Stacks: Hero - ~$750, Villain ~$2k

Images: Hero - probably look slightly donkish after shoving a reraise and losing to JJ and not showing. Reloaded and up $250ish since. Villain - splashing in a lot of pots and seems to be good/thinking and has the respect of all of the other regulars.

Hero is on the button with 88.

Preflop:
Villain raises the $10 straddle to $35 from middle position. Hero calls.

Flop (~$85): QJ8 rainbow
Villain bets $25, Hero calls.

Turn (~$130): [QJ8] J
Villain bets $50, Hero raises to $150, Villain calls.

River (~$430): [QJ8J] J
Villain checks. Hero?


I welcome comments on all streets. My read was that if the villain had the J, he would not check that river so he must have the Q or KK/AA. Should hero bluff and, if so, for how much?

I really don't think the villain has to have anything here. His bets on the flop and turn scream that he doesn't necessarily have any real hand. That said, you HAVE to put in a raise somewhere. Playing the hand like this is why you have this retarded river.

Oh, and check it down now that you've essentially lost all value. I think you're likely to run into 99 or TT, but the guy is never folding a boat to a bet (see Zeebo therom) so just check.

Raise the flop every single time. Seriously. Raise the flop.

I would raise the flop for 2 reasons.

1. Villain prolly either connected with that board or at least has a reasonable pair and draw with something like 10-10.

2. We want to do our best to get our chit in the middle and stack villain and bloating the pot after a very weak almost 1/4 pot size bet by villain is the best way to do achieve this while still revealing very little about our hand since we could be raising KQ just as often as we're raising 88. I raise to $75 or so.

Play on the turn is fine, if we raise the flop in my example we might be able to get it in here depending on the villain's bet. If it's 0.5 pot then we prolly can, though I didn't figure out the potsize.

As played I certainly check the river as unless he had K-10, he's calling most all the time.

I would raise both streets.

As played, check the river. He could have easily have an overpair to your 88

I think everyone else has hit on the most obvious thing here, raise teh floop.

Turn raise is fine, check behind 100% of the time.

OK, thanks for the input. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out whether to raise or just smooth call a flop like this. Part of me wants to keep the pot small because of the draw-iness of the board. I guess the point is that we probably have the best hand on this flop and need to protect it more than we need to keep the pot small.

You have a set. In NLHE a set is basically the nuts, or at least it should be played like it is unless there are 4 to a str8 or flush on the board. And even then you don't necessarily fold, because you always have outs to a FH.