Mixing it up against a regular

This guy is very annoying. He calls my raises with a very wide range, and he never ever folds to my c-bets.
He has caught me bluffing about 3 times in the last 45minutes, and we have had many battles together. I am lagging it up bigtime.
He could have anything from suited gapper (57+) to AA here (he rarely 3bets me).

Mixing it up on the flop.
My turn bet is made to look like a bluff (it's fullpot minus the rake)
River check to induce a bluff.
In hindsight I believe that the river check is terrible here because he is checking behind with a lot of hands that are calling bets here (88+, and A high might call a bet here to look me up)

Thoughts?

PokerRoom No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($313.20)
Button ($372.00)
SB ($194.00)
BB ($46.10)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, 7.
1 fold, Hero raises to $7, Button calls $7, 1 fold.

Flop: ($16) 5, 7, 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $11, Hero calls $11.

Turn: ($38) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $36, Button calls $36.

River: ($110) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks

I think you're hand looks exactly like what it is. I think you're right that you should be betting this river though.

Originally Posted by JL

This guy is very annoying. He calls my raises with a very wide range, and he never ever folds to my c-bets.

Well, betting the flop would be a good idea then wouldn't it? He could never put you on 7x and you keep building a pot. I would fire on the turn and then I could see myself c/bombing the river.

If you are going to check-call the flop, I would also check the turn. He probably has nothing, so you should at least give him the chance to fire a second barrel. If he has a hand that will call your turn donk, he'll probably bet anyways. Then you can either raise or just call then donk the river or something.

EWWWWWWWWW.

ARE U CRAZY? Bet this flop... if he calls you with a huge range then you r ahead almost always and ur hand is super vulnerable so protect u crazy.

Then you hit the nuts so ur only option should be to get as much money in the pot as possible. Id just bet turn and pot or overbet river and see if he puts u on a bluff and calls with ace high. Ur river check is absolutely terrible.

I agree about betting the flop. Although, your c/c on the flop kinda undereps your hand and allows you to near-pot river and get looked up by a wide range of hands. Definitly value bet river.

meh i don't think checking the flop is that bad, and I check it BECAUSE your hand is so vulnerable. No reason to needlessly build the pot (should you be folding if he raises your donklead?). Betting the turn is fine, but whatever you do don't value bet the river, overbet lots and lots plz and watch him call you with a wide range of hands. I don't think there are many hands that he calls a 3/4 pot sized bet and folds to a 6/4 pot sized bet (maybe but this is a great spot to overbet)

If you've been battling I like either a weak bet or a shove on the river since he might be capable of shoving over top of a weak-blocker and he may be capable of calling you here down light if he thinks you're getting frustrated.

I agree with you that the river check is not great since this type of villain (I play very much the way you described villain) basically lives for playing the river in position with A high here...

By checking you're playing right into his game (he'll cry for joy when you let him show down Ax unimproved since he'd have been likely to call the river bet.

edit : I just read the other replies advocating c-betting. It seems to me that if you c-bet here, you basically have to be prepared to go to war when raised.

This is bad because :

-5x is part of villain's range
-he's unlikely to be 3-betting PP's higher than 88 preflop when he can just call and pwn you in position
-you can value-bet or check-call later streets very profitably after checking this flop (if he's behind he only has about 22% equity here so it's not like you're giving him a free flip)
-finally, you're likely to get raised by his air on a crappy flop like this which, for the reasons I just mentioned, puts you in a shitty shitty spot.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Thanks Genitruc and Ravageur.
I did not think my flop check was bad at all for those exact reasons.
This type of villain will raise that type of flop or call and raise the turn almost everytime, which will leave me in a very shitty spot 95% of the time when i dont hit my 7 on the turn.
Usually I check this type of flop with a whiffed AK so I figured I would check it with a weak pair to mix things up.

My river check is horrible and after i checked I wanted to hit something as villain was deciding what to do.
Once he bet the river though I was stoked

Results:
River: ($110) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $55, Hero raises to $160, Button calls $105.

Final Pot: $430

Villain shows 66 for lower fullhouse.

Very lucky river for me.