Hi all,

I encountered a couple river spots where I was not sure whether I could value bet and be called by worse.

First was AT987 where I raised pre in EP and flop A86hhh, turn A, I pot $140, one caller. River ($420): J. V is loose-passive. I put V on trips and I have no idea if she improved to aces full of jacks because she checked dark before the river came out. Is this a bet-fold or just a check?

Second was A8774 overlimp otb, flop AQ3 checked through, turn 7 bringing bdfd, SB, a seemingly experienced player, now pots $30, MP calls, hero raises a little less than pot to $110, SB calls, MP folds. River ($250): 5, bricking flush draw. V mutters something about not getting paid now and checks. Hero? Bet fold? We d have a 4 at least blocking the straight, but will V call with worse on this river, like AQ?

Thanks,
DT

The first one I´d bet for sure. Not sure about the second one, hard to find a hand that makes sense and that he´d call off with, I guess he could have AQ w/o hearts but would he really call here? And AQ with hearts, well, if he´s holding blockers to the main turn semi-bluff, will he find a call with only two pair? Against an overly aggressive villain who sees small river bets as weakness I might be inclined to go for a high-variance route of betting like 40-60 to induce a bluff (with the intention of calling a pot re-raise), but then I´d have to have a good read on the player.

Can you explain your thought process behind betting in hand 1? Do you think we are ahead at least 50% of the time? What hands are you trying to get value from after we pot the turn? A6? 66? I doubt naked Ax is calling, 66 may even find a fold. What sizing are you choosing?

A6/88/66/AK basically. If the villain really is loose-passive, we´re not likely to face agression anyway so might as well bet the second nuts. And we can very safely bet-fold, since we´re not getting bluff-raised on the river. I am assuming the flop checked through though. Probably bet around half pot - since it´s a live game and I´m lazy, I´d probably just through out two hundreds. Maybe 175 or so. However, you didn´t mention any stack sizes, so kind of hard to say anything about sizing, but I´d assume a loose-passive villain to look us up here enough to make it profitable. And loose-passive villains generally play a quite wide range pre, so should have a lot of random Ax combos without a jack to pay us off with.

My PLO game is rusty though - only played like 2-3 sessions this year in total, so my thinking might be way off here.

Sometimes is hard but in first hand those situations FO come up where opponent has the a with lower full house may be one of those times or like other poster said a set so don't be afraid to value bet because of the j in long run you will have that happen but most of time it's not so long run value betting is best in this situation

Hand 1: Bet small otr. Like 25-35% pot.
Hand 2: Seems like a clear check. Not thrilled about raising turn but I will admit I play like 2% 5 card and 98% 6 card. I'd never raise this in 6c.

Hand 1; bet/call
Hand 2; check/call could find a fold though you see to much 64 there.