I play in an underground/legal poker room in Colorado. Casinos currently only offer low limit games. The game is usually PLO or O8. $2/$5.

Last night I was involved in a hand with a normally solid player.

I flopped a middle set on a board with FD. He checked to me and I bet the pot. He called.

Turn makes the flush. I decide to rep the flush and bet ~3/4 pot. He called with no hesitation.

River brings another club, making 4 on board. He checks and I checked behind?!?? I am thinking wtf is happening? Am I about to be c/raised.

I show my set and he mucks. I have no idea what he was doing.

Maybe I should have bet something on the river. A blocker bet?? He would have folded, I think. He usually is not spewy.

At any rate, I felt dissatisfied with the result, even though I won the pot.

Is there more satisfaction with checking behind and losing the pot (at least you were right and saved money) than checking behind and winning (why didn't I make a bet?)

No, I'm not a masochist and I like money.

Thoughts?

LL

You can't make a blocker bet last to act.

I wouldn't completely hate a 1/3 bet on the end to get some value from 2pair or a smaller set, but I think check behind is the standard play.

Thanks. I may not have given a proper example of making the right play, but the question is about the feeling that "we" may have missed something that could have made betting and getting called a better play. And how to get past the feeling that you somehow left money on the table.

Does that make sense?

LL

Think of the times he can soul read you and bare ace bluff
Think of the times he calls with a lo flush.
Then think of the times he calls with a lower set or some two pair.

I think you played it perfectly, even betting the turn for value. He probably had bottom set. Dont be results oriented.

NH

Basic poker theory suggests that generally, on the river, you should:

Bluff your weakest hands
Check your weak to moderate hands
Bet your stronger hands
Of which you,
Fold to a raise with your weakest betting hands
Call a raise with most betting hands
Re-raise with your very strongest hands

So, there is a large range of hands that you should check behind with. These are the hands that have showdown value but can't be expected to beat any hand he might call a bet with.

For example, if he calls here with any flush or a straight but folds anything less. Here you can't gain a penny by betting your set, but you can lose a lot so betting is pointless except to keep your hand a secret.

Usually of no such range of hands exist, then either you or your opponent is playing very sub-optimally.

Just realize that to play good poker, you are going to make mistakes in the short run. Sometimes you have a guy completely pegged wrong, and you expect to take down a pot after value betting your flush on a paired board, but he calls and has a FH, and you think, "jesus, he's way worse than my initial read." You have to make the best decision that you can based on the imperfect information you have at every given moment.

Be glad you checked behind, because you know there are only so many hands that you beat that can call you. In all likely hood, he would fold when beat, call when ahead; he could call you when he's beat, but you also have to think that he could also raise you as a bluff and you might have to fold. Focus on the good decisions (or bad, as they may be) made.

In the end, it's all about the long run, and you have to realize that by making the best plays you'll be leaving money on the table, bluffing and getting called, and calling and losing money; if you didn't, you wouldn't be making the best plays for the long run.



I hope that's what you were asking.

Yes, it's just the perfectionist that can't be perfect. Need to let that go.

Thanks,

LL

How about the Zen-like:

To play perfectly in a game of imperfect information, you can't be perfect.

Haiku form:

Imperfect info
Makes it impossible to
Play perfectly, dude

I'll take that under advisement.


LL

Perfectionist might be part of it, but you're also being really results-oriented. You have to just worry about making the best play against an opponent's range. The fact that he happened to have the 15% of his range doesn't mean you were supposed to bet.

Yes, something that is programmed into us in the "real world" that is counter productive in poker.

Thanks

LL