Isolating stations / Hero Call?

Austin

Been at the table for about an hour and its your typical $1/2 game with lots of loose action. Villain in the hand has been mixing it up and have no reads on him and not many hands he has played have been shown down. He seems to be playing about 30% of his hands though from all positions.

$1/$2/$2 (open $5)
UTG: limp $5
EP3 limp $5
Hero Iso $20
Everyone else folds

Flop ($65)
EP: check
EP3: bets $25
Hero: calls $25
EP: fold

Turn ($115):Kh
EP3: bets $50
Hero: calls $50

River ($215)
Ep3: bets $75
Hero: ????

My thought process was that he has some flush draws, 9x, and Kx to lead this flop with and I have 2nd pair so I want to call at least once since I have blockers to hand he might have like KQ and AK is discounted since he limped but has been raising previously with Some hands like AJ. I didn't like the fact that I had Qh in my hand because that means its less likely he has a flush draw right?

The last K made me call even though its a bad bluff card I just thought there are so few kings he could have KT KJ?

Please help me decide if his range makes this a call based on odds or I should just fold and wait for a better spot and if so what street should I fold? I did iso in MP vs the two EP players because of a bunch of tight players behind me that most likely would give me position post flop.

kagey

If this were my game - the donk bet can be anything from , KX or a med pp like TT, 88 or 77.

We lose to:
, , , , , , , , 6 combos of TT.... 14 total combos

We beat
, , 6 combos of 88 & 6 combos of 77... 14 combos.

But after an hour of play - you should really have a profile on this player.
Does he always donk on the flop?
When he does, what does he show up with?
What's his limping range in EP?
Does his bet sizes indicate hand strength?
Does he call raises without suited cards? (If so that makes hands we lose to even more.)

He plays 30% of his hands but never shows down? Seriously?
Do you realize you're saying that he's in one out of 3 pots for an entire hour and you have no idea how he's playing?

Personally, I wouldn't be in the situation that you're in because I wouldn't iso-raise in a game that has

lots of loose action

That's just asking for trouble. Especially if you're going to play the flop so passively.
I'd save my iso-raises for my best hands since I know that nobody's folding.

But if you had put a gun to my head and forced me to play Q9os - I would have repopped him on the turn if I felt my second pair was best.

As played, I have no idea where you're at and no idea how to properly range him - or even understand his impression of your image. It feels like he's bluffing/ semi-bluffing because his bets are so small - but that's using my poker room filter - which may or may not apply to yours.

His betting size makes a set less likely. As well as a boat.
His limp/call pre-flop makes AA, KK, QQ & JJ less likely as well.

Without further info - it looks like you're 50/50.
So... flip a coin?

Austin

Looking back at it I am leaning towards a fold for multiple reasons now.

#1 limping in general means he is passive player so unlikely to bet his draws
#2 I only block KQ, so if he plays KJ, KT, KX this way it becomes a clear fold
#3 I guess the Qh blocks quite a few flush draws he could have with Kh and 9h being on the board and him calling $20 preflop... He could only have like JhTh for a combo draw to lead with.

I should of put more importance on my Qh blocking flush draws more then blocking KQ.

Villain ended up having K8s and I lost the hand. I must of had a fishy image for him to think I would call down with worse which I did :( I did lose AK vs AJ and AQ vs AT for some pretty big pots pre, but didn't show them. He just seen me keep losing $100 here $200 here so thought I was a fish I guess. Worked well for him this time muahaha.

Thanks for the feed back. Will try and work on profiling players a little faster.

mbehr1983

This is exactly how they play K8 in my game as well. They always lead with top pair but small on every street. I don't like the ISO pre in my game it just bloats the pot and it seems like people are always limping with some kind of monster.

rocky ricoco

Austin wrote: »

#1 limping in general means he is passive player so unlikely to bet his draws

Lets assign the villain a pre-flop range:

TT-22,AKo-A5o,KQo-K8o,QJo-Q9o,JTo-J9o,T9o,AQs-A2s,KQs-K5s,QJs-Q7s,JTs-J8s,T9s-T8s,98s,87s,76s,65s .

On the flop if we remove drawing hands from the villain's range and assume he will lead with all is pairs his range becomes:

TT-22,AKo,A9o,KQo-K8o,Q9o,J9o,T9o,A9s,A5s-A4s,KQs-K5s,Q9s,J9s,T9s,98s
We are 49% - 51% and are getting good price to call.

If we assume he will only lead with top pair or better his range is:

99,44, AKo,KQo-K8o,KQs-K5s
We are a huge dog against this range (95-5) calling incorrectly here.

In my experience these players are skewed to top pair or better and will check call, check fold the rest. They do not want you to fold, so betting small to keeps you in the pot. It is best to exploit these players by simply folding,