but the odds of these scenarios are less likely and still nothing to feel good about for a best case scenario.

Much money is lost by going too far with middle of the road hands in an uncertain situation. Your options here are either to commit a lot more chips or to get out now and the odds of everything playing out in your favor is pretty low so I get out now.

Answer 2

If you are going to play T9o then I still like coming in for a raise.

Big to mid pair villain probably would have raised pre. Might call with small pair.

Flop top pair feels good until you get check raised
He could have a set of 4 or 5
Seems like a flush draw would just called
You are getting close to 3 : 1 to call and see a turn so I would call

Turn completes a flush draw
Fires 18 - that is a strong bet
Problem is you are still facing a river bet
Even if you hit a 9 you are behind a flush
You don't want to see the T hearts
I think you need to fold here
Not likely he is buffing after firing at the pot twice

If you had T9 hearts it would be a different story