It's around 9:00 on a Saturday morning. I've only been at the table for 45 minutes or so. This game has been going all night. There is a lot of money at the table. The players are active.

Villain in this hand is Russian and in his mid 30s. He definitely doesn't mind putting money in the pot, preflop or postflop. In the hand immediately preceding this one, he straddled on the button, I raised to 22 in the BB with TT, he 3-bet to 92, I folded, and he showed AA.

I have ~210; Villain covers.

7-handed

CO open limps, I raise to 12 in SB with JJ, CO calls.
Flop (26): T-8-8, rainbow
I bet 15, CO calls.
Turn (56): 9, 2 hearts
I bet 40, CO calls.
River (136): 4
I bet 65...

Thoughts?

I think I should have bet more on the flop; maybe 20.

How does your opinion of this hand change if the 4 on the river is not a heart?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Interested

Looks fine. If you bet a bit bigger on the flop and turn, you can set up a river shove.

Not that worried about bd flushes. Obviously you are good on the river slightly less than on a 4, but it's not something I would be losing sleep over.

Huh?

I guess it wouldn't be too difficult to get all the money in. I was just focused on trying to get value on each street. I think the flop bet definitely should have been bigger. The bets that followed were appropriate for the pot as it was, but obviously they would have increased accordingly after a larger flop bet.

Bet 20-25 flop... I like turn bet size and the value bet on river

This. I think putting more thought/planning behind your flop bet sizing is the most critical part here.

As played, what if V shoves the river? I don't think he is ever shoving when we're ahead, yet we are so priced in that we cannot fold to a raise. Because of this, we need to focus on maximizing value out of the hands that we are ahead of, which is determined based on our flop/turn bet sizes.

I'm reluctantly folding to a river shove, because he'd have to be certifiably insane to raise the third barrel with a hand that can't beat two pair.

I agree that a bigger c-bet would have been the key to this hand.

The hand seems standard but if you think he is showdown happy I'd bet bigger on the river he may interpret a big bet as a bluff.

grunch: well played

i agree can maybe go more on flop... but if you think he's floating you almost always not terrible to keep it low. might even disguise your hand a bit.

if the last card wasn't a heart i'd feel even more comfortable betting that river but i think you have to bet it regardless against a loose villain.

Bigger OTF because he's either calling or he's not. Tx, 99, and J9 aren't folding regardless of your sizing. You can bet $25 and really only lose value from 77-22 and there's no guarantee he calls $15 with those anyway. But based on villain description, he'll probably call with underpairs on this dry paired board anyway.

Turn is good

River bigger if he's aggro because he'd probably have raised 8x by now. Most likely hand is Tx or 99 and arent folding at this point

If that is true, it's an argument for betting bigger on the flop, not smaller.

Result:

CO called the 65 and showed 76o for a winning straight.