should I raise this river bet?

[SenecaJim]

5-10 live

2 early limpers. I raise in MP2 with AKo. All fold but BB and limpers.

Flop comes A K 4 rainbow. Checked to me, I bet, BB folds, limpers call.

Turn is a blank. ( don't remember, but blank.) Both limpers check, I bet and am called.

The river is another 4. The first limper now donks into 2 of us. MP1 calls. I call or raise? No particular read on donker,loose preflop and usually calls down.

[shark6]

Raise for 2 reasons:

1. The presense of limper #2 give you an overlay, so you don't need to be right as often.
2. He doesn't have a 4 that often, and when he does, he'd checkraise you a fair portion of the time, so that makes it less likely.

I'd put him on either Ax and he thinks the kickers don't matter now that the board pared or some crap hand with a 4.

[UCLAseetoK]

There is no general play here. This is something that requires player note online, and mental note in casino. Paying attention to donk betting can save/win a lot of money.

Although I could argue that a raise would fold a bluff, but get 3 bet by a set of 4's. The presence of the guy in the middle changes the effect of just folding a bluff though, since you're likely to be called by at least one guy when you raise.

[SenecaJim]

Yes, I really like the overlay point. That makes the risk mathematically more favorable. I hadn't seen this player donk before. He often would lead out with weak hands, but this came out of nowhere.

In general, weak players I have encountered in casinos ( i'm not saying I'M an expert} aren't very tricky and if they get trips, bang, they are betting it. I might have let past experience influence me with this player.

[bobhalford]

I personally would just call it because this river bet is so strange. He's seen you bet into two opponents on every street. You obviously have a great hand. He apparently thinks he can do better than that. Perhaps he's afraid you will check it through on the river having been called all the way down. So I would immediately put the guy on a 4 and just call.

Also consider that villain may be afraid that you have already made a full house and decides to bet his trip 4's just in case you have something like AK and might raise the river, allowing 2 bets to go in on the river as opposed to 3 bets on the river (which would happen if he check-raised the river with trip 4's and you 3 bet with AA/KK full house). If he just check-called, he would be losing value when his trip 4's beat AK. So he just bets out, half hoping to get raised so he can win 2 bets instead of one when he is ahead, and even better when the other limper puts in two bets with AQ/AJ.

The only other explanation for this river bet is that villain's read is that he's in a WA/WB situation and that his AQ/AJ beats your QQ/JJ/TT and wants to donk the river and get called by a worse hand. However, this seems a bit farfetched considering the way the hand played out and the presence of the other caller involved in the hand.