What's your line on the river here?

AgentBishop · #1 06-19-2005, 04:23 PM

This is a hand my friend was asking me about. He was concerned about what he should have done on the river. Villain seems to be decent player but not mixing it up very much. He seemed to bet and raise hands he thought he was ahead in. Haven't seen him slow play yet at all. I have however seen him bluff a couple times. So my friend has no reason to believe he is behind at any point in the hand.

Ultimate Bet No-Limit Hold'em, $.10 BB (8 handed) converter

MP1 ($2.90)
MP2 ($17.10)
CO ($13.50)
Button ($24.28)
Agents Friend ($6.60)
BB (Villain)/ ($17.33)
UTG ($2.35)
UTG+1 ($4.20)

Preflop: Agents Friend is SB with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.10, 2 folds, Button calls $0.10, Agents Friend raises to $0.4, BB :Villain/ calls $0.30, MP1 folds, Button folds.

Flop: ($1) A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)
Agents Friend bets $1, Villain calls $1.

Turn: ($3) 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)
Agents Friend bets $1.5, Villain calls $1.50.

River: ($6) J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
Agents Friend bets $3.7 (All-In), Villain folds.

Final Pot: $9.70

Results in white below: 
Agents Friend has As Kh (two pair, aces and kings).
Outcome: Agents Friend wins $9.70. 

At first I said the play was fine. But then I got to thinking about it later. He had three options:
Push, check, or bet.
Push:
If he pushes, as he did, he was most likely was only going to get called by a hand that has him beat. So most likely lose the rest of his stack or win nothing. Which now I think is a bad move. Pushing could get him to fold a set here but I doubt he has it from my read of him and if he did he probably wouldn't fold anyway.
Bet:
Make a value/blocking bet of about $2 to try and get some value out of Two pair vs Top pair and stop a set from pushing. But with only a $1.70 left why not push since you won't fold to a raise here anyway. I don't think Villain will put much thought in to Hero being pot committed by this bet.
Check:
I like this line best I think. Against this opponent, I can't see hero laying down this hand with only $3.70 left. He might be able to induce a bluff here with the scare card and get some money from villain. Or villain might be scared of the J and check behind with trips.

Is my line of thinking correct here?

Extra credit-
Would my actions on the river change if Villain were:
A) Very Tight
b)Very Loose
c)Very good(for these stakes)
d)Very bad