River action? MUTB?
Playing a live tournament, mid-stages. Blinds 200-400, ante 50.
My stack ~17K, Opponent at ~22K.
I have a limited read on my opponent. He is a fellow forumer, experienced tournament player, up till now from what I can tell he has been playing mostly ABC poker, though I know he is capable of a variety of moves. He is new to the table, came shortstacked and won a big pot with a fullhouse on his first hand at my table.
I am not sure if he knows who I am and what kind of read he has on me. I have not been involved in too many hands. I'm making positional raises and the pots I've taken have been small and uncontested. On one of the other hands, I folded QQ preflop to another forumer's allin re-re-raise and there was minimal discussion when another player said he folded AQ and I said "you had my outs"
here's the hand (7 handed)
folded around to my opponent in the SB. He calls.
I have Tc 3c in the BB. I check.
Flop: Qc 9h 4c Pot: 1350.
Opponent bets 800. I raise to 2000. Opponent calls.
Turn: (Qc 9h 4c) 8c Pot: 5350.
Opponent checks. I bet 2000. Opponent calls.
River: (Qc 9h 4c 8c) Qd Pot 9350.
Opponent checks. My action???
My stack ~17K, Opponent at ~22K.
I have a limited read on my opponent. He is a fellow forumer, experienced tournament player, up till now from what I can tell he has been playing mostly ABC poker, though I know he is capable of a variety of moves. He is new to the table, came shortstacked and won a big pot with a fullhouse on his first hand at my table.
I am not sure if he knows who I am and what kind of read he has on me. I have not been involved in too many hands. I'm making positional raises and the pots I've taken have been small and uncontested. On one of the other hands, I folded QQ preflop to another forumer's allin re-re-raise and there was minimal discussion when another player said he folded AQ and I said "you had my outs"
here's the hand (7 handed)
folded around to my opponent in the SB. He calls.
I have Tc 3c in the BB. I check.
Flop: Qc 9h 4c Pot: 1350.
Opponent bets 800. I raise to 2000. Opponent calls.
Turn: (Qc 9h 4c) 8c Pot: 5350.
Opponent checks. I bet 2000. Opponent calls.
River: (Qc 9h 4c 8c) Qd Pot 9350.
Opponent checks. My action???
Comments
Do you have the opponent on Q-Q or Q-9, Q-8?
Out of the SB, only called, there are a multitude of hands the opponent could have that satisfy his play so far. Let's hope he had a J-10, or 9-8.
I say bet.
Check and call
It is already checked to you. If you check, it is showdown.
check and showdown
Here are additional thoughts that I was considering as well:
Does the line look suspicious from a solid, experienced player? He leads out on the flop (pretty standard), but what strikes me as odd is calling my flop raise and check/calling the turn. Doesn't this seem a little weak? Now, if he's calling with the intention of trapping me on the river, does the line make a little more sense?
If I put out a bet, say of 3K, that leaves me fairly pot-committed with my baby flush. I may be compelled to call any raise on the river. In either case, it leaves me with a tough decision, and I don't necessarily want to make my brain hurt more than it already does.
If I bet, which hands call me that don't beat me? Ac9x or AQ Maybe? I can't see too many others that would call, and I don't see AQ not reraising on the flop.
I know my opponent here has much more live tournament experience than I do, and I may have been slightly intimidated, while at the same time I was inspired to play with a lot more focus against him.
I'm not sure that a value bet on the river is worth the risk. Also, if I bet and he mucks, I lose the opportunity to gain some information from seeing his hand. He's first, he declares first.
All of this information led me to check behind. My opponent had T9o (red) and MHIG.
I'm just wondering if my thought process here is reasonable or am I suffering from MUBS? Do other people do the same thing for a different reason? Do people bet out here, and for what reason?
That call on your flop raise was horrendous.
Betting out with second pair is ok, but when raised, he has to lay it down.
Then the 8 on the turn caused him to call 2,000 chips hoping for what? a jack but not the Jc, so...
This guy is either having a very off day or is simply brutal.
Boy, you don't know how right you are.
I just can't put a decent (what you described the other player) as botching up a set or two pair on the flop so badly. He would have popped you on the flop and/or the turn (unless you were giving off tells like crazy that you had the flush).
The only hand i can even remotely fear, but even that's MUTB is a higher flush.
I make that bet fully expecting to get called by almost any pair, this is a straight value bet on the end. My only other fear is having trip queens re-pop me and now i'm faced with a shitty decision and could end up folding the winner, where a check would have finished the hand there.
So if you don't want anymore variance or headaches, check otherwise i can't see any reason not to put out a small callable bet.
Ah HA!, I finally found your weakness. You think too much
I agree with your decision to simply check the river, end the drama. You do gain information from the show down, plus save a tough decision by not opening yourself to a check-raise. I would only bet the river if I was going after the guy in one of two ways
a) intimidation: let him know there's no free rides when I'm the aggressor. So he'll think about it next time if he wants to chase me down to the river.
b) elimination: If I'm trying to eliminate him in that hand, or greatly cripple his chip stack.
In all fairness, no need to judge the player by one hand. I've seen many other things from this player that would suggest that "brutal" is not the right label to add to his player notes
You are gong to be folding too much if you automatically give your (battle of the blinds) opponent credit for top pair or better when he raises you on the flop.
ScottyZ