Interesting River Check With the Second Nuts

Not that it affected the outcome of this hand, but I think Villain’s river check is pretty interesting, given that he’s got a monster hand and only a pot-sized bet left in his stack:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Hand Converter from HandHistoryConverter.com

UTG+1 ($5000)
MP1 ($5000)
Hero (MP2) ($11530)
MP3 ($5425)
CO ($5544)
Button ($5845)
SB ($8832)
BB ($3625)
UTG ($5122)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8, 8
1 fold, UTG+1 bets $150, MP1 calls $150, Hero calls $150, 2 folds, Button calls $150, 2 folds

Flop: ($675) K, 8, 9 (4 players)
UTG+1 checks, MP1 bets $450, Hero calls $450, 2 folds

Turn: ($1575) 4 (2 players)
MP1 bets $1050, Hero calls $1050

River: ($3675) 4 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $9880 (All-In), MP1 calls $3350 (All-In)

Total pot: $10375 | Rake: $3

Results:
MP1 had K, K (full house, Kings over fours).
Hero had 8, 8 (full house, eights over fours).
Outcome: MP1 won $10372

I’m sure most people’s default is just to shove here, and against loose opponents, it should be. Against a good hand-reader, though, I like the check. By the time we get to the river, he’s not likely to have many bluffs in his range (given that he wasn’t the pre-flop raiser, I don’t even see him playing the bare Ah this way), and I’m not likely to have many bluff-catchers (these would basically have to be KQ/AK/AA with or without a heart, and I play AK and AA this way pre-flop pretty much never). I, however, could show up with the bare Ah, and in any event I’m going to value-shove just about anything that could call a shove, namely flushes and worse full houses. My range is so strong that it won’t usually make a difference, but the chance of inducing a bluff from the bare Ah is enough to make this a good check, in my opinion.

By the way, this is a different converter. How is it working for those of you with aggressive firewalls at work?

11 thoughts on “Interesting River Check With the Second Nuts”

  2. I can’t see the images either. I could see the previous ones that were really tiny but I couldn’t make out the Spades or Clubs.

    I am at work.

  5. Perhaps you could host the images on your website and do a find/replace from the converter’s site to your site before posting the history. It would require an extra step, but it would ensure that anyone who can see thinkingpoker.net can also see the images. It looks like there are a few WordPress plug-ins that can help facilitate the find/replace part, but I haven’t used any of them.

  6. i read through google reader, and was unable to view the images…my filter is so strong that i can’t even get to your thinkingpoker.net address anymore. but i can see all cards/suits on google reader through the deucescracked converter.

  7. I can see the new images fine. The previous ones were visible but too small for me to read. I don’t have an aggressive firewall, just the Windows one. I use Firefox.

  8. 1.) If you were in villain’s spot with KQ, how often, if at all, would you be check calling?

    2.) If you had Ax with the A of hearts in this spot, how often, if at all, would you jam the river when checked to?

    btw, former policy debater here. Good to see there are others of us that have transitioned into the poker world after abandoning our tubs.

    • 1) I don’t think I’d play KQ this way, but if I did, I’d check-fold the river.
      2) I’d jam 100%.

      Yeah from what I hear, poker is pretty big in the debate community. Not surprising.

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