Hero ($285~): Been playing fairly TAG, not seeing very many showdowns.
V1 ($650): Fairly new to the table, had just stacked someone for $300+ with AA a few hands before so I don't have much of a read on him.
V2 ($???): A bit on the tight-passive side.

V1 straddles BTN for $6, Hero looks down at A A from the SB, makes it $20. Folds around to V2 in MP who calls, V1 calls. 3-way to the flop.

Flop ($65): T 7 6

Hero leads out for $45, V2 folds, V1 calls.
Fairly standard c-bet, right? About 2/3 of the pot. I can basically eliminate any overpairs to the board from his range, as I believe he would've either 3-bet pre to defend his straddle or raised me on the flop. Board doesn't look too worrisome.

Turn: ($155): 2

Completes the rainbow. Hero bets $80, leaving about $140 behind. V1 asks what I have behind, thinks a moment and calls.
Opted for a half-pot bet since the turn changes nothing and it gives some fold equity in case he decides to raise.

River ($315): 6

Hero checks, V1 bets $115, Hero verbalizes call (miscounted my chips, thought it'd put me all-in but I still had $25 left over).

Seemingly harmless river, imo. If I was already beat then I still am, so I wouldn't mind a check-check. And it gives him a chance to bluff if he's weak. If I lead out and shove I'm not getting called by worse.


Is there anything any of you would have done differently? Did I make any mistakes in sizing, logic, etc?

Would bet bit bigger on flop and turn, but yes, you can't fold river. (And would get all chips in on river).

I'm usually shoving river but you say he won't call worse. Would he bet worse though? I can't really imagine a fold on this runout but what can he be betting?

I would have just bet river myself if I'm not planning on folding to a bet. You say you don't mind a check-check on river. Well, your hand is extremely likely to be best in that case, so you should mind that you missed value. There aren't many hands we are inducing a typical live player to bluff with, as the only draw afforded on the flop is a gutshot, and most 9x/8x hands have showdown value in a pair. Live players don't turn showdown value into bluffs.

Basically, betting river is better than check/call if villain calls more frequently than he bets himself. This is very likely with a live player since they don't value bet thinly that often, and especially on this draw free board.

I shove river myself and feel pretty good about it.

Also, reconsider your reasoning that villain 1 could never have an overpair (or will never call your river shove with worse). You don't know what his game is, youve said it yourself when you mentioned hes new to the table, and your open from the SB is ridiculously strong. People have shown up with KK/QQ in the games I play in here.

This is why you shove river btw

As played I'm not folding but he likely checks back weaker hands that would begrudingly call it off. So if you can't check/fold then you're losing value c/c'ing instead of betting.

Why would you check this blank river, just shove yourself..

Theres no reason to let him check back Tx

Some players will have JJ here too but will get too scared and check back.. I've seen it happen before watching others play and its cringe worthy.

Grunch.

FWIW I hate this flop if I have AA... Smacks limp/calling ranges in the face. On the plus side, the board ran out really good for you. I would shove the river. A lot of players will call with Tx, but check back if you check to them so I think you are missing value by checking. C/c the river is okay I guess depending on who you are playing against... but I don't really see many air type hands in Villains range the he would bluff OTR. He would need t be turing mid pair into a bluff or something. If there were a flush draw OTF that missed, then I like checking better, but still probably prefer betting.

Well played. Check calling river is more +EV than shoving in my opinion.

Guys hate to give up on river. Allowing him to bluff/value bet worse hands.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate all the input. So the general consensus is that the flop and turn are fine as played, I just botched the river?

Shoving river may well fold out hands that would call $50 or $60.

(Some might say "if they will call $60 then they will call $140 here" but not in my games.)

As played, well played.

Preflop I make it closer to $30 (which shouldn't be too out-of-line at a typical 1/3 NL table with a straddle on) so that we can simply stack off postflop on all but the grossest of boards. The small $20 raise gives our opponent 20x implied odds (far too good, imo), plus there's a good chance this goes multiway instead of HU, plus we'd rather have a smaller SPR. If the table was super aggro / loose then a limp/reraise isn't horrible either.

At this point, I think we've made our bed. We're OOP 3way with the biggest overpair with an SPR < 6 (where we simply won't be able to do anything other than play for stacks). I'm cool with the flop/turn betsizing on this board and then shove the rest on the river instead of checking.

GcluelessNLnoobG