Just checking...To semi-bluff or not semi-bluff at NL10?

shakinaces

I had only really just sat down, this was my first button and first hand I played.

I know I could have opted to 3bet, but given I didn't recognise the name of the raiser I opted to call and see what happened.

Given the flop that came down, against unknowns, should I be giving more consideration to raising, say, 2/3 pot?  Should the paired board make me veer on side of caution and check?  Against randoms is a free card sensible anyway given the flop is low and it's more likely to get calls from overcards / middle pairs?

Hand History #715955192 (22:02 01/12/2013)

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.05	£0.05	£15.54
BB	Big blind		£0.10	£0.15	£9.07
	Your hole cards	6 7
UTG	Fold
UTG+1	Raise		£0.30	£0.45	£15.71
CO	Fold
shakinaces	Call		£0.30	£0.75	£9.55
SB	Fold
BB	Call		£0.20	£0.95	£8.87
Flop
		4 4 5
BB	Check
UTG+1	Check
shakinaces	???

shakinaces

And then...

If I raise and get a caller / raise get two callers... the turn is checked (one or two callers) if I miss... or someone leads out, consider a call if I have the odds, but never raise?

Lambert180

I'd probably bet this flop after the 2 checks. If I get checkraised I'd probably call if it's cheap enough to draw to a 3/8.

Once they check/call, it's unlikely they'll donk bet any turn so I'd probably fire again if we make our straight, if we pick up a flush draw or if there's a good card to barrel like an ace, if not we just checkback and take a free shot at hitting the straight.

shakinaces

In Response to Re: Just checking...To semi-bluff or not semi-bluff at NL10?:

I'd probably bet this flop after the 2 checks. If I get checkraised I'd probably call if it's cheap enough to draw to a 3/8. Once they check/call, it's unlikely they'll donk bet any turn so I'd probably fire again if we make our straight, if we pick up a flush draw or if there's a good card to barrel like an ace, if not we just checkback and take a free shot at hitting the straight.
Posted by Lambert180

I'm sure people will get wise to this at some point, but this was one of the most effective micro/low stakes tips I think I've read in magazines recently (by Ross Jarvis). Works so regularly it must be a very +EV move at these levels.

Thanks for the feedback. I know it's a bit of a noddy question, but just trying to go back to basics at the moment and reconfirm I'm not being too daft!

Lambert180

Yeah it's just pretty standard in a lot of situations because a lot of the time you will be c-betting the flop even when you've completely missed with AK/AQ/AJ etc, so when the A comes on the turn, a lot of the time you'll be betting because it genuinely helped you, so when you barrel the turn here you'll make people fold better hands than yours like 5x, probably some middling PPs and some hands they might have just called 1 on the flop with when they have stuff like KQ/KJ which is still actually ahead of us and we're happy to make fold.

77Chris91

FWIW if you get check called on this type of board the villain is likely to have a lot of Ax type hands as opposed to PP's as their probably continuing with a lot of there PP's here for value. An A is also a better card for you to rep if your the opening raiser as you don't have as many Aces in your range when flat calling the button.

Definitely bet this flop when checked to as your gonna get a ton of folds in the spot. If villain takes a check call line I would probably bet anything that isn't an ace on the turn as there range looks pretty weak.  

Lambert180

^^^ Sigh, I thought you were the original raiser, which is why an ace is so good for us.