Not much of a read on villain. I guess I'd go with aggressive but reasonable if I had to make a guess.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (6 max, 6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

CO =#A500AF(Villain)/ ($565.05)
Hero ($734.50)
SB ($369)
BB ($583.65)
UTG ($796.30)
MP ($1293.85)

Preflop: Hero is Button with [Ah], [Js]. SB posts a blind of $3.
1 fold, MP folds.

Flop: ($59) [3d], [Jd], [8c] (2 players)
Villain bets $55, Hero calls $55.

Turn: ($169) [9s] (2 players)
Villain bets $155, Hero calls $155.

River: ($479) [2c] (2 players)
Villain checks

Anyway, what do you do on the river here? Keep in mind that Villain only has $333 remaining in his stack. Also, if Villain had gone all-in here, would I have had to fold? I hate folding to a less than pot-sized bet with TPTK, but I remember thinking how stupid I'd feel calling off close to my entire stack with just a pair of jacks.

I think you have to check this river here. I may be wrong but Im not sure if anything that you have beat will call. Maybe 1010 or A9 or A8 but i dont think so. Im not sure if you could push him off anything here either if he does have you beat since the pot is almost $500. I think if he goes all in it would be a tough decision. i may make a similar play with any of the 3 overpairs.

I hope some other people chime in on this but I may have raised on the flop or put him in on the turn to make him make the decision. it would be hard to raise on the turn without him going all in

The way it played out I think you must ceck the river. WIth only $300 left villian is not laying down a hand like QQ.

I would have probably raised the flop or turn. Turn preferrably.

I said pretty much the same thing but I was wondering why you like the turn raise better than raising on the flop??

I was thining a flop raise might help let us know where we stand where as a turn raise has to put the villian all in and therefore if he does have an over pair we are stuck for a nice little chunk. If we raise the flop, say $100 more, and villian comes over the top we may be able to lay this down depending on our read

My guess is that the turn raise indicates more strength.

Kinda weird he bet huge on semi dangerous turn, then checks on most harmless card in the deck. Honesty betting or checking could both be right in this situation. If you put him all in thought most of the things he is going to call with beat you, but if you were calling the whole way you obviously determined your hand was good so why not bet the river and extract a little more. If he has QQ or KK he definetly made a very odd check on the river.
Might be in your interest to check and just see what he has, might win right there, or not lose anymore and you'll see what he has. Very odd IMO.

I can't get away from the sense that all he has is top pair and he just realized that gosh, if this guy is willing to call a $155 bet on the turn, I might be beat.

So, he bets the pot on the flop. Your call puts you on a huge range of hands. So he decides that maybe you're on a draw. So he bets again on the turn. When you call, he thinks he's beat so he slows down on the river.

I wouldn't be shocked if he had AJ as well =)

I'd just check it for that small chance he decided to show weakness to draw more money from us.

i check behind on the river
villain could have been semibluffing a flush draw
he's not calling a river bet here anyway if his draw misses

if you bet the river you are getting a call from few worse hands, if he comes over the top you are likely beat, he could also be check calling with better hands too

you aren't losing any value from checking the river and taking the free showdown

Haven't read replies...

To answer your question...

The river is check or push, nothing in between. Either option is okay by me.

If he pushes the river, then you have a very tough decision to make.

I'd rather make that decision for HIM on the turn, though. I don't like flat-calling the turn bet (or the flop bet, for that matter... but you can make a case that you're setting him up with the flop call).

Bottom line... do you give him credit for an overpair here? I think I can make even an overpair fold for moving in on the turn.

Having read replies...

Excellent points about not missing out on a ton of value by checking the river through.

I like moving in on the turn if you think we need to make him fold an overpair.

Wow, I'm surprised that everyone advocated checking the river. Honestly, I thought that the most likely hand for villain here was some kind of bluff or semi-bluff once he checked, but I figured that if he did have a hand, something like K-J was more likely than Q-Q.

In the actual hand, I bet $155 on the river, he called in about half a second with Q-J, and I wondered if I should have bet more. I didn't want to put him all-in, because I thought that psychologically, he might not want to put it all on the line in a situation where he was probably beat.

However, I do think that I may be playing TPTK too passively in general. Later on, I ran into a similar situation where I called a pot-sized bet on the flop, my opponent sucked out on the turn, and I ended up paying him off $500 more. That hand put me on a tilt spiral, and I ended up blowing through the rest of my buy-in, which I think was up around $1200 at that point.

Tilt sucks.

Frankly I'm surprised he had QJ too.

I think it'll be an overpair far too often at these stakes and for the betting.

well sir, if it's any consolation, you played that hand far better than I last night.

Despite my vow never to play 1/2 NL live, I sat last night whilst waiting for a 2/5 spot to open up. Guys were catching cards all over the place and I was seeing monsters and running scared.

Anyway, table rock raises to around $20, I call with A/J suited.

Flop 8/10/J. He leads out, I promptly fold. That's right, fold. I wasn't even convinced he was on an overpair, I was just feeling snakebit. He showed me Q/J...he probably would've turned the straight seeing as how my night was going. The coordination of the board definitely influenced me, but nonetheless...yuck.

Haven't read all the replies, but I'm very suprised about how many people think you're beat here. It's short handed. too me, this is fairly standard aggression for a SH game. I think you're way ahead here. Probably against kj, qj, or a medium pair. KJ is paying off a push as well as qj (probably). medium pair is calling a smallish type bet which is why I think the decision to put pressure on him should have been made on the flop... maybe turn. On the river I like a small value bet here along the lines of 1/2 the pot to make such you get called by 1010 and below.

The contradictions, expressed and implied, and inherent in both parts of this statement, confuse me.

You haven't read replies because you don't want replies to bias your thinking, and you want to give OP your best, your own opinion.

You read replies to join in whatever direction the discussion has taken by now.

I see this and you can see how it confuses me. And then I don't know how seriously I can take the rest of your post, as well thought out and truthful as it is.

He said he hadn't read all the replies. I think the implication was that someone might have said calling was right, but from what he read, everyone had advocated a check, and that surprised him.

Don't think you need to divine any hidden motives here.

I know, I know, that's just part of the fun for me (:

And I get another opportunity to relentlessly plug the idea that it's good to not be results based, which is even more important in no limit analysis than it is in limit.

I have a weird sense of humor, but trust me, it's funny. The dude across the hall asked what I could possibly be cackling about since I'm "working late."

thanks for defending me. haha. I was at work when i read the post and had read the first few posts. Realize now that results had been posted. Honest injun.

[quote="TJ_Eckleburg"][quote]

You haven't read replies because you don't want replies to bias your thinking, and you want to give OP your best, your own opinion.

[/quote]

Sorry. When i said that i hadn't read replies, it was m ore of an apology if I brought up something that had already been brought up by some one else.... which i see now it was.