[barongreenback]

Thanks for the replies.

I have pretty bad instincts when it comes to value betting the river. I still haven't got limit out of my blood. I usually decide too much on emotions (scared or worried about being weak) instead of doing what I should be doing.

Once he just called the turn I was confident I was ahead. The 9 is a problem on the river but his check makes it less likely he has it. His lack of aggression suggests he has something to show down which increases the chance of a call. So I'm usually ahead but it's hard to believe a decent player calls much with a worse hand.

Anyway, he thought awhile and called with 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and I got the read I was looking for! I think that most of the time he wouldn't call with such a hand but just at that particular moment he didn't care too much about the money. Note that even with my smaller flop bet and a reasonable hand he didn't play back at me.

Whether I bet more early on depends on whether I intend to get away from the hand unimproved. Vs a wide range my hand does need protection from random 2 pair suckouts if I’m going to payoff. The majority of my stack went in at the river which I don’t like. Still don’t know about the river.

James