Too aggressive with two pair?

[Sam T.]

Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed) converter (http://www.stompandcrush.com/cgi-bin/hhparser.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 7/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, Hero calls, SB folds, BB checks.

<font color="blue"> Maybe I should have mucked, but the table was pretty passive, so a raise seemed unlikely. </font>

Flop: (6.50 SB) 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(6 players)</font>

<font color="blue">Good news two pair. Bad news, I could be looking at a made straight, leaving me with four outs. Raise here and see who comes back at me, right?</font>

BB checks, <font color="CC3333">MP1 bets</font>, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, BB calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 folds, CO folds.

Turn: (8.25 BB) Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>

<font color="blue">Not great, but not bad. I think I'm still ahead. </font>

BB checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets</font>, BB calls, MP1 folds, MP2 folds.

<font color="blue">Oh, Lord, let the river be a two! </font>

River: (10.25 BB) 5/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

<font color="blue">Yuck. Check here? Or stay aggressive? </font>

BB checks, <font color="CC3333">Hero bets</font>, BB calls.

Final Pot: 12.25 BB
<font color="#990066">Main Pot: 12.25 BB, between BB and Hero.</font> &gt; <font color="white">Pot won by BB (12.25 BB).</font>

Results in white below: <font color="white">
BB shows 5h Qc (two pair, queens and fives).
Hero shows 6s 7d (two pair, sevens and sixes).
Outcome: BB wins 12.25 BB.

Looking back, it is clear that he had plenty of ways to win (two queens, three fives and the OESD), so this was far from a bad beat. Should I have done anything differently?

</font>

[Festus22]

I'd fold this preflop without hesitation.

Flop and turn look fine to me.

On the river, you should be 55% sure your hand is best WHEN CALLED to make this bet. I personally come up a bit light on the 55 number so I would have checked behind.

[sthief09]

Your opponent played terribly.

I bet the river like you did. I think the pot is small enough to safely fold to a check-raise against a non-tricky opponent.

[sthief09]

Since he can safely fold to a raise, it's really only 50/50. Either he wins or he loses for one bet. I think there is a reasonable enough chance that he just paired his 5's, or he has like A8, A7, or A6 and will call down.

and yeah, fold preflop. no question.

[Festus22]

The purpose of the river bet here is because you either A) think you have the best hand or B) you're trying to make a better hand fold.

A) With an open end 4-staight on the board, I cannot envision too many hands worse than mine calling a bet and that's why I cannot reach the 55% threshold to justify this bet (see HEPFAP for more on the concept). Sure there's some but not enough considering this very scary board.

B) This hand does have some showdown strength. As you mentioned, he may be ahead of a few hands here but what better hands will fold for one bet? Afterall, this is a 10BB pot prior to any river action. It would take a very weak player to laydown something like BB had for one more bet.

[sthief09]

I know the book says 55%, but if you aren't going to call a raise, then you don't need the extra 5% cushion.

even though a better hand won't fold, I think any one pair will call, and there are a lot of 1 pairs on the board /images/graemlins/wink.gif