Checking most profitable at the river!?

IMO at lot of hold'em players play to aggressive at the river;

they bet with "only" top pair, have also seen players raise with one pair at the river.


From my experience, checking at the river is in many situations more profitable:

Say you start with AK and raise before the flop.

Flop comes: A-9-3 and you bet.

Turn comes: 5 and you bet.

Before the river there is one caller left, and you are first to act:

River is: 10

You check, and very often the caller now bet (and you call)


A lot of times the other player bet at the end with nothing or a week hand.

You win the pot, but the point is that if you had bet, the other player had fold.

So you win one extra bet by checking in the end, or in other situations you save one, when the other player actually beat you.


Any opinions?

You have to consider your opponent. The more aggressive the player, the more often you should check. The problem with checking against timid opponents is that you lose a bet when they won't bet their losing hand, but would have called with it. Against an agressive opponent, he is not going to call with a loser as often, but will bluff if you give him the chance; This is the player you want to check to. S&M have a great section on this in HPFAP.


-MD

The play your refer to is inducing a bluff.


Its an expert play


It is very profitable


Use it when you think you might be beat if your opponent made his hand, or would fold to a river bet if he missed.


Stu