Hello All,

I am a former LLSNL live grinder who has not played much for the last 1.5 years or so. I have recently moved from Chicago to Colorado and have a difficult time playing much live poker. I have begun taking SNG's seriously and am loving the process. This hand takes place at a 1-2-100SL table around 9AM Sunday morning. The game was at the Ameristar in Blackhawk and was the one 1-2-100 game that had made it through the night.

V had been at the table with me for 6 hours or so. He is a white male in his mid to late 20's. I would classify him as tight passive preflop; switching to loose passive preflop seemingly randomly. (probably out of boredom). He had been playing pretty straightforward post flop, doing more calling than betting or raising. He had called river bets quite light a number of times presumably putting his opponent on air. He had made it to showdown with some very weird hands a number of times. He also seemed to check call with his draws almost always. (not caring much about pot odds and virtually never raising/betting his draws) He also did not seem to adjust anything based on his position, and was just as likely to limp call IP as OOP.

I had one notable hand with V that went like this:

I raise on the button to 15 after 3-4 limps with A6s. V calls from UTG after limping. Rest of the table folds. Effective stacks are around 250 for this hand. Flop come Q 6 2r. He check calls 20. Turn comes a J completing the rainbow. Turn action goes check check. River comes another 6 and he check snaps a PSB and mucks.

On to the Hand:

V has roughly 300 and H covers him. I have announced that this is my last orbit and I have just put the majority of my chips in racks. (I know better this and did it anyway:-( I am planning on playing 4 more hands until the blinds reach me.

H opens to 13 from MP with 99 after 1 limp.
V calls quickly from the Button or CO.
Limper folds and we are heads up to the flop.

Flop comes 3 4 5r

H bets 20 into ~27 and V thinks for 10 seconds and calls

Turn (~65) Q putting a flush draw out there. H bets 40 with the intention of bet folding. V calls again 10 seconds or so of deliberation.

River (~145) offsuit A. What is Hero's play here? V has about 225 behind.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Also, please criticize the decision to play several more hands while already racked up...... I never want to justify doing this again.

Thanks!

Too thin to go for value. If v is really as straightforward as you say just check/fold.

Consider the rack berating made.

V is passive and calls river bets light. We have third pair. C/F, and don't think of being a hero just because he thinks he can push you around because you've racked up.

This is fairly interesting. I don't think betting makes sense because what are we trying to rep? If we bet I think it's a bluff to get a random Qx to fold.

I honestly am not really sure what the best play is..

The only thing we realistically rep with a river bet is a flopped set or straight. The ace is the money card for us if we had 44 here, because we have kept A3 thru A6 and possibly A7s in the hand. And this sounds like a villain who wouldn't make the right read and pay us off. As played, we've kept the same holdings in the hand and they all just kicked us in the crotch.

check fold

what's the big deal about starting to rack up with a few hands to go? is it some superstition thing with you guys? if so.. come on, dudes and dudettes!!?!! if there's rationality to the big deal, what is it?

"what are we repping with a bet?" ive seen this type of questioning in lots of 1/2 and 1/3 posts and i think its precariously close to an egotistic fallacy coming into play. most villains at 1/2 and 1/3 will not be aware of what you are repping. that is ascribing a level of though process to them, that you may have, but they likely do not. i see lots of bluff opportunities being talked out of on 2p2 because "what are we really repping here?".. well, answer is.. you're right. but V doesn't know that.

OP... you say V has called river bets quite light a number of times. id want to know the size of the river bets being called. in my experience, people say you can't bluff these calling stations because every time they put a weak-ass bet out there, he calls. put a bet 1.5x pot and the station becomes a nit real quick in many cases. not saying that's the play here, but its a thing to consider.

OTTH: interesting river decision. i think there's a lot of merit to a small river value bet. read is villain calls river with weak hands. he can't make that mistake if you don't bet. its possible he backed into a better pair, i guess. have to throw some assumptions up and calculate. in any case, a bet here is not a bluff to get Qx to fold. its to get 4x, 5x etc. to call. if we are trying to get Qx to fold, we better be willing to way overbet the pot.

if you don't bet, C/F seems right. but i wouldn't give up on a value bet against this opponent without some thought.

I think the part of racking up that may tilt some 2+2ers is the fact that when you rack up you usually tell yourself I'll play til the blinds or I'll play 2 more hands. This generally leads to you really wanting to see a flop if it's hour last hand which often gets people in crappy spots

i see. i often start racking up mid way through my last round. never have had the feeling that it impacts my play be making me want to see a flop with crap. but i suppose self reflection is good for those who do. id have doubts that anyone with this sort of gambler type compulsion would make a good poker player.

The bigger issue is that almost all players see that money in the rack as "banked," and hate to unbank it. They tend to play nittier, and V's tend to play back at them lighter, because they think that Hero is afraid to loses his profits. Even if that read is wrong, it lowers the eff out of our FE, which is the most profitable thing we have.

I knew you were playing in Blackhawk when I saw the spread limit stakes! Welcome back to the game and good luck.

c/f river.

Never announce last orbit and don't rack up. You don't want people to know that you are about to leave. It's basically saying, "Hey, I like this money right here and I'm going to play reallllllllly tight. Now that you know my range please play back at me."