Absolute Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
4 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is BB with A Q
UTG raises, Button folds, SB calls, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls, SB calls.

Flop: 2 8 7 (9SB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, UTG calls, SB calls.

Turn: 8 (6BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, UTG calls, SB folds.

River: 6 (8BB, 2 players)
Hero checks...


Is this a value bet?

I would think so

hey zach, a more helpful response as to why instaed of a 4 word answer!

his raising range utg can be 22-AK

AK usually caps as well as premium pocket pairs

he's shown no aggression and while it is possible that he could raise utg w/a7 and a8, his action so far says otherwise.

it is a bet/fold tho

I don't see how betting this river could be a value bet. Is there a hand we beat that will pay us off? I think our hand might very well be good, but won't get called by a single worse hand. By betting as Mikey suggests, there is also some possibility he bluff-raises off the best hand.

The best play is to check-call this river. Give him a chance to bluff at it. There are also quite a few hands he could have that beat us that he will not bet if checked to, but would have called had we bet (33-55, maybe A7, etc). Save that bet by checking. Given the way he played it, if he bets this river I think we catch a bluff maybe 1/3 of the time, definitely worth calling.

What?

I c/c the river. Lol whats this new obsession with value betting A hi on the river?

Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to follow mikeysong's advice in other threads... This is like a ridiculously standard c/c for me normally.

He's on a million bet downswing though, so it could be that.

If it's 3way and he has paired acting immediately after you, you're generally going to hear from it earlier because they want to isolate / check to see if you have missed overs.

You're ahead the large majority of the time if he's an aggressive player.

And decent players generally wont bluff the river because they generally wont have a hand bad enough that they need to.
At least not as often as they call with worse hands.

I hate it when I've set villain up to bluff the river when I'm holding AJ-high...and he takes the bait and "bluffs" w/ AQ-high.

Check/call and bet/fold are pretty close here.

I think in this case having AQ is significantly different from having AJ. I would be more inclined to bet/fold with AJ. But with AQ, the only way he 'bluffs' the river with a better hand is with AK, which I think is unlikely given no cap preflop, plus he probably wouldn't 'bluff' the river because he has some showdown value.

QFT. Even if you're only ahead half the time, villian's going to bet the river almost every time we're behind and will almost never bet when we're ahead. OOP, I think we have to bet this to get value from weaker aces. Occasionally, you could take a check/call or check/fold line against a really tight-passive villian, but bet/fold would definitely be my standard play here.

weve repped a pretty big hand up until this point.

They're still probably not folding ace high though. And ace high (or king high) is what they'll have a lot of the time here.


Check/calling tells them what you have and pretty much telegraphs your intent (that you want to show it down).

For that reason i think there are a lot of player against which check/folding is a perfectly reasonable option.

The players I play with aren't that good.

Most of them will look at your check as exactly what you have, but still try to steal the pot away with their busted 5 high flush draw.

Have you seen the 3/6 on AP lately?