What was Caro thinking?

[KingMarc]

I was watching Mike Caro play, out of sheer bordeom, when this hand came up:

D: Game [41578] started with 3 players.
D: Dealing Hole Cards.
D: DERJEV4 called $10
D: gma01 folded.
D: MikeCaro raised $10
D: DERJEV4 called $10
D: Dealing flop.
D: Board cards [5d 8c Kc]
D: MikeCaro checked.
D: DERJEV4 checked.
D: Dealing turn.
D: Board cards [5d 8c Kc 8d]
D: MikeCaro checked.
D: DERJEV4 checked.
D: Dealing river.
D: Board cards [5d 8c Kc 8d 4h]
D: MikeCaro checked.
D: DERJEV4 checked.
D: Showdown!
D: MikeCaro has Full House : Kings full of 8s
D: MikeCaro wins $44 with Full House : Kings full of 8s
MikeCaro: it stood up
D: Hand is over.


As you can see, he completely slowplayed the 2nd best possible hand. I could understand going for a trap on the flop and turn, but the river as well is a bit extreme. However, I'm in no way shape or form as knowledgeable as he is at the game, and so I am wondering if what he did was in fact the right thing to do.

Edit: The player Drej had gone to showdown for the majority of hands he was in. He is, in essence, a calling station.

[andyfox]

Maybe Mike felt the meta-game considerations outweighed the possible, but unlikely, $20 he might have won had he bet the river.

[34TheTruth34]

if it really was Caro, he plays like that all the time online. I've seen him play tons of times back in the day on his Planet Poker site (back when there was only them and Paradise), and he'd screw around all the time like that in the 2/4 games. Just messing around and mingling with the players on his site so that people could say they played with him. He didn't really try to take their money.

[KingMarc]

Yea, it's really Caro. He's also been playing for 3 hours or so, and is up over $800 (single tableing)..so I do think he really is trying, and he is more than willing to take people's money [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Kevin J]

I think it was obvious what he was thinking. He's got the board pretty tied up and is hoping his lone opponent will catch something or bluff at it.

[Cornell Fiji]

I think this is the CORRECT play.

He has the deck crippled and can assume that the vast majority of the time his opponent will fold to a turn or river bet. There is a greater chance that his opponent will make a bluff then will call a bet at any point.

That however is not the reason to go check-check-check here. I believe one of the first responses here was maybe he was considering meta-game here and I believe that this is exactly the case? Why go check-check-check with the second boat when you think that your opponants will fold to any bet? So that you can show down the hand and maybe save a bet in the future when you have 2nd pair top kicker and top pair bad kicker decides not to bet the turn/river in fear that you hold a monster.