Defeating players who aggressively bet draws

[ugignadl]

Howdy all. I've recently played a bunch of $10 NL, and although happy to come out in front, players who aggressively bet draws vex me.

For a start, they don't seem to give two shits about pot odds. Which is fine in theory...but then, what to do if they bluff that they made the draw? For example, a gutshot straight and flush are possible. You hold top two pair. How do you know, or what should you look for to guess if your opponent actually made their draw? If the gutshot card comes, and the guy chucks a potsized bet at you (or thereabouts) do you fold the top two pair? How about the flush?

The problem I'm having is this. If you answer fold to both of those, then mathematically you may be making a huge mistake. Combining all the possible draws even a single opponent could be calling to make will increase their outs to over half the deck! It's just not going to work.

Just to finish, here is a recent example.

You are the button with an above average stack, and dealt . Villain in middle position with an average stack raises to 2BB. You know the table is loose but raise to 6BB anyway. Unusually enough, you end up heads up with the villain (who calls) as both blinds fold.

Flop comes: . Villain checks. You cbet, villain calls.

Turn: . Villain checks. You bet bigger, villain calls. Did he just hit a flush? A set? Or just a pair?

River: . Villain punts out half the pot. You fold. Villain (chooses to!) show .

That's a bit less complicated than the two-pair fighting with a possible draw, where you would call this guy if you had two pair, but I've got ace high in the above. No way was it worth much more betting...

Look forward to any comments.

[puckhead23]

First of all, do you put out a continuation bet every time you raise preflop? If I know you c-bet all the time, why should I (as the villain) respect your bet? I have two overcards to the board and a backdoor flush draw. Not that this is a strong hand, but villain might be betting on your perceived weakness and he has some hope to improve. However, if that was villain's belief, the proper play would be to reraise you hard.

If you did that to me, I would have tried to take the pot from you on the flop by reraising 3-4x the size of your c-bet, before the board got scary. I think he sensed you were weak, as evidenced by his bold play of bluffing the river on a paired, flush board.

Pot odds aren't the only consideration for making a bet +EV. Reads come into play, and I think villain had one on you. Just my $0.02.

[biggle10]

If you never fold the winning hand, you aren't playing winning poker.

[ihave21]

I usually put out a potsize bet for the nut straight or nut flush draw and I will definitely reraise to limit the field with those draws.

[cavman]

I usually put out a potsize bet for the nut straight or nut flush draw and I will definitely reraise to limit the field with those draws.

there are only a few situations where you want to limit the field when you are drawing. also, i very rarely 3-bet a draw. i'm a big fan of semi-bluffing, but i only play big combo draws this fast.

[goofyballer]

This hand left me scratching my head. You made it 6xBB preflop, and he calls the flop with nothing? Against a villain this dumb, I check behind the turn; that's because most of the time, the retard picked up a small pair that he isn't letting go of. I hate taking AK UI to showdown. I probably check behind the turn and fold the river to more than, say, 1/3 the pot.