A good missed bet?

[mosch]

80/160 game, CO in this hand is a little loose pre-flop, excellent post-flop. Button is very tricky, but seems to be competent.

I'm not used to the stakes, and have found myself playing a little too tight pre-flop, but otherwise I think I've been playing my A game.

I'm UTG with black jacks.
I raise, CO cold-calls, button calls, BB calls. Pot is 8.5 SB.

Flop: J /images/graemlins/heart.gif 9 /images/graemlins/club.gif 4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
BB checks, I bet, CO calls, button raises, BB folds, I call, CO calls. Pot is 14.5 SB.

Turn: 2 /images/graemlins/heart.gif
I bet, CO raises, button cold-calls, I call.

River: J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif
I check, CO checks, Button checks.

[CrackerZack]

I'm not a fan of the stop and go and really not a fan of the river check. You've shown no substantial strength yet. Bet the river and hope 99 is out there and it gets wild.

[mosch]

I'm sure you know this, but the river check was a blown check-raise. I thought I had an excellent chance of getting either one or both of them for at least two bets, and more if somebody had 99.

[elindauer]

Well, I've never played 80/160, so perhaps I'm not in a position to offer advice on this hand. That said, this seems like a pretty good spot to check-raise. You know that nobody has a J, and that there was a raise and a cold-caller behind you when the 3rd heart hit the turn. It sure looks like at least one flush is out against you, and you can count on a bet from them. They won't be happy about that J, but neither will they be ready to check behind with their made flush.

If he was getting tricky and raising with the bare ace of hearts, you still do better by checking, since he won't pay off a bet but might just bluff at it. Finally, that J is a somewhat scary card for a flush with two strong opponents seeing the turn for two bets... not scary enough that he'll check behind, but scary enough that he might not raise and let you 3-bet. I think checking and going for two bets from both players is the way to go.

[CrackerZack]

Well that is good to know /images/graemlins/smile.gif. I checked behind with the nuts on the river saturday night because I got table confused between my 2 tables and it was 3am. Ok, here are my questions,

Why are you "smooth" calling the flop raise with the current nuts? Is this a planned stop and go or were you planning a turn check-raise? Assuming a turn check-raise did the heart change your mind?

Honestly, if I wasn't stakes intimidated which I can't say that I wouldn't be, I'd 3-bet the flop and lead at the turn. You're out of position and with a couple of draws out there (although QT/T8 is a real bad cold call) you don't want to be victimized by the so-overused-it-just-might-work free card raise. The river check-raise isn't that bad but the J may have scared a flush especially if its the cutoff, I'd still bet and pray 99 or 44 is out there.

[mosch]

I didn't three-bet the flop because had a heart not shown up, I was planning to check-raise. It wasn't originally planned as a stop and go.

Once the heart showed up, I decided that I'd rather bet out rather than try the check-raise.

In a smaller game, I think I would've three-bet the flop, but it seemed like doing so in this game would've just cost me money. I'm not sure if that's true or if I just being a a wimp, but I felt like three-betting the flop would make it harder to get bets on the later streets.

Of course I wound up blowing my attempt to get more bets on the later streets anyway, so what do I know?