Most players just don’t know how to execute a good bluff raise on the river and won’t even try, and I probably play the Hero a little more than I should in “good spots” that my opponents probably don’t even recognize. This was against a smarter opponent, though, and while he doesn’t make a lot of moves, I caught him here:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($840)
CO ($1099.85)
Button ($1910.10)
SB ($2159)
BB ($796)
Hero (UTG) ($2323)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with K
, K
Hero bets $35, 3 folds, SB calls $30, 1 fold
Flop: ($80) 4
, 3, 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $55, SB calls $55
Turn: ($190) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks
River: ($190) 9
(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $155, SB raises to $555, Hero calls $400
Total pot: $1300 | Rake: $3
Results:
SB had 7, 7 (two pair, sevens and fours).
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and fours).
Outcome: Hero won $1297
First off, this is a decent spot for him to bluff. My hand is pretty clearly defined as an overpair or worse. Since he’s representing a flush or full house, my hand is just a bluff catcher, and as I said, most people just don’t check-raise bluff the river as much as they should.
The thing that helped me to call is that I’m not sure he plays a flush draw like this, and even some of his full house combos are unlikely. He’s calling my UTG raise from the SB, so I’m not expecting to see a lot of suited connectors. I guess something like As Qs makes sense- it helps that I have the Ks and can rule out AKs and KQs.
I also think he may not (or at least probably should not) be playing small pairs pre-flop, which makes 33, 44, and 55 less likely.
Really, I’m not sure calling 77 pre-flop is very good either. He’s probably a bit of a dog to my UTG range, so he’s losing something in immediate equity pre-flop. It’s easy to be like “LOLSETODDS” but it’s not going to be that easy to win a big pot from out of position just because he flops a set. Compared to all the times he gets forced off the best hand, plus the potential reverse implied odds spots (see above), I think he ought to just fold pre-flop. Playing out of position sucks.
Fish have such a hard time folding AA/KK in spots like these… :p
He could easily think he’s good here if he puts you AsX where X isn’t a 9.
Fuel: if he thinks he’s good, he should call, not raise. Doubt he expects Andrew to CALL a raise with a worse hand.
Andrew: Would calling with 77 be better if your raise was from MP? Button? It’s tough to say whether it’s better or worse to call a raise from you in those positions because it’s not clear whether your range being wider and weaker is better or worse for him. When your range is weaker, it obviously improves his equity in the hand, but decreases his chances of winning a bit pot if he hits a set (because you will have a hand to pay him off less frequently). It seems like which one is a better situation for 77 is very opponent-dependent (e.g., if the pfr is likely to stack off with an overpair often, if pfr is likely to give a fairly cheap showdown to 77 on a T832T board or whatever, etc.).
-bruechips
Brue,
Very good question about whether he’s better off calling against a middle or late position raise. There’s no easy answer, but I think you’re touching on the right issues. Against a sufficiently good player in any of those positions, I actually think folding 77 in the SB is fine. Against a wide raising range, 3-betting is OK also, especially when deep.