Last week I'm playing in a 1/2 with a calling station that never went away.

The hands are fairly irrelevant, but one example......

I raise to $10 pre with AA on the button everyone folds he calls (he limped in the cut off). I raised that much because there were 4 or 5 limpers.

flop 10 5 8 rainbow
i bet $20 he calls
turn J
i bet $40 he calls
river 3
i check he bets $30
i call and he turns over 10 3 off suit

basically the whole night is like this and he won't go away because he keeps sucking out

so the question is do you

A. Keep the pots small and see them to the river hoping your hand holds up.

or

B. Bet bigger and charge him to draw and then go broke, but feel good you got your money in with the best of it.

I tried raising my flop and turn bets to pot size and it didn't slow down his calls, so I resorted to A and he and I basically played a weird game of limit when heads up.

I never tried double size bets because I didn't want to find out the hard way if it would work, but I think I should have.

He knew I was playing good cards from other hands he saw me turn over on other players (and him), so he was just pushing his luck and getting lucky. Ultimately you want these people in your game but when they are hitting it seems all you can do is try to control the bleeding!

Thanks!

Short answer: Value bet. A lot.

That one.

In the hand posted, I'm almost certain you should be betting the river for value / folding to a raise of course. He doesn't always make two pair. He'll probably call the river with second pair, top pair no kicker, or whatever. He won't bet those hands himself.

And if he raises, you know you're beat and can easily lay down one pair, right? So you're only paying a bit more the times he hits by betting yourself (because he apparently value bets a bit small). If it really bugs you, bet 3/8 pot on the river yourself.

It's frustrating and high variance. Sometimes it will seem like you can't beat him. But other times, your AK makes two pair or your AA makes a set.

I personally would have gone 65-70 on the turn and checked the river. I don't like to make river bets if I don't have to, river bets are a good way to make you sink in your seat and force you to make decisions you shouldn't have to. It is a way to put your game at a much higher variance and you are a lot of times going to be putting a lot more chips at stake.

I agree with every word of this, starting with, "I don't like to make river bets."

However, I'm also convinced learning to make profitable river value bets is a huge element in learning how to crush any hold 'em games, especially live NLHE. It really separates the modestly winning nits from the big winners. So I'm challenging myself to get better at this.

Learning to bet may cause me discomfort, but I want the idea of folding a their worse hand to cause even more discomfort to my opponents. Getting another $50 in a $75 pot feels great and is more than enough to make me glad I tried something risky.

What makes you disagree with throwing out a stronger bet against a calling station who flats you on the flop?

Also, I wouldn't put it so much in terms of learning how to do a river bet, to say "i'm glad I did this risky move" is a good way to wither away a bankroll. You can switch up your game every once in a while, but you should have a good reason behind a river bet other than "im going to make an unsure risk to make an extra 50 here".

It is only my viewpoint, I don't mean to say you are wrong or anything like that.

Option C: stay at the table until the guy is broke

btw...the hand above was nicely played...lol at $30 you lost the minimum what's the problem?

i mean this is exactly the guy you want at your table, he will pay anything you want to charge him when he's behind but when he's ahead he doesn't charge enough, I'd be cheering him on and offering a "nice hand"

There's 4 or 5 limpers and we're only raising to $10 on the button? This would create a 7 way pot at my table...

...actually, action is a little confusing; are we the BB instead of the Button (?), in which case wouldn't a bigger preflop raise even be more mandatory since we're now playing OOP?

This. At most $1/$2 tables, raising 5 limpers to $10 will invite the blinds plus all of the limpers to call. I dont want to take a flop 8 handed with As. I would raise to $15. You get less callers but the pot size will be about the same.

Also, how do you check call the river if you are on the button?

That is what stuck out most of all to me about the entire OP.

$10???? This is LIVE not online 2.5x-3x doesn't apply here. My standard raise pre-flop live is $12-15 with nobody ahead and $15-18 if there are more than 2 limpers.

I actually had a good but potentially vulnerable hand my last session (JJ) and had several limpers ahead. I raised to $35. I couldn't raise it to a standard amount and have 3-5 callers. There are just too many scare cards that will hit anyone who called you. I didn't get any callers and got criticized for the play but sometimes you have to reduce the field somehow, I honestly expected I would get 1 guy. That I could deal with, fading a field of 6 is really tough with that hand.

Thanks for all the replies, I don't feel so bad now!

This was one of those weak and loose tables where everyone wants to limp and see a flop, but then folds to a raise.

Yes, I was on the button for sure.

I saw a number of limps so I raised $10 because I knew most of them would fold, but I wanted at least one caller because I had AA. Over all this was working out for the night because I was picking up a lot of limp/fold blinds and was able to out play the other people that would stay in. Just this one guy was giving me the headache!

The check call on the river was a defensive "well I must be beat but I'm not folding to a small bet and I really want to see what this guy has" play. If he had bet $40 I might have folded but this was actually the first hand when I was able too see what he was up so I was willing to pay for the info. I knew if I bet and he raised I'd have to fold and I really wanted to see what he had called with pre flop and couldn't put down.

I basically broke even against him and would have felted him if he didn't get lucky. Some one else ended up busting him, of course.

Next time I'll give the the bigger bet a try.

Thanks again. I'm new and I really appreciate having a place like this to run stuff by other players.

If you're the button then you're the last to act, so it's not possible to be check/calling on the river...

No worries, it's sometimes hard remembering all the facts of particular hands after a long session.

LOL I'm such a dork! This game had switch from $1/2 small blind/big blind to a single $3 blind with no small blind so that was screwing with me all night. I must have been in the blind then.

And yes it was a long night, buy the end I was thinking clubs were spades and so on!!!

Kinda skimmed the thread.

I recommend bet/folding 3 streets here. With my image I probably bet much bigger than OP and lose a lot more. Also, as mentioned, raise bigger pre.

BUT: Honestly, this is not a situation you want to prevent. It's fantastic that opponents are calling with any two cards pre then putting tons of money in with top pair no kicker on a T high board. It just so happened that he rivered tens up, which will happen so rarely that it must be an exaggeration that "he keeps sucking out". Then he went and got min value from it so he clearly is a pretty bad player.

Just be well bankrolled for the game, ride the swings and love the stations.