no read, no dice

[marbles]

Online 1/2. First hand, absolutely no read on anyone at the table. I post in the cutoff.

Two limpers to me, I check with 97o. Both blinds come along.

Flop is T76, with two hearts (I don't have any hearts). Player to my immediate right bets, I raise. Folded around to original bettor, who calls.

Turn is Qh. Bettor checks, I check.

River is an offsuit ace. Bettor checks, I check.

Results and thoughts in a separate post.

[Homer]

I would have bet the turn. You might get your opponent to fold a better hand (pair of sevens with a better kicker or a pair of tens) and if you are checkraised he probably has the flush himself and you can safely fold. If he calls your turn bet you should probably check behind on the river unless you improve or a fourth heart comes.

I like this much better than checking behind on the turn if you are going to call if bet into on the river. If you are going to fold to a bet on the river, then your play is acceptable, but still probably not as good as betting the turn.

-- Homer

[marbles]

"I would have bet the turn. You might get your opponent to fold a better hand (pair of sevens with a better kicker or a pair of tens) and if you are checkraised he probably has the flush himself and you can safely fold."

--This is exactly where the lack of a read comes in. At this point, I had no idea whether my opponent was capable of folding there, or if he was yet another hopeless calling station playing 1/2.

Thing is, I felt very confident that I was behind at this point. The best I could hope for was a weak ten, and even that wasn't a guaranteed fold from my opponent. I decided that I likely had outs (any non-heart 7, 8, or 9), so I'd see what developed.

Yes, I was prepared to fold on the river. The coin flip is, should I have bet that river while clearly holding the worst hand?

[Bob T.]

You should probably be confident that you are behind most opponents after they make a bet on the flop. If you aren't going to follow through, and bet on the turn, I think that you should probably let the hand go on the flop. The pot was tiny, and you certainly wouldn't be making a big mistake to fold here.

[marbles]

My opponent showed T2s (not hearts) for the winner. Would he have folded to a river bet? Probably, but certainly not guaranteed. This opponent did call down with some pretty wretched holdings on later hands.

A few things went through my head when I decided to check behind on the river:

1. The difference between the probability of him folding and the pot size was negligible at best.

2. I would receive information from seeing what he had. This would benefit me.

3. The entire table would receive information from seeing what I had. This, too, would benefit me.

4. I find 1/2 games much more difficult to control if immediately tagged as a "bluffer." A bet and call would certainly give me that image.

And yes, I'm sure I'm way, way overthinking on this one.

[marbles]

Solid point, Bob. With a complete lack of information on anyone, a fold may very well be best here. All the more reason to just wait for the BB before playing at all.

Devil's advocate, though... I did get a free ride to the river with a 9-outer.

[Inthacup]

I know you don't know this until after the fact, but if this player is willing to limp with 10 2s, then he's probably going to call your river bet here. For the record, I would have bet the turn and checked the river.

[Bob T.]

Devil's advocate, though... I did get a free ride to the river with a 9-outer.

In which case, I think you made theorhetical money. Nice play.