Live 5-10 River Decision

[BartHanson]

Hero is in the small blind with $1500. Villain is under the gun and has me covered. Table is fairly passive not much preflop raising. Villain is a non tricky fairly loose passive prop--Mr. Kim for those of you that know me.

Villian limps under the gun. Folded around to hero in the SB with Qd Qh. Hero makes it $40 to go. Villain calls.

Flop: As Kd Qs

Hero bets $75. Villain calls.

Turn: 8d

Hero bets $225. Villain thinks for a moment and calls. Pot size~$680

River 2d

I have about $1100 left in my stack. Plan for river here?

[Big_Jim]

I assume this is full ring?

Hmm. Villian flat calls potish sized bets on flop and turn....

I would bet $500 and fold to a raise.

I highly doubt a "passive" player raises you without having you beat, especially on this board.

Hands we're ahead that pay off, but don't raise: KQ, AK, AQ (He passive enough not to raise with these earlier?), Ax

Hand's we're behind that raise: A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]x[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (Especially A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]), JT, AA, KK(if he's a slowplayer).

Since he's a passive player, I can see him slowplaying you, but I can also see him calling you down with a ton of crap.

[emil3000]

Value bet for sure and I think this is a good time for a smallish bet. I don't think you will get raised very often but if you do get raised you can probably fold unless it's like a minraise. Depends on whether he limps AK AQ and KQ, and whether he limpcalls a lot with ax. If he's unlikely to have Ax based on the proflop action I like Big Jims 500 bet, but otherwise I think a bet of $350 is better.

[Lucky]

bet half pot on river, he calls with AQ or slick.

[flawless_victory]

[ QUOTE ]
Villain is a non tricky fairly loose passive prop--Mr. Kim for those of you that know me.


[/ QUOTE ]well, i guess hes not bluffing busted spades if u check, so u absolutely should bet, the question is whether to call if raised...
i like betting 300-350, this way u get some value from 2pair and have some room for an escape if raised... if he moves in, you are effed. this would be a spot for a really nice laydown... tough, but i dont see how he can move in on river w/ a hand u can beat.

[KenP]

Not an easy hand... Duh...

One of those hands where there are a hundred choices and 99 are likely wrong.

The advice is to value bet against the unknown. Certainly not bad advice. Hero is in a $500 buyin and still a bit ahead. The value bet changes that to under water. If villan has a near nut here he's going to reraise. If you check he is likely to value bet and let you call the hand for hopefully the same level as you'd have bet into him.

Seems the choice is play semi-aggressive and face a rebuy or take the cowards route and either make a decent profit or just end up a bit underwater after the hand.

The only information you have tends toward the negative. Villan seems capable of playing a drawing hand or the nuts slowly. So, I check and see what he does or pot commit using the scare cards of the coordinated board. Seems like betting 500 for value is making me close enough to pot committed that if I choose aggression then I might as well go all the way.

Usually tales like this end up poorly in the forums. I am expecting a loser here. So my tainted choice is to check and pray and make the crying call of hopefully his modest value bet.

[BartHanson]

More information about villain. When I say non tricky I mean non tricky. I don't know if he's ever pulled the limp reraise move from upfront with a big pocket pair and if he does I definitely don't think that he is so advanced that he would smooth call my raise since it is headsup.

[Garland]

It's highly likely villain has A-something. You hope he has two pair, but him calling the big turn bet could also mean he picked up a diamond draw. I would value bet the river, enough that even a single A (probably AJ or AT) will call, something like $300. Passive guy with two pair will not raise you. If he raises all-in you must release your hand.

See you next week, Bart.

Garland

[BartHanson]

Well I guess this wasn't an interesting hand seeing the amount of responses I got. Villain had Ad 6d. I think his call on the flop was questionable, although he did have position on me and I might have been continuing with a small pocket pair. He picked up the diamond draw on the turn so he stayed in. I am still steaming after this hand because I played the river so badly. I bet $500 he moved all in and I called. I don't really think it was a difficult laydown for me to make and I just made the call out of frustration. I like the play of betting smaller like $250-$350 and folding to a raise. What pisses me off so much is I know this player like the back of my hand--I play with him every day-- and he probably wouldn't raise the river with A8, AK, or maybe not even a set of kings. This would be a much trickier laydown if the opponent was tougher--say a Barry Woods--where I know he would try to F me with a busted draw bluff. Anyway thanks for your help. Watch live at the bike M-F 6-9PM PT.