A few days ago I shocked myself by making an the sickest, most unbelievable herocall I think I've ever made. Here is the hand history.
Calling the 3bet preflop is marginal at best and is actually probably losing in the long run. Since this was Rush, I really had no read on him and no idea about his 3betting range from the blinds against a button open, but his raise was just so small and I'm getting 2.5:1 and I have decent equity against a lot of hands that people 3bet there.
On the flop, his smallish cbet on that extremely connected board starts to trigger some of my bullshit detectors. I think he could make a bet that size with his missed AK and AQ to collect dead money if I also missed, but I think his strong made hands bet more on that flop to protect against the multitude of draws that could still be in my range - any two spades, any 7, any J, of which there are potentially still a ton in my range. This really illustrates why it's terrible for him to make such a small 3bet preflop and let me call with such a wide range.
In spite of how weak I think he is at this point, raising is not really a consideration for me. I have middle pair and a backdoor flush draw and it's still possible that he has something like JJ or a set that is strong now and still has decent equity if a draw gets there, or even just a badly played KK. So I elect to call and peel a turn here.
The turn card is great for me, giving me 9 flush outs in addition to my second pair with A kicker. I'm pretty sure all 9 of my flush outs are clean here, since even the board-pairing Td only puts him ahead of me if he already has a set, and he seldom does when he takes this line. Likewise, I think my A outs and 9 outs are clean most of the time, since I don't think he takes this line with AA or AT. So when he makes that less-than-halfpot bet on the turn I think he's actually laying me good odds to try to make a flush, two pair, or trips on the river.
I call. The river pairs the 8 on the board. Villain shoves $212 into a $120 pot. Unless villain is Spirit Rock playing on a friend's account, I think this is rarely if ever a bet for value and is almost always a bluff. If he actually has a hand that he think he's betting for value, I don't think he makes this shove overbet because he's afraid of folding out all of my medium-strength hands that would call a more reasonably-sized bet. I don't think he's willing to make this kind of play that would basically be a bet on my ability to herocall.
As I click to call I'm literally shaking IRL and when he shows and the pot ships to me I feel this massive adrenaline dump and I'm basically euphoric for the next 15-20 minutes. I still think it's supermarginal and if I hadn't been good, this post would likely be dedicated to berating the shit out of myself for making such a retarded call. But I was good, and it's one of the greatest feelings I've ever had in poker.
The combination of running really good and making sick plays like this and having them work out has me feeling extremely confident in my game.
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