I was poking around on another website and came across a blog from a well-known TV pro. He was describing a hand that he played recently in the $40-$80 game at the Bike in LA. Here's the hand:

I'm posting this here because I don't understand Hero's play on the turn or river and wonder if I'm just missing something.

Does anyone else bet/fold the turn? If we're calling the turn raise (if we had the 9d), why wouldn't we c/c or c/f the river as opposed to b/f?

i don't really understand what's going on there unless there's a lot of metagame/history, which it seems like. but, i'm not a well-known tv pro, so...

Heh. The television pro played that hand like the wierdo's I posted about. No rhyme or reason to how he played. This is why I like Roy Cooke. Whether you agree with his play or not, he lists the pros and cons of the plays he makes and why he believes certain factors weigh heavier in certain situations than others.

the hand certainly makes more sense if it's the Kd. Ya some meta stuff going to here.

Basically he has no idea what his river bet is trying to accomplish.

-DeathDonkey

not really surprising that a tv pro played this hand like a ******

i dont know what a kevin is but calling down from the turn raise can be fine against the sort of idiot that will randomly charge themselves to draw to a flush with AQ/AK with a diamond that exist all over LA.

care to say which TV pro?

Funny, I was sitting on TV pro's right and watched him play this hand. I didn't get it then either. He said he was going to write about it. Wow.

Would you ever consider chekcing the turn b/c it seems this guy will raise a lot of hands as a semibluff and we hate calling down.

if the river is the kd then he should be c/f'ing b/c theres almost no hand that kevin can have that we beat

Ok, cool.

Not going to name names in this thread. Without people like TV pro, I would have to go back to work.

"flop fell 8/8/5 with two diamonds. I check, Kevin bet, I raised and he called. The turn brought the Jack of diamonds making three to a flush on board and I led out. To my surprise Kevin raised me."

I don't know Kevin, but a guy bets a two-tone flop in a 40-80 game, calls a check-raise, then raises a turn bet when a 3rd suited card hits, and this is a "surprise"?

If most of his range is semi bluffs, which I think it is, then I feel pretty good about calling down

I didn't say most of his range is a semibluff but a significant portion is. Thats the tough spot, he's very likely to be raising you w/legit hands as well as semibluff hands

I don't like this hand. He's basically over representing a medium strength hand in a situation where it's not clear at all that he will be called by worse, or that a better hand will fold.

A lot of value can come in this spot by playing it passively. I think the river is absolutely bizarre. If his opponent was bluffraising on 4th, I think he would have little disincentive to not continue and bluffraise. In fact, against a lot of opponents, I'll bluff them twice. I raise someone on 4th, and they donk into me on the river on a card that makes no sense. They get popped whether I have a hand or not, and it seems to work for me like half the time.
The river doesn't appear to accomplish anything good at all. I think it's like the worst possible line besides CR.