Villain is a a 27-28 yr old doctor from Santa Barbara. I was directly on his left and we were having a nice conversation for a good hour or so. At this point I was pretty friendly with him. He was very loose preflop, about 45/20 from my guess. Def knew how to play poker, made a few big bluffs and a few big laydowns. Besides being a bit too loose pf, he was probably second best player at table to me (ldo haha).
I had a tight image, prob about 20/10. I usually play a lot more hands but I was pretty card dead. I bought in for 250, doubled KK>AK, then stacked an old guy with 86s in a 3bet pot on a K86 flop. He had aces. I hadn't shown any bluffs at this point.
I'm in BB and Villain is SB. Action Folds to Villain.
Villain offers chop. I look down and see 88, say no thanks.
Villain Calls $5.
Hero raises to $25.
Villain Calls $25.
Flop ($50)
Ah 10c Jd
Villain Checks
Hero Bets 40.
Villain contemplates for a min or so and calls.
Turn ($130)
Ah 10c Jd Jc
Villain Checks.
Hero Bets 100.
Villain thinks another minute or so, checks his cards a few times, and Calls.
River ($330)
Ah 10c Jd Jc 6h
Villain Checks.
Hero?????
Since villain offered chop, I don't see him showing up with a monster here. I don't think he was tricky enough to check a Jack 3 streets in a row and from his table mannerisms, it didn't seem like he was contemplating a raise on the turn, although he may have been giving me the Hollywood treatment.
A-K, A-Q, A-10, K-Q, 10-10 all seem pretty unlikely at this point, since he offered the chop. (I'm mostly an online player...would someone offer a chop with that strong of a holding? I really have no idea but I would assume not. He didn't seem like the type of player to angleshoot me.)
On the river, I narrowed his range to Ax, 10x, Jx (vv unlikely), 99-77. I don't think my 8's are good, but I think I can rep a big hand.
I have no thoughts on the hand itself except to say, why are you in a $330 pot with 88 and 4 overcards on the board?
As to your chopping BS...either chop or don't. To look at your hand to determine whether or not you're going to chop is being a poker douchebag.
And to get a read on your opponent based on his offer to chop is ridiculous. I offer to chop every hand in that situation: 72 offsuit or AA. How do you know he doesn't also?
I had no idea that was chopping etiquette...good to know. This was literally my 3rd time ever playing live in a casino. No one had ever offered to chop a hand with me. he looked at his hand before he offered to chop fwiw.
I have no thoughts on the hand itself except to say, why are you in a $330 pot with 88 and 4 overcards on the board?
+1.
your bet on flop is OK, but why do u bet the turn? he already told u he have something by calling the flop, so why do u put yourself in a tough spot with a bad hand with lots of over?!?
just check turn and c/f river.
I agree with above. First of all, villian may have actually made the offer to chop without looking at his cards (you did not specify whether you saw him look or not), maybe he just always offers a chop in that spot.
I think that not wanting to chop after looking at your hand is pretty ridiculous. Very not kosher in terms of etiquette.
You could also just try to get a cheap showdown instead of barreling away ur stack.
I had no idea that was chopping etiquette...good to know. This was literally my 3rd time ever playing live in a casino. No one had ever offered to chop a hand with me. he looked at his hand before he offered to chop fwiw.
It's very common to look at your cards and offer a chop. I've done that before with AA/KK/QQ and its just to see what I have, or I'm checking my cards when the button folds. Haha at it being an angle.
If you're going to barrel keep the bet sizing a little bit smaller. If he's folding to $100 he's also folding to $75 on that board.
BTW this guy is calling you down with just about anything. You shove for 600-700 and villian talks himself into a call a large majority of the time when he has it. Anything that he could possibly be beating you with is calling and the wonky hands like Q9 and 89 are done with the hand anyway.
Regarding looking at cards before offering a chop, that is a relatively common practice in the cardroom where I normally play. The reason for this is an often times substantial ($60-70K) bad beat jackpot. Players who would otherwise always chop will limp the small blind while making some comment about wanting to see all the cards or having a jackpot hand or something to that effect.
For this hand, I think you also have to consider that villian may have just taken an interesting line to gauge the strength of your hand by asking if you want to chop. That seems narrowly possible considering your concern that he was hollywooding the turn call. All said and done, c/f on the river seems correct.
If the action folds all the way around to the small blind, many cardrooms offer the ability to chop. Both blinds pull their bets back and the dealer button moves. Like chopping the pot - only before there is a pot. No rake is taken out. Each blind takes their bet back and the next hand is dealt.
also, in terms of chopping, usually best to announce either you chop every time or never chop the first time it comes up in your sb/bb and just stick to it. it really only happens once or twice a night to me in full ring where I play so just decide if you are willing to chop or not and stick to it.
