Pacific Poker - 150/300 Ante 40 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 9,550
Hero (CO): 14,554
BTN: 13,185
SB: 11,115
BB: 14,846
UTG: 35,925

6 players post ante of 40, SB posts SB 150, BB posts BB 300

Pre Flop: (pot: 690) Hero has T J

fold, fold, Hero raises to 750, fold, fold, BB calls 450

Flop: (1,890, 2 players) 3 J K
BB checks, Hero bets 945, BB calls 945

Turn: (3,780, 2 players) T
BB checks, Hero bets 2,494, BB calls 2,494

River: (8,768, 2 players) 4
BB checks, Hero bets 4,384, BB raises to 8,768, Hero?

How do you bet 1/2 pot on river and suddenly not know what to do?

It's 2 ****ing dollars too.

Slide bet slider to max, press enter key.

Bet smaller on the flop and bigger on the turn.

Thank you, would 1/3 on the Flop and Pot on the Turn be ok?

Yeah I think that's closer to optimal. Could even go as small as 1/4 pot on the flop maybe. Turn you could even overbet in theory because you unblock Kx and a hand like KQ is definitely never folding the turn.

I would just flat call the raise. ******ed miniraise on river could be looking for a call. You have nowhere near the nuts.

With this stack depths you should check behind on the river if you are unsure what to do if he shoves (or as in this case checkraise you almost all in).

As played you have to pay about 4400 into a pot of ca 21900 to see if your two pair is best. Even if you have the best hand only one time out of five you will profit (Loosing 4400*4 = 17 600 and winning 21900*1 = 21 900, meaning an average profit of around 860 chips). So unless you have a solid read (which I doubt on $2) that this player is absurdly tight and never bluffs/overplay an hand, making the river bet also makes you pot commited due to pot odds, even if your avg profit probably won't be that big in spots like this. Or maybe I underestimate $2-villains bluffing/overplaying frequenzy. There might be players doing this with KQ. But of course you will often ran into hands like AQ, KJ, KT

Swedishnit's post was a lot better and less flippant than mine. You cant pot commit yourself on the river and then not know what to do. You need to use foresight - villain has three options fold, call raise. You have to have a reaction plan to only one of those options- that is a raise. I don't think the rule is never bet if you don't know what to do if v raises, but certainly don't essentially bet half your stack and not have a plan if he raises. The math dictates a call.

Hey man no need to flame OP, he might just not explicitly expressed to have a b-f or b-c plan all along and is just looking for a check on his assumptions and computations.

thanks everyone, good reviews

It's cool, yes I did have a plan, it was to bet-fold and that's what I did XD

Looks pretty close to ideal imo

You'd need some differentiated assumptions to either jam (like he never folds a king) or xb (like he never calls a king).

As played I think you'll get him off some K7, K8 etc on the turn and ditto on river, possible he'll get a bit too sticky for sunk-cost reasons once he flats the large-ish turn bet but in general think he'll make not too many mistakes vs any sizing. Doubt you'd triple with less than 2pr (maybe some AK but not everyone is tripling that) so JT seems like that most frequent b-f you'd have here.

But K2, K5, K7, K8, K9, KQ, J3, J4, T3 are all gonna make their way into his xc range and you should be cleaning up when he stations you down

B-f probably not one of the most frequent lines you'll see on the river from the population so it's a nifty attempt at an exploit and trying to differentiate yourself from everyone else.

Range bet flop for 25%, bigger is fine against opponents who are inelastic in terms of calling. Turn is fine, I'd actually go somewhat bigger as this size leaves us with an awkward SPR on river.

As played non all-in size on river isn't a theoretical thing at these depths and our specific hand is pretty much a mix between check and shove when we take the all-in route.

That being said, if we are going to play half-pot as our only bet size, JhTh is pretty much indifferent when villain shoves, mostly because villain should only be jamming with hands that beat us. Most worse hands (and even a lot of better hands) will just elect to call.

If we are going to bet fold the river then do a blocking size bet like the turn bet size of 2500. Worse hands will love to call and better hands will raise although some will just call knowing you will likely fold with worse anyway.

That size is actually worse, because then you miss out on value from your best hands and JT is still just a zero-EV call/fold to a shove as it's one of your most marginal thick value hands.

The rationale behind a non all-in size, IMO, is that you get a lot of Kx that would be indifferent at best to a jam to call at a high frequency, while leaving yourself the option to fold to a jam. It's a less profitable play in theory than shoving, but if your opponents are going to call too wide to that bet and only jam when they have you beat, it actually has a lot of value. Especially in scenarios where a lot of the worse two pair and one pair hands that would fold to a jam call the smaller bet.

Eggs, you are correct. My lame flame was worse than my lame apology. Sorry Op.

Preflop
Standard open

Flop
I like to play for some pot control here and check back. Your hand is not good enough to bet all 3 streets for value, and it also does not need that much protection. Any Q or A will put out a potential higher pair, but they will also give you a straightdraw, so you can still call a turn bet on those cards. You could also pick up a flushdraw on a heart. The other option is to put out a small bet and then check back most turns, but half pot is a bit on the large side.

Turn
You improved to two pair, but its not the top two pair, and AQ + Q9 made a straight. So I dont think, your hand is quite strong enough to play for stacks, and therefore you either need to size down or plan on checking back most rivers.

River
Now you are in an awkward spot with just over a pot sized bet left, because you did not think and plan ahead on the earlier streets. I dont think you can jam here and expect to be good more than 50% of the time when called. Maybe KQ specifically can call a jam, but thats like one hand, you can get paid by, if you jam. So if you are going to bet, it needs to be a non-committing bet, which is very difficult, because you bet so much on the flop and turn. Non-committing means, you could bet-fold some hands in your range, even if you intend to bet-call your actual hand. So as played you can either check back or bet something really small like 2.000, which might look silly and induce a spazz from a busted draw. As played, when he raise, you are committed, but you are also beat. So pay him off and fix the problem by better hand planning and sizing next time.

Thanks guys, all advice noted and much appreciated

jjjou812 all good