River play: Did I throw away a bet?

[Allan]

Party Poker 3/6 Hold 'Em (10 handed)

Some background: The 2 players here are the weakest at the table. The button in this hand is worse of the 2 and plays horribly. The BB seems to know some tactics but plays too loosely and is a bit of a calling station. I saw him make the good play of isolating the poor button player with stuff like A8o and some other plays that I thought were good when he could get it HU with the poor opponent. The thing is that he played a lot of hands preflop otherwide and also was a bit of a calling station. I saw him call middle pair nut kicker all the way to the river on a flop that he was clearly beaten given the action. I hadn't seen him get terribly aggressive post flop on any hands.

When I joined the game I had the option of sitting to the immediate left of the poor playing button or to the immediate left of the BB which would give me position on the 2 worst players at the table. I chose to sit to the direct left of the poor playing button in order to have FROI on the worst player. There were going to be times when I was going to get interfered with by the other player and I also didn't know who would be coming into the left over open seat if I chose the position to the left of both of them. Good choice in seat selection?

Anyway the hand:

Preflop: Hero is SB with 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button calls, Hero raises, BB calls, Button calls.

Flop: (6 SB) 4/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(3 players)</font>
Hero bets, BB calls, Button calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(3 players)</font>
Hero bets, BB raises, Button calls, Hero 3-bets, BB caps, Button folds, Hero calls.

River: (14.50 BB) 7/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 20.50 BB
<font color="#990066">Main Pot: 20.50 BB, between Hero and BB.</font>

Allan

[Allan]

[Saborion]

I'm in no real position to judge, but I think you played the hand fine. Seems clear that BB has at least two pair, but given that he capped the turn and 3-bet you on the river, I'd say he might have a better hand than that, given you mentioning never seeing him become too aggressive post-flop.

I'd say you lost to a set of 8's or T's, but wouldn't be surprised if you won against his two pair either or set of 2's either.

[Dylan Wade]

I think you should fold pre-flop. Raising to isolate with 44 isn't good , (especially when you know BB is loose).

Playing 44 Head's up out-of-position, sucks. It's even worse 3-way.

[AceHigh]

[ QUOTE ]
Good choice in seat selection?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I would have taken the other seat. I would like to have position on the 2 loosest players at the table because I will be playing a lot of hands against them. Also, won't the BB call of lot of your isolation raises?

Preflop I would just call, you probably can't isolate and you will be out of position the whole hand.

[ QUOTE ]
I hadn't seen him get terribly aggressive post flop on any hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would probably slowdown on the river against the Big Blind since he isn't terribly aggressive and just bet and call a raise. Would an passive player get this aggressive with 2 pair?

[Allan]

Anyway,

I was really wondering if I should have capped the river. I thought the BB hit a 2 pair but after the 3 bet I really started to wonder about a turned set. I got shown T2o instead so my hand was good.

Regarding the PFR. At the time I thought it was right. I had seen the BB in lots of pots in unreaised preflop situations and with him seeming to know a little about isolating etc I thought he'd be folding more often in raised pots preflop. Obviously I was wrong and had to tighten up in these blind situations and also making my seat selection worse choice. I woulda hated to see someone decent move into that other seat though had I chosen the other way around.

Allan