A with 2 pair on board

[ManicLombax]

I'm thinking the c-bet on the flop was not a great idea. Anyone with a heart or maybe a K is probably going to stick around. On the other hand if they don't have a heart they might go away. My river bet was a value bet. I'm thinking my two pair with ace kicker might be good at this point if he was calling with QJ or something. On the other hand the pot is already bigger than I want it. Any thoughts?


Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 2.25 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2400)
SB (t2850)
BB (t2100)
Hero (UTG) (t2710)
MP (t3440)

Hero's M: 15.06

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, 8
Hero bets t300, 3 folds, BB calls t180

Flop: (t660) 10, K, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t420, BB calls t420

Turn: (t1500) 10 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t1500) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t500, BB calls t500

Total pot: t2500

[Zorkion]

fold preflop from utg. there is a ~20% chance someone else has a dominating ace, and youre going to be oop if mp or button calls.

as played, probably make preflop bet 3xbb, with 2.5xbb leaning more towards late pos. check flop since its absolutely terrible for you, check turn, check river. or A high 2pair has great showdown value in situations like this

[Fielmann]

If opponents are not very loose, I don't mind raising it pre. Folding is OK too.
Raise size of 2.5x is good, on the button I might make it bigger, up to 3x.

Against tight non-tricky opponents I'd c-bet fairly often, but the default play is to check behind. Definitely check turn and river.

My river bet was a value bet. I'm thinking my two pair with ace kicker might be good at this point if he was calling with QJ or something.

Your river bet is not a value bet. Whether you're ahead of the villain's range before the bet is irrelevant. In order to bet for value you must have him calling the bet with worse hands. Will he call with Q-high? Don't think so.

[ManicLombax]

Your river bet is not a value bet.

I'd define a value bet as a bet where you want to get called because you think you're ahead. You may be right that he won't call with Q high here, but then I'm giving him 4:1 pot odds to call to find out if I'm bluffing with a pair of 5's, so maybe he will.

The way you define value bet, you'd never bet for value on the river if you think your opponent has missed, you'd just check behind and give him a free showdown.

[dneureiter]

To valuebet you need to be 50% vs someone's calling range. If you have ace high and your opponent either has pocket Aces or a busted draw and has checked to you you obviously don't want to bet (on the river).

checkback river for sure. any piece is probably calling and maybe even any Ace high.

[givememyleg]

i hate everything about this hand. i don't really mind the pfr but 5 handed i'm usually pitching it unless the table is really tight.

the flop is really bad for us, so many hands peal here, i just check back.

i'm checking the river. he called the flop, this plays much different if it went check/check check/check. a bet of 100-200 is much better if you want him to call playing the board.

[taipan168]

I have to agree with leg, I would not raise this preflop from UTG with the stack that OP has. If he had a monster stack (say 6,000 chips) then that's a different story.

Also, I would not c-bet the flop, that flop is likely to have hit a lot of what the flat caller might have, I just check down unless I hit big time on the turn and river (and it's sort of hard to know what "big time" would be in this case).

I also agree that the river is a definite check behind, I can't really think of any hands that you beat that will call, best you can hope for is to get called by somebody who has an A for a split - in which case why not just check it down?

[ManicLombax]

Thanks all. I think my brain melted a little bit on this hand and I decided it would be cool to give away most of my chips.

I get what you all are saying about value betting too. Since I'm only ahead of a missed draw, no sense betting since he'll just fold, and if he does have a piece I just wasted more chips. Betting when I only get called by hands that beat me is something I still struggle with.

[drmcboy]

I agree river bet is bad, totally disagree we should check back flop, how is it likely this flop hit him? Is anyone posting in this thread peeling on the flop with Tx no heart? A free card helps us rarely and may cost us money.