BB is easily the most talkative player at the table, likes to verbally bully people around, and throws chips around like it's nothing. I've been at the table for a few orbits. I haven't said much and probably come across as a little timid and new to the game, and I am new to live poker and I'm gonna go ahead and guess that it shows. All of this may be relevant for how the hand plays out on the river.

It is folded to me on the button and I raise to 8 with TT. SB folds, and BB says something about raising his blinds and stacking me as he calls.

Flop: 9 8 2

He checks, I bet 15, and he snaps. The board is very wet and I want to charge draws.

Turn: 9 8 2 4

He checks, I bet 30, and he snaps again. His range seemed heavily weighed toward draws as he just check-called on this wet board twice. Maybe he would protect something stronger than pair?

River: 9 8 2 4 A

Here my plan is to check behind. I'm not gonna get another street of value from a pair that I beat, the draws will fold, and if he calls I'm probably beat.

Except...

He bets 105, essentially pot. Why would he check-call until the river and now bet this large when the A hit? A9? 53?

I just couldn't see him betting for value often here so I call and don't feel super great about it. If he bet for value, wouldn't he be more likely to size it somewhat smaller? The A just seemed like a blank. His image, bet size, and how the hand played out made me think that he bluffs a large percentage of the time.

Thoughts?

Well, if he's the table bully, I probably call just because I want to change the dynamic at the table and catch him in a bluff. If he's the bullying type, he might think the A is a scare card and he can bet you off your hand. He might have some missed draws or a 8x or 9x type hand. He could also have Axdd, A8, A9. He's probably not slowplaying a set.

All in all, based on dynamics I probably sigh call and expect to be good sometimes and sucked out on sometimes.

I am not so sure he bluffs here that often, if he doesent have any history with you and if you have limited amount of info on his tendencies/bluffing frequenzy. Check-calling twice and then donk big on the river is not a very common bluffingline either, more often it is they hit some sort of big hand (like A8,A9 or 53 in this case) or slowplayed a big hand from the flop and donk big to avoid you checking back the river when a scarecard comes.

We are not getting the best price here due to his big sizing, so we have to be correct a big portion of the time if were gonna call this. I think its pretty close, and if i dont have any history with this villain/having small amount of info on how he plays i think i lean towards a fold.

There's a ton of A9, A8, Ad2d, Ad4d, and Adxd in his range. If we call here, it needs to be based on a specific player-read.

I think I find a fold in this spot. He probably isn't turning a one-pair hand into a bluff on the river, and if he was chasing the flush, he easily could've just made top pair.

The busted draws you beat are 107, j10, 67, and random hearts. That's not a ton of combos.

So I don't remember entirely what happened after I called, but he somehow ended up mucking his hand. Either because I showed first or because he just mucked his hand immediately. I think my call was largely based on his image, antics, and bet size. I didn't exactly have a large sample size on him, but I went with my gut and was right in this particular instance. If he was a silent TAG I would have probably folded.

Nice! I'm happy you won that pot. Always feels good to quiet up the table bully.

I gotta admit, it felt good!

This board is a good candidate to overbet the flop and turn.

River is a good card to bluff but he’s also going to have plenty of A-hi flush draws.