So then I check-raised the turn...AND the river.

[asymmetrical]

Live 4/8 game. A very fun home game: swinging from loose to tight but always very aggressive. Villian in this hand is a guy I play with almost weekly. He's a tough read: at times he's the maniac's maniac, raising with any 2 suited, and at other times he's really tight. Always very aggressive. Will often try and buy the pot. From what he's shown down, he's playing pretty tight tonight.

On to the hand: 9 handed 4/8.
EP limps, MP limps, LP limps, Villian raises in the CO. Button folds, <font color="red">Hero is SB and calls with 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]</font>. BB calls. All 3 limpers call. 6 to the flop for 2 SBs each.

Flop: A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
<font color="red">Hero bets</font>, BB folds, EP calls, MP calls, LP folds, Villian raises, <font color="red">Hero calls</font>, EP folds, MP calls.

Turn: (A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]) 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
<font color="red">Hero checks</font>, MP checks, Villian bets, <font color="red">Hero raises</font>, MP folds, Villian calls.

River: (A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
<font color="red">Hero checks</font>, Villian is visibly pained and takes about 2 minutes...then bets. <font color="red">Hero raises</font>. Villian debates another minute...and 3-bets. <font color="red">Hero calls.</font>

Good? Bad? Very Ugly?

[Bob T.]

I think you are ahead on the river. If his pauses were real, I suspect that he has two pair, probably AK. I would probably make one more raise before I slowed down.

Good luck,
play well,

Bob T.

[Joe826]

Why did you try the checkraise on the river? 3s isn't a very scary card, he very well could have checked it through. Seems like a dangerous play, unless you know by experience that he'll bet when you do that.

[asymmetrical]

Joe:

I would guess he bets the river about 90% of the time here: I put him on AK, most likely, and knew from experience he was too aggressive to let this one go to a free showdown. (I got burned later on an attempted river check-raise, though: my nut flush didn't get any action from two opponents, both of which had 2 pair...so I do tend to get too fancy on the river, I think...)

When he 3-bet me, I got worried about KK or AA, which is why I did not cap. Was I seeing monsters here (results not withstanding)?








He showed 2 red Kings and took it down. I can't believe his river decisions were THAT hard. He said he was worried about AA "again" (I had shown down pocket As twice that night.)

[Randy Burgess]

Getting set-undered hurts a lot, because you rack your brains as to how you could have played the hand better. Same as losing with KK unimproved to AA unimproved, at least in my experience - you wonder whether there's some way to avoid getting pinned like that.

But the truth is, this is limit hold'em. Getting set-undered doesn't happen all that often, and the cost of calling when you finally realize you're likely beat is small compared to the pot size. So calling is usually correct unless you pick up some unmistakeable tell.

In this case, given that you knew this guy was playing in his tight mode versus his steal mode, his three-betting the river was obviously an ominous sign ... but it was very late in coming, and who's going to fold the river here for one more bet?

Unless someone posts an obviously superior way you should have played it, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on this one.

[asymmetrical]

I was feeling I did everything I could: the river check-raise and failure to cap the river were my questions, which were sort of both answered. As you said, it was a big pot...and I ended the session up only $5, which was probably the biggest reason for the post.

I went back through the night thinking about how I could have netted a win, and this hand, along with 2 I played poorly (which I won't post, because, frankly, I KNOW where I screwed up), a few loose PF calls (that escalated into a few bad flop calls), and 2 hands where I wouldn't lay down when I knew I was beat, kept resurfacing.

What this night made me really realize (and I think this is a very good thing), is how small the margin for error is between being a winning player and simply a break-even player. A few small lapses in judgment, a few misplayed hands, and a nice win melts before your eyes.

As far as my continuing education in the game goes, this night was an important one for me.

[Trix]

I would rather bet the turn and 3bet if he raise me, instead of facing MP with 2 cold.