POTD #211 Monaco Monday: When To Barrel and When No to Barrel

An EPT Monte Carlo hand vs Isaac Haxton

Last week on POTD, I spent a week dedicated to flop c-bets. Well, this week I figured I would move one step down the tree. You raise preflop, the BB calls; you c-bet the flop, the BB calls. The turn comes out— what hands do you two-barrel? In the pre-solver era, there was one thing that most players got right: You did not want to barrel a hand that did not know what to do when facing a check-raise. You bet a polar strategy of strong hands and bluffs, but checked back middle-of-range hands. However, most people did not realize just how polar you were allowed to get. You c-bet AhTh2c and then the turn is an offsuit K. You can barrel a flush draw, J9, 54, a hand like JT, but no one would be crazy enough to barrel 8d7d. Incorrect. The solver is.

Knowing you can barrel a lot of total air can be freeing, but if you always do it, you’re going to be lighting a lot of money on fire, especially if you’re often following through on the river. It’s rare that you will be playing a poker player who is folding too much on the turn and on the river. So this week will be focusing on two-barreling when you have nothing. Of course, I’ll also be writing about flop and river strategies, but the crux of all of the hands this week will follow the same shape. You bet the flop, you get called… the turn rolls off and you have nothing, bupkis, zilch, nada. What do you do?

2023 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo €10,200 Mystery Bounty
(500/1k/1k) (SB/BB/BBA) Level 1. Registration is open. Bounties are not in play.

It folds to me (100k) in the CO with T♥️9♦️ and I make it 2.5k, Isaac Haxton (100k) calls in the BB.

Flop (6.5k) A♠️Q♠️3♣️: Ike checks, I bet 4.5k, Ike calls.
Turn (15.5k) 7♠️: Ike checks, I check.
River (15.5k) 8♥️: Ike bets, I don’t remember what size as I had ten high and folded.