Art of the Min Raise (Part 7)

I have been trying to get into 6-max games a little recently, donking around at NL50. I have found that these games are actually not that soft - I have sat at many many a table full of 25/20 types with 3bet percentages above 7. The level of aggression, especially preflop, is unreal.

This definitely increases your variance, and can be pretty annoying. But I think there is a lot of value in learning how to play best in these kinds of games. I think it's some combination of 1) being VERY tight out of position, 2) Betting and stacking off for value a little lighter - these players are so eager to try and "outplay" people that you can really get a lot of thin value. Top pair with any sort of kicker is often good for a stack. 3) 4-bet bruffing in some good spots. The light 3-bet is now completely standard in these games, but it doesn't seem like there's yet been an adjustment to a whole lot of light 4-betting, so your 4-bets usually get credit. 4) A little bit of slowplaying, especially "slowplaying" a draw in position. Semi-bluffing is so standard in these games that if you check a draw behind, or even flat-call a check-raise with it, you get no credit for it later on if it hits.

And that's the part that relates to this hand. This villain is obviously pretty donkish, so I don't know if he's actually thinking "he would have 3-bet the flop with KJ, so he's probably just got a one-pair hand". But when he (basically) min check-raises this flop, I decided to just call and try to hit a hand. As far as his play calling out of position with 92s (although of spades) and then check-raising THIS flop, I think it's absolutely terrible. I'm going to have at least a little piece of this flop that I'm willing to continue to a MIN check-raise with a very very large percentage of the time. He might fold out my pocket pairs 99-33 or my ace-rag hands with no flush draw, but many of those I might just peel one off with here and not c-bet this board, which hits a lot of what I think his calling range is from the bb. More importantly, if I call, he's out of position for the rest of the hand, and we're deep, so a lot of gross stuff could happen, like me hitting a beautiful turn card which gives me the nuts and him bottom two pair.

Also I want to note how much having position helped me get value on the turn and river. If I'm out of position on the river, do I bet or try and induce a bluff from the missed flush draw? Very good chance I miss a lot of value. In position, once he checks, I've got an easy decision to shove. On the turn as well, I think I would have to bet out of position because I wouldn't want to allow him a free card, but that allows him to just call and control pot size, unless I want to overbet and fold out all the draws I could have gotten value from.

-BRUECHIPS