Keep em honest or wasting a BB?

Guys,


OK. Here is my situation. Playing 1/2 PP. On the flop and maybe the turn I am ahead (say top two pair for arguments sake), but then on the river the 3rd flush card hits, or the board pairs, or the 4th straight card hits, some limper/calling station comes to life and raises or bets into me. Now what?


My question to you - do you call him to keep him honest or dump the hand knowing you are beat?


I tend to call him, but feel like I am just throwing money away! BUT, I can't stand to not know what that lucky bastard :-) has!


How do you guys deal with this?


TIA,


Paul

They're called crying calls, and all I can say is get over it. Very rarely will you be bluffed in those situations. Try keeping track of how much extra you put in the pot compared to what you won the few times you catch someone bluffing. On the other hand you only have to catch a bluffer once in a while to make it worthwhile.


You need to watch the other players carefully, see how they play each street. You'll figure out pretty quickly who is capable of bluffing like that. If you can catch the bluffer, you can make even more re-raising.


It is a sign of your maturing as a player though when you can lay down your top pair hand to those turn check-raises. You'll save yourself a lot of money too.


Good luck

Hey davidross, that $2/4 table last night was cracking me up. How did you end up anyway? Did fireman make enough for his new BMW?

Which table were you on. I played at two with fireguy, was up on one and down on the other? I think you must be talking about the one I was up on because that was the fun one. That one guy ( ican't remember his handle) was the only reason I didn't lose my shirt this weekend. In my notes I had him playing 2-4, 3-6 anything suited, then he's push his draws and bluff the river. I won a lot of money from him. The rest of the table was pretty tough.

generally, most calling stations arent bluffers and tend only to bet hands when they have it...


watch the player tendencies for this, then if one bets, its easier to fold. let someone else call.

once you get this down a little, youll save chips.


if you keep calling like this because you 'have to ' know...whos the calling station? /images/wink.gif


but if in doubt, call since its a smaller mistake than blowing the pot


ciao


b

Yeah, it was a pretty tough table. I just remember the "Lord of Darkness," getting a small handfull of playable hands in four hours, and "THUMP." I bluffed the river poorly a couple times, but I think I know who you are talking about. This is why I lost a few BB on that table, not paying much attention to the play,lots of typing, BSing, and laughing my ass off!


See ya soon!

In my year of play, I have found many calling stations who are very passive throughout the hand and then will pure bluff the river (but rarely with a raise, usually will just bet into you). I love these type of players, but of course you have to make the "crying call" against them.


OK, maybe its not as many as I think, but it probably seems like a lot since I ask for a table change as soon as I see them at another table in the room.

Ok, when I was first starting out online this was difficult for me. I was losing way too many bets like this and I wasn't good enough to read my opponents (btw, who can read .5/1 players?). And, even when I was good enough, most often I wasn't closely watching the game. And, there are way too many player changes.


So, when presented with a scary board at the river, I would check / call the river. You won't believe how many "bluffs" this will induce. At the low limits, few players will call with a scary board unless they can beat you. And then they're raising.


However, I've found at low limits almost 50% (ok this is a guess) of the players will take a shot at you with "nothing". In this case you gain an extra bet if you're ahead. These same players would have folded to your river bet, btw.


If they have something they will also bet, but you're only calling one bet. If it's two bets to you, then I'd say it's time to fold unless it's your flush that's hit!


At the end of the day, you net out and you don't have to worry about making/losing that extra bet. It's a simple solution and does not require in depth player reading skills.


Now, when you do have a read on one of your opponents you can begin to take shots. Like Davidross's re-raise suggestion at the river! But you need to be sure about this.

Throw it away the first time, call him the 2nd.


You can also, I believe, change your PP handle mid-stream so the opponents don't know its still tight-wad-never-pay-off-a-raise-on-the-river you still in that seat, and so may not start taking shots at you.


- Louie