Top pair of sevens; flush draw

[45suited]

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So betting seems likely on balance to be a losing proposition. If you think your hand is probably best, I prefer check-calling in this spot; that way you can at least hope to get more money in from worse hands here more reliably.

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It really sucks playing hands OOP, doesn't it? When I read the hand, I actually felt that the river bet was a bit of a blocking bet. The pot was 625 and OP bet 300. Seems reasonable since checking just encourages villain to bluff. I think that the 300 river bet makes the river easier to play (at least for me).

[AKQJ10]

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At a low buyin tournament, I think 8s or 9s are almost never going to get away on this river. There's not much reason to think you have a T or an overpair (some people will check JJ in the BB there when it gets to them, but not so much at low buyins.)

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Good points. I rethought the value of fold equity after posting that, because you're right. I had no read on the player before this hand (after this hand I believed him to be a calling station!), and default behavior at this level of play is probably to at least call 1/2 pot with A7, 88, or 99.

It's good for me to go through the thought processes of more sophisticated players post mortem, to improve my knowledge for when I get to higher buyins. Nevertheless, my decisions should be made based on a realistic assessment of the competition.

I'm thinking check-calling (up to about 1/2 pot) is probably best.