[turtlestar]

Thank you for the replies.

One small note: it was me, the hero, who was hitting a lot of hands, not the villain.

Anyway, here is my thought process on the river.
The "check dark" comment led me to believe that the villain wanted a cheap showdown and was calling on the river no matter what. This, in turn, led me to believe that villain was calling with a wide range of one pair hands including any J, 7, or 6. That is why I bet for value on the river.

I also believed the villain to NOT be a tricky player. In the 6 hours I played with him (this hand was about 4 hours in) I had never seen him raise the turn or river without a big hand. That is why I folded on the river.

I believed him to be one of those pessimistic players we all love to play against who always thinks someone else has a better hand. I just plain could not see him check raising the river without a straight. If I had to guess, I would say he had J8, 87, or 86.

Just an aside, as a new poster I think I need to reconsider the hands I post or how I post them. The ones I think are interesting are often player/read dependent. I think I need to add more player info to help all respoders.

Thanks for the posts,
ts