Hello, I recently played a hand at my local casino (Hollywood-Columbus Oh) and even though I won the pot, I feel like I didn't get max value, and I believe the main reason is that I was playing scared and think this is 1 of my biggest leaks, and would love some feedback from some of the players here.

I'm UTG+1 with AsJs, and raise to $11 (my standard 1/2 raise), it folds to the big blind who calls. The flop comes 8T8, and the big blind leads out for $10, I call. The turn is a J, and he bets $15, and I call. The river is an 8 (board is now 8T8J8) and I have top full house. He bets $25 and I think about it for a few seconds, and afraid of being coolered by the 4th 8 I decide just to call. I had been at table for less than an hour and didn't have much of a read on this player, and after this hand I realized how weak he was. After I called it took him over 30 seconds to turn his hand over, and I felt I was being slow rolled, then he turned over 10-7 (2 spades, too bad they didn't come!), and I win the pot.

My question is should I have raised on river (answer likely to be yes), I was playing about $300, and he had around $250, so my real question is how much should I have raised? Thanks for any comments in advance.

V's bet sizing is horrible and you need to be able to take advantage of that. I prob raise his flop bet simply because it looks like he is just stabbing. Its a lot easier to play if you are putting the pressure on, which eliminates the playing scared(check/calling everything). You def need to be raising the turn and/or river. You can't play being worried about one card in the deck. As played on the river, i raise to 70-100 for value.

Hey bud. At $250 effective you should be looking to get stacks w strong hands.

As played, why'd you call flop? For value or as a float? FYI most people at this level aren't good enough to bet a flopped monster.

I like a raise on the turn, as you take control back and freeze villain, and can just fold to a rr while getting value out of his lesser jacks, tens, etc. If he calls turn he likely check/calls river and you get more value. At this level, you can fold to a c/r as people don't bluff often enough here.

Then again, I'm a former king of minimizing value, so who knows.

Not to fuel your MUBs but you have the 3rd best full house and 4th best hand not the top fullhouse.

88
Jacks full of 8's
Tens full of 8's
8's full of Jacks.

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Lol +1 also AA,KK, and QQ.

Definitely reraise though. V looks very weak with his line and you very likely have the best hand

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Don't raise to 11 pre. Don't call OTF.

Thanks everyone for pointing out I didn't have top full house, just most likely top full house in this scenario, I'll try and be more clear in the future.

@Nick Called flop to see what he did on turn, and semi-float as the $10 into $23 seemed like an odd/small bet.

Thanks for all of the feedback, it is truly appreciated.

Haha yea forgot about those by the river. Doh!

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I was just pointing it out as it's important to be able to read the board and understand relative hand strength.

If you seriously thought that was the top full house it was likely you're mis-reading the board when the nuts isn't as obvious in other situations.

As far as calling the flop goes I would say the donk bet is a pretty well covered topic on 2+2 and means exactly what it did here - a weak made hand.

Calling is probably the worse option of all because you know you're behind and you have no idea if you can collect on the appropriate implied odds to draw to what you hope is a 6 outer. Worst case scenario opponent has a terrible definition of 'weak' and you're drawing close to dead.

Someone else suggested you raise and that is a very viable option and will likely depend more on villain's reaction to your raise and villain's actions on future streets should you bet.

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As played reraise turn to $35-50. Bomb the river

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Your idea seems like the best for sure- Thanks again for all the input.

I think I over-thought the hand at the time, and have been coolered so much lately that I made the weak call. From now on I'll try going to value town much more.

I usually find at low limits when people donk lead into the last aggressor, they are weak. I usually don't let rules of thumb be my determining factor. However, I do let certain things like that help in making my most +ev decision. With that board dynamic, there is only a couple options to why he would donk lead IMO. 1) blocker bet because he caught a piece and he wants it to put you on defense in which he does. 2) he wants to see where you are at immediately thinking if you have an Op, he will own you when flopping trips and betting them into you hoping for a raise. 3) he has no ****ing idea what he is doing, he just read a book one time that said if you flop a pair bet. Those things have to be assessed by all things on the periphery..ie body language, past behavior donk leading into aggressor etc.
In this case I think most villains play their hands oop terrible and will try to put their opponents on defense in hopes to keep the pot as little as possible while trying to preserve showdown value with a pair or trying to hit their perspective draws. All that bloviating got me to this point: It's so villain dependent, it's hard to make an unequivocal (for nick) determination on how to extract the most ev. I like floating the flop, where you keep pot in control and villain guessing. On turn when he fires, I like putting in a sizable enough raise that if he has trips or full house already he can get in stacks at which point folding is never too bad. It also allows you to keep control at river if he calls where he will never donk lead any river that you're ahead of, and checks most hands into that you can bet for value where he probably tank calls most turns. I wrote this on my iPhone so hopefully it made sense.

I would raise a little smaller pre flop and go about $9, though i know full well what you mean about going a little larger in ep to dissuade the domino effect that happens so often in live poker (call,call,call etc.)

As played i would play it the same as you except raise river. If he got it he got it, but the biggest leak of live players is that they like to call way too much and you got to exploit that by value betting as thinly as possible whenever you can. In this case, this isn't even a remotely thin value raising spot, it's a very very clear one.