Considering raising a baby boat on the river, no limit cash game

Game type: .50/1 No limit cash at PokerStars
Your image: Passive / weak
Opponent’s image: Hasn’t played many hands
Your hand: 9♣9♥

The setup: You’re fairly new to no limit cash, and you’ve been working out the kinks in your game at this .50/1 no limit table when the following hand comes up.

Preflop there are two folds and a limp before you. You limp, as does the next player, and the table folds to the blinds, who both play. 5 players see a flop of:

Q♣9♦J♦

The SB checks, the BB makes it $1 and Player C makes it $4. You think a bit and then click call, wondering if you should have raised. Player E makes it $10 total. The blinds fold and Player C calls. You call. The turn is gross:

T♦

Player C checks, you check and Player E makes it $8. Player C calls and you call. The river pairs the board with the Q♥. Player C checks, you check and Player E makes it $8 again.

Player C folds and now it’s back to you. Should you call or raise here?

11 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Rallenkov

Value Bet, you have the best hand the majority of the time its time to make some additional money..

[Reply]

Joe

One the I hate doing is betting a river were I’m not sure what ill do if I get reraised. So if I bet the river I usually need to feel that I have the best hand and if I get raised I’ll not folding. In this case I’m fairly sure we have the best hand snd we should raise. I would put him on a hand like K10 actually or many QK hand has a straight.I wouldnt doubt he limped in with suited connectors and hit his flush. We have the best hand here. Raise about 3X or maybe more since I doubt a made straight or flush will fold here.got to make that money money yeah yeah.

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Jobby

I doubt that your opponent has a straight flush, so only a bigger boat has me really screwed. Value bet by raising big, and you’ll most probably be called by a straight or a flush, paying you off big time.

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drhoho

When player E reraised the flop, It is plausible that he had made hand at that point.
A made hand on that flop migth very well be QJ. Don’t you guys think he would have raised KQ preflop?
Anyway, If he does have a Q, he probably has a boat on that board. I am awuss, I call.

[Reply]

Ally

I voted to call, but think I failed to recognize how little he had left in his stack. I guess we’ve come this far, I’m not necessarily against getting it all in on the river here against this shorter stack.

But, we played this hand horribly, and I’m not a big fan of checking with the best hand on the river, or in check/raising for value with a somewhat marginal hand.

I would have to think that only a really bad player would call off with a hand that you beat here. We play the hand like we’re drawing and every draw hit the turn. Why wouldn’t we raise then if we hit paydirt to get paid by a lower flush or to get a straight to pay off our flush? We certainly wouldn’t want the board to pair to kill our action.

We play the entire hand as passively as possible and then we check/raise all in on the river? If I’m our villain, I may check behind with my nuts flush, I’m definitely checking a straight. Why? Because there’s not really much value in betting there. We’re not going to get a lot of worse hands to pay us off. Ok, maybe I’d bet the nuts flush hoping to get a little value out of a straight or lower flush, but no way can I call a check/raise there.

The same logic has to work for us. I really think we should have led out on the river, to get a straight or flush to maybe call, but no way can they call a check/raise shove. Do we do some sort of minimal raise? Maybe we can extract a little more value.

The problem is, we really can’t be sure we have the best hand. Hands like QJ, QT, and Q9 are certainly in our villain’s range. I doubt he has the straight flush, but it is possible that he’s got a higher full house. And, if we shove here, I think we’re only called by that higher boat.

Anyway, because our opponent does not have a huge stack, I think we can put him in and live with the results either way if he folds or if he’s got us, but in general, I’m not a big fan of the check/raise on the river. If you think you’ve got the best hand, you should come out and bet, if you think you can get your villain to fold, you should come out and bet, and if you think your opponent missed a draw, maybe then you check to them to let them bluff at the pot. If you check/raise your big hands all the time on the river, I think you lose more value than you gain by far.

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no_donkey

I’m a bemused and befuddled caller here – thought you’d all like to know.

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Matt Harrell

i think with every one limping i am the only one with full house. Alot of players raise with Q-J,Q10, and they would defenitly raise with j,j. The whole fact that i didn’t raise on the flop kinda disguises my full house. He Has a Flush and he thinks you have a straight. That queen saved you. He is pot comitted put him ALL IN.

[Reply]

directory

represented choosing angular ray endurable postmaster!adjective domesticates

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Dan

the comment says it; since my opponent is not deepstacked i will raise to put him allin.

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Luizeba

Whoa!
I like play in that scenario!

We have Flush possibilities…Straight possibilities…Trips possibiliities…and you have a Full House! Yeah! That’s yours!

If you do a medium raise, like 20$, the raises calls, and you win that!

[Reply]

Naga

No, probably not. 77, JJ, 75 and J5 would clerainty have bet the flop with the three hearts out there, leaving only 95 and 99 as hands that would check the flop and fill up on the turn. But 95 is not within Demidovs preflop raising range (unless he decided to randomly raise some awful hand). Not to mention that Demidov raised the turn. He would not raise any set or 2pair there. So unless Demidov played the hand completely wrong on EVERY street. He doesn’t have a boat there.

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