Considering a light river call, no limit tournament

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: $100 1r 1a on Full Tilt Poker
Stage of tourney: Early stages
Your image: TAG
Opponent’s image: No strong read
Your hand: K♦9♦

The setup: You’re right around a starting stack in the $100 one rebuy / one add on tournament on Full Tilt when the following hand comes up.

You’re dealt a suited K9 in the SB. The table folds to the button, who calls. You call and the BB checks. You whiff:

J♣J♠T♣

The table checks around and the turn brings the 7♥. You check and so do both opponents. The river pairs you with the 9♣.

You check, the BB checks, and the button bets the pot. What’s your play?

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11 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

DHQ Staff

With as many hands as you lose to, this isn’t a good enough price to call. You need to be right a third of the time, which would be a tall order even if you didn’t have another opponent behind who would probably check-call a couple of hands that beat yours.

What actually happened: You called and were shown Q8 for a straight.

[Reply]

kaimano

It’s clear that the button has something strong or is bluffing. His limp preflop means he is not a superaggressive player, so I think he has hit something. With a player behind it’s a clear fold.

[Reply]

JBiggle

Yeah this one seems a bit of a no brainer (unless I’m missing some subtlty) – rivering third pair on a board with flush, straight and even boat potential with a raiser before you and a big blind that you have no read on who’s revealed nothing of their hand strength as you’ve checked 3 times too them. The price is definitely not right.
If you wanted action on the hand because of your position and low chip stack then a probing bet on the flop might have been a better plan no?
But I think you’re better waiting for the button and getting out with some dignity !

[Reply]

samo2

Voted fold. A player behind and an expensive call adds to a fold.

[Reply]

_CityBorn_

someone told me once in a multiway pot if everyone checks around twice, someone has a monster. its not always true, but it is true a lot. with a board as wet as this with straights, flushes, boats, and set potential right off the flop, why would we pay such a heavy price to call with 3rd pair? if hes bluffing, ok, he got away with our 160 chips. but it seems unlikely hes bluffing. anyone couldve just made a straight, or flush against him as well, or been slowplaying trips….and investing so much seems like a strange and bad play if he doesnt have it. i agree with staff, he check calls with anything less then a straight.

[Reply]

drhoho

Just fold it.

The river pot-bet is probably either nothing or a monster.

But if villain wanted to bluff, why not bet the flop? Doesn’t make sense for him to wait untill there are even more marginal hands to try to hero-call him.

We are beat at least 80% of the time here.

[Reply]

Pirate21

I’m not convinced he has something here, but give him credit – he’s made it too expensive to be finding out with our middle pair. Easy fold and move on.

[Reply]

jcar

If you weren’t short stacked at the table I would say to call. The odds are that he has you beat. But, he may be just sitting on ace high and I think it’s good to let other players know you can’t be bluffed easily. The only slight danger comes from an all in shove from the BB, but that seems very unlikely given the betting.

[Reply]

Bozo

I think this is a perfect reason why you shouldn’t play marginal hands out of position

If you miss, you can’t do anything

If you hit, well that’s not often not a good thing!

But of course you have to play, only have a blind and they are s00t3d!

[Reply]

dalil

he has a monster or he is bluffing. he has the position to bluff and he called and check 2 times. Even if he has a monster and beat me. I call and i loose the pot, but for next time my opponent will think longer before bluffing me because now he knows i dont scare to call.

[Reply]

Mr. Lucky Luck

I think the key is the amount as the DHQ staff said. It’s a high price ($480) to call here in the hopes that my crummy pair holds up. It’s also too early to have formed an opinion about a person’s play style. Would someone early in a tourney more likely bet when they have something than starting the bluff action so early? Maybe I’m wrong, but I would expect a bluff to come later on when it really mattered most.

[Reply]