Argument about a river all-in

[colehard]

A friend and I have a disagreement on the following play. We both agree that the button (who claimed to have a high pair) played it very poorly but how was the river bet by SB? The only reads I had were that SB was fairly tight and agressive and Button is mediocre.

PP 25NL

Button call .25, SB completes, BB checks

Flop [0.75] 4/images/graemlins/club.gif 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif

Checked around

Turn: 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif

Checked around

River 9/images/graemlins/club.gif

SB goes all in for $58.13
BB calls for $36.75

I think there is value to this river bet..what do you think?

[soLit]

i think he has k/k or some high pair he tried to slowplay and was just hoping someone hit the 9 ? im really not sure

[colehard]

Funny, when I was playing I thought it obvious that SB had the case 4. Otherwise, why would he risk $40 to win 0.75

The question to me was whether he should have made a smaller river bet. To a non thinking player the all in might look like a bluff and get called. If such a player was going to call a $2 bet they might call a $40 bet. It only needs to be 19 times less likely that they will call the $40 bet to make it good value.

So, other streets aside, should SB make a smaller bet and hope to get called or just go all-in knowing that if button was going to call anything he may well call the all-in?

[PinkSteel]

The only time I would ever consider SB's line would be with the stone cold nuts. There is just no way I'm going to push with less and get smacked by the case 4.

So if I have zero risk of loss, and my opponent has checked all the way through, I might figure the only chance of my picking up more than a blind would be if BB has also been slowplaying the whole time, in which case, why not push and hope I'm lucky enough to get a call?