Ran into some post-flop spots during my most recent session where I felt pretty unsure of what to do. Not sure if it is rust (recently took almost 3 weeks off), being in a conscious incompetence part of the learning curve, or just mistakes I made previously in the hands. Let me know if it’s frowned upon/counter-productive to put multiple hands in the same thread, but I figured it was better than starting 3 new threads in quick succession.

— Hand 1: $22 Mini Battle Royale —

Not sure if this was a great 3bet. Over 61 hands villain had RFI of 40 (10/25) with 6/10 in MP, bet sizing and general post-flop play seemed to indicate a competent player. About 20 hands earlier, with ~110bb, villain showed down Q9s after opening from UTG+1 so I think we can assume a pretty wide opening range. I like targeting these players in position with blockers, but there’s a lot of hands I’d prefer to play in an inflated pot than ATo.

PokerStars – 60/120 Ante 12 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 67.78 BB
UTG+1: 89.78 BB
MP: 89.28 BB
MP+1: 71.82 BB
MP+2: 89.8 BB
CO: 97.64 BB
Hero (BTN): 83.68 BB
SB: 55.2 BB
BB: 126.33 BB

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has A T

fold, fold, MP raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 7.37 BB, fold, fold, MP calls 4.87 BB

Flop: (17.15 BB, 2 players) 7 8 T
MP checks, Hero checks

Turn: (17.15 BB, 2 players) 5
MP bets 8.57 BB, Hero calls 8.57 BB

River: (34.3 BB, 2 players) Q
MP checks, Hero ?

I think checking flop was probably a mistake, of my 3-betting hands I’d much prefer to check with QTs/JTs, 98s, etc. At the time I was thinking it would be hard to get three bets in against worse hands and that I didn’t want to put stacks in play without improving, so decided to see the turn before building an already inflated pot. Do we prefer front-loading our value here? Also interested in whether we like a value bet of ~2/5 pot on the river and (obviously) I welcome opinions on any of the decisions.

— Hand 2: $33 Bounty Builder —

Have villain tagged as a LAG-fish, 42/23 with 40% fold to 3bet (and no 4bets) over 172 hands, loose-passive on flops (38% cbet, 27% fold to cbet, 0% 2bet) and very aggressive on turn (4/4 bet vs missed flop cbet, 63% Afreq) and river (67% Afreq).

PokerStars – 45/90 Ante 14 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP+2: 83.64 BB
Hero (CO): 65.94 BB
BTN: 51.32 BB
SB: 48.08 BB
BB: 33.14 BB
UTG: 75.44 BB
UTG+1: 38.57 BB
MP: 79.06 BB
MP+1: 30.5 BB

9 players post ante of 0.16 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.9 BB) Hero has T T

fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 5.83 BB, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 3.83 BB

Flop: (14.57 BB, 2 players) A 4 A
MP+2 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (14.57 BB, 2 players) 6
MP+2 bets 7.29 BB, Hero calls 7.29 BB

River: (29.14 BB, 2 players) 4
MP+2 bets 14.58 BB, Hero ?

My plan on flop was to check and let him barrel at me, although I think c-betting is also a good option. Pretty good run-out for my plan, but bet sizing on river made me uncomfortable. I felt this player was going bigger with his bluffs, but I couldn’t remember a specific hand where I had seen that, so decided not to deviate from my plan. Against a stronger opponent I would prefer calling river with no heart in my hand, but didn’t think it mattered much here. Thoughts?

— Hand 3: $16.50 Bounty Builder —

No meaningful read on opponent, aside from seeing them cold call an open twice (in later position) on a similar size stack. 

PokerStars – 150/300 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (UTG): 49.31 BB
UTG+1: 16.17 BB
MP: 25.97 BB
MP+1: 15.66 BB
CO: 53.03 BB
BTN: 25.03 BB
SB: 228.19 BB
BB: 43.02 BB

8 players post ante of 0.17 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.83 BB) Hero has K Q

Hero raises to 2.33 BB, fold, MP calls 2.33 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 1.83 BB, fold

Flop: (9.32 BB, 3 players) 5 5 9
SB checks, Hero bets 2.42 BB, MP calls 2.42 BB, fold

Turn: (14.17 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 6.52 BB, MP calls 6.52 BB

River: (27.2 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero ?

I like making a small bet on the flop followed by a leveraging bet on the turn with KQ/KJ on this type of board, mainly hoping to get A high to put a few chips in the middle and then fold. SB was seeing a ton of flops (as a big stack should be doing in PKOs) but, considering that the flop was contested 3 ways, I think this was a pretty bad spot for my line. I was shutting down on the river, but when my hand improved I was unsure of what to do. Villain had an $18.75 bounty.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice!