For those who dont bet an obvious "chop" pot on the river

[Mike Gallo]

This hand took place around 5:30 am at a pretty good $6-$12 game at the Borgata. The villian in this seat sat in Poker327's seat, after Poker327 left. The villian had the small blind for this hand.

I limp in semi ep with J /images/graemlins/heart.gifQ /images/graemlins/heart.gif a few more players limp the villian completes the big blind raps and 6 of us see the flop.

Flop J 2 2 rainbow

Checked to me I bet one player called the small blind called.

Turn J J 2 2

The small blind checked I bet next player folded the villian raised, I three bet he called.

River 3 J J 2 2

He checked, I bet he called pretty quickly...and tabled 2 5 sooooooted.

I fully expected to see him turn over a jack for a chopped pot.

[eric5148]

No way I'd check behind on that river.

[Scott_Baio]

this is a situation where checking is terrible because many worse hands will call your bet, the real question is: what do you do if you are 3-bet?

Obviously you aren't folding, but should you cap it? In my experience this is one of the many situations that separates low limit games from higher limit games. In a higher limit game, capping is often -EV. The only hands an opponent will turn over, other than the case jack for the chop, is 22 or the unlikely J3.

In low limits, people often only play level one poker and have a hard time reading the board. So I'll see opponents capping this river with a single 2 or 33 or even aces enough to make the cap +EV, even though I expect to chop most of the time.

Also note: This is assuming the rake is already capped, because if raising increases the rake, often calling is the right play because of the high frequency of the chop.