Tough river decision

[Roy6]

Villain is 51/1.8/0.53 after 170 hands.
He seems an easy target but he's a rather annoying player for me.
I once caught him, he donked with KJ UI on both flop/turn on a low board.

I've got ATo in the cutoff, and only he (in BB) calls my raise.

Flop is T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
He checks and calls a bet

Turn is 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

He checks, and I check through (?)

River 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

He checks, I bet, he raises, ???

I'd bet the turn and fold to a c/r, then check the river.

EDIT: The way you played it I'd probably fold to his river raise there considering he's not a tricky fish.

fold. Villian probably has a str8 & wanted to checkraise the turn. I would have checked the river behind for a cheap showdown. definately odd play by villian

[gildwulf]

The turn check is fine...you have a few outs to draw to the nut straight and are probably way behind at this point (what hand is he going to call with that you beat?). His line is very wierd and I agree there is no way you can call his river raise.

[bobhalford]

I would even check the river here, seeing as you didn't bet/fold the turn (one way to play it). But I like the check behind, cause you could hit a K on the river and get lucky. If he has the K or 8 he might check-raise you on the turn. The river check is suspicious, and so is the raise. A pretty sexy play if he has you beat that's for sure. I would fold this just cause he's got to have better than a pair of T's, but it's kind of a hard fold since the hand played out so strangely.

The pot is pretty small seeing as though the turn got checked through. When we get to the river the pot size is only 3BB (- the original SB probably paid in rake), so any plan that calls for putting 2BB into to win it can't really be right. So your two options for river plans have to be to check through or bet/fold. I can see your reasons for betting, as he might pay off with a pair of 9s, a worse T, or something else if he really sucks.

However, because of the reasons you decided to bet, once he check raises this has to be an easy fold. The villain is not that agressive, and people in general very rarely bluff check raise the river, especially when you check through the turn, since they have no reason to think you are going to bet the river. Moreover, any single 8,J,Q or K beats you, so its a pretty easy laydown.

I get the sense you didn't really have a plan for the river c/r before you bet. Especially on scary boards against semi-tricky opponents, how you are going to handle a c/r should be a very important decision in whether or not you decide to bet. Basically, you can't bet this river and call a c/r, as the two should pretty much be mutually exclusive.

[JoshuaD]

I bet/fold the turn and check behind the river here. He's gonna C/R if he's got a straight, and he's gonna call if he's got a pair. 9's and weaker T's aren't outa the picture, as well as random A gutshot hands. You wanna see a showdown, and you want to get value for your hand.

The way you played it I'm really tempted to just check behind the river as well. Showdowns are nice and you're not too strong here if you bet and are called.

why are you betting this river?

a better hand will never fold, and a worse hand doesn't call that often to be profitable.