Bovada - $1 NL - Holdem - 5 players

Villain has only played a couple of orbits so no significant reads thus far...


Hero (UTG): 207 BB
CO: 95 BB
BTN: 69 BB
SB: 107 BB
BB: 131 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has AJ
Hero raises 3 BB, CO calls 3 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop (7.5 BB, 2 players): AJ9
Hero bets 6 BB, CO calls 6 BB

Turn (19.5 BB, 2 players): 4
Hero bets 14 BB, CO calls 14 BB

River (47.5 BB, 2 players): 7
Hero bets 25 BB, CO raises 72 BB (all-in)
Hero folds

Is this always a flush? Don't really see him playing a set or worse two pair this way... Would you just check river?

I don't like your betsizing on turn and river. I think you should definitely fold the river.

ok! Your sizing is WAY too big. AJ aren't that great in this spot, so you should practice pot control. 1/2 pot FLOP & TURN. CHECK/CALL river when the 4th spade didn't hit. Better be safe than sorry, and you allow him to bluff with missed spade draw. Pot shouldn't be that big either.

B/f river is best. We can easily fold when raised and by betting we are getting max value out of worse 2pair hands and other Ax and bluff catchers. And yes, a raise is almost always a flush here as most people aren't willing to shove it in with a set or straight on river.

Why are we betting less when there are a lot of turn and river cards that we don't want to see?

We want worse hands to call and we don't want to surrender anymore money than we have to to potential bluffs. Our hand doesn't make for a good bluff catcher because it doesn't block any of villain's potential value range.