What do you do here?

[spaminator101]

lets say you have top pair going to the river when a fourth straight card hits. Your heads up against a complete donk who may have the straight may have a smaller pair or he may have anything else. you check and he bets out. Now i know that its a pretty automatic call if there is a lot of money in the pot but what if its a relitively small pot.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

is this NL? limit? how big is the pot? how did the rest of the hand play out?

[spaminator101]

NL
pot is relatively small
bet is about 1/2 to 3/4 of the pot
raised once before flop
bet on flop
checked on turn

[henrikrh]

Every hand is different, and things have to be VERY specific if you want more than just opinions, it also depends on your style of play and the way you want others to percieve you.

If he is a LAG then I would fold becuase it can be seen as +ev no matter what he has...

-if he has the straight you have saved money, +ev
-if he bluffed then he now thinks you are a push around and you can pull effective slowplays and traps later on, +ev

Maybe the problem isn't the river call or fold but the fact that you didn't value bet your top pair against a player who could be holding, as you say, absolutely anything. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TexArcher]

I probably fold it, chances are he's got me beaten, but even if not I get the added benefit of appearing bluffable on late streets, I like the extra calls when I've got a strong hand and the extra bluff catches on second pair, etc.

And the size of that bet looks like he wants/expects me to call it, I generally put this one down, just too many cards a loose player could have that beat me here...

[bernie]

Why not just bet the turn instead of checking it?
Why put yourself in the guessing position? Put him in one.
b