$1/2
Didn’t play this great, looking for thoughts

H MP ($300) this is my 3rd hand at the table, catch AhAd, raise to $11 (standard size).

V BTN ($100) MAWG, never seen the guy, assume he’s a fishy rec player. V calls, blinds fold.

Flop ($22)
AK7ccc

H checks cause he’s a moron and think that A) top set is hard to get paid and V is short enough I can probably GII on 2 streets if needed, plus can c/r here a fair amount of the time and B) H is a moron. V obviously checks back.

Turn ($22)
4c

Now it’s 4 to a flush so I check going into bluff catching mode out of position. V beta $20 and I’m in payoff mode so I just call. Also complicating things is this room has a promo for sets cracked by a pocket pair meaning if V has any PP with a club then I get $325 at showdown for my set of A’s getting cracked by a PP.

River ($62)
8c

Now there’s a 5-flush on the board. Does anyone turn their hand into a bluff here? Or just check hoping to get your money back on a chop?

Check/call the river. Trying to bluff an unknown here is distinctly -EV in general. In this case it's silly, a lot of the hands you are losing too are pairs where it's more profitable to show and lose then to bluff him off.

Your main +EV factor here is going to be the promo, I think, so I would opt for c/c river like QuadJ said above.

He could have a lot of clubs above 5 that aren't pocket pairs, so I wouldn't put any more money in the pot in that case and opt for the cheapest showdown possible.

This. I too also bet the flop. Why not? Maybe he shoves with a King and a club and you GII? Worth a shot given how short he is...

Shorn - I always bet middle or bottom set but seem to struggle on what to do with top set. Does the board being monotone affect your set betting strategy?

Your situation looks bleak here on the River. The only thing that gives you hope is the Promo.

So, I’m going to have to agree with most the other comments and say your play should be to CHECK/CALL, instead of running a BLUFF.

BLUFFING and $1/2 NL Games: These limits typically have players that are inexperienced and only play their own 2 hole cards. So typically, it’s -EV to BLUFF in general. As the saying goes, “You can’t bluff a bad player.”

Not really as most people will look at that board and assume you are FOS when you bet no matter what you hold. I just find that in general, the flop is always the street you will get looked up the lightest so when you have a value hand (like here), there is literally no reason to not start building a pot.

This is also what you might call a "negative equity check" spot, meaning OTT V won't give you any action if/unless he has hit a card (in this case a club) where you are now beaten. So, the only real street that you might be able to get value from your hand unimproved IS the flop so we should get what we can while also charging anyone with one club to draw.

To be fair this case is a little different though given that V has such a small stack and we are basically calling off no matter what comes on the board (although this exact board may be one of the few where that isn't true). But in general, slowplaying made hands is sub-optimal at these levels and really only gets you into trouble.

Shorn - I agree with every point you just made. I got lost is the hand between being OOP, flopping too set, the monotone flop, the 4 flush turn and the short V.

Results are that river went check check and V had K7o meaning I flopped top set vs. bottom 2p and didn’t get it in. Wasn’t pleased with myself.

Yeah. Don't beat yourself up too bad. We all get lost in hands every once in a while and the combo of flopping top set (which you rarely do) and having it be a monotone board at the same time is one where it is very easy to freeze. And generally when we freeze and don't know what to do, we check. It is much easier for a responder to this thread to be able to see it clearly as we can sit and mull it over before typing.

This "freezing" is something I need to work on as well. When a sitch like this comes up, I am working on stopping, taking a deep breath and re-setting everything in my mind before acting. It sounds really easy, but we do so many things on rote in gameplay that it is actually pretty hard. You are a good player so just keep grinding as Corn says.

Shorn

The only way I would check/call here is if the promotion required the hand to go to showdown. Is that the case?

Other than that, I don't see why check/call is even being considered here.

I see people **** their pants when boards look like this. I doubt very much any random V will take the time to replay the action thus far and try to figure out your range. The only question on V's mind is "does he have a flush"?

Give him an answer. Pick up a stack of $5 chips and put it in the middle. Doesn't matter if he has less. Heads-up, on the button, the guy checked back the flop. It's wildly unlikely he has a good club.

If we're deciding between check/call or bet/fold, then the question to ask is: "Is V more likely to bluff with no club, than he is to fold a weak club". And I think the answer to that is decidedly "no". I would guess a typical Villain here would be alot more apt to fold a bad club, than to bluff with no club.

If we check, and he checks back, we can only lose or chop.
If we check/call, we can only lose or chop.

Doesn't anyone here wanna win????

Shove. You're gonna pay off good clubs exactly teh same as you would have with a check/call. It's not like you can get raised. He's only got 1PSB left. The bet size is the bet size.

You're going to fold out all the chops, which is awesome. And I really think you're gonna get him to fold some bad flushes pretty often too.

Annoying to play this way, but if we actually get this promo money (I'm not convinced b/c we no longer have a set, we have a flush) then the +ev play is to ck/call the river. +325 is way more than we ever win by bluffing this river and we probably make the 325 more often than we even win by bluffing.