Bet the river or check behind?

silentbob

Player x has only been at the table about 10 minutes or so. I'm totally readless on him as he's played very few hands so far (& those he has played haven't gone to showdown either) & I don't recognise the name & have no notes on him.

So my question here is does anyone make any sort of bet on the river or is it just best to check behind? There's a decent chance that I'm good most of the time here but with a potential bigger FH on the board if I bet out here then surely I'm only getting called by an Ax hand, right? I think it's quite reasonable to think he may have just made up the SB with a weak ace as I see so many people do that.

Also, does anyone else make a bet on the turn as I've done? I made the bet partly to try & take a small pot & also to try & figure out if someone did have an ace. I must admit though, pretty much as soon as I'd clicked to bet I thought that it probably wasn't the greatest thing in the world to do but that might just be me being paranoid? I also thought that by betting out I could also try & rep a Ax sort of hand too as I generally don't play raggy aces so if I had a A2/3/4/5 type of hand OOP I would generally just check in the BB as I don't see the point in building the pot with bad aces particularly OOP (unless it's a HU situation in which case I'm more than happy to raise it)

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
x	Small blind		£0.10	£0.10	£19.10
silentbob	Big blind		£0.20	£0.30	£30.79
	Your hole cards	4 Q
	Fold
	Fold
	Call		£0.20	£0.50	£20.24
x	Call		£0.10	£0.60	£19.00
silentbob	Check
Flop
		4 A A
x	Check
silentbob	Check
	Check
Turn
		Q
x	Check
silentbob	Bet		£0.40	£1.00	£30.39
	Fold
x	Call		£0.40	£1.40	£18.60
River
		4
x	Check
silentbob	Check or bet?

LOL_RAISE

id probably bet like 50p to try and get Qx hands, king high, random pairs to call

DeucesLive

mmm... on such a dangerous board, it'd be a brave check if he held the A, gotta say... he could be very passive throughout sitting on an A, but nothing he's done really suggests an A to me.

All that said, how much are you losing by checking? Is he really going to call with anything less than a 4? My guess is he has a queen, and if you bet small you might get paid by it- you're running a risk of being reraised, but I don't think so. I reckon a bet of 50/60p is worth it, and if you get reraised, just duck it. I think 9/10 he hasn't got the ace, so at worst you're losing a small amount of rake.

DOHHHHHHH

He hasn't got an ace, Im betting, you have position and he's chosen not to value bet. The only hand that beats you really is the nuts (an ace), so if he wants to check raise the nuts on the river in a 7xbb pot, then fair enough, u can bet a quid, and fold to a re-raise.

I'm 99?% sure he wouldn't check the nuts, and there are hands worse than yours that call, so I'd bet 70p ish.

If he snap raises/shoves, you know where you are straight away, have lost 5xbb but bought good information on the guy, put it down as a mis-read and make sure you get the next one right.

percival09

I'd be 2/3rd of pot, he can't have an A, if he has, he's played it quite badly! There's a flush draw etc .. I'd put him on a Q, if he had an A, i'd probably say he would maybe up a little bit more on the turn, well i would anyway!!

DeucesLive

This is the danger you see, you can't attribute good play to everyone, and until you've seen someone play for a bit, you can NEVER definitively say what they have. They could literally have ANY two cards, regardless of what's on the flop and what they've been betting. Until they show a couple hands, you can't pin them down.

As played, I would be confident saying at least 90% of players cannot have an A there, but there are some people that play very, very strangely- can't account for them. Definitely the bet will be good to get information for future though, either way.

percival09

Yeah very true Deuces!! Maybe a check then, considering he doesn't know about the player! But after a few hands, when you find out more about him, you could then maybe have better knowledge of whether to check behind or bet it! 

DOHHHHHHH

If we are playing the percentage game, then I reckon betting 'till we know more about him' would be better than 'checking till know more about him' - Coz the majority of players will not check an ace here. Yes some might, but more would bet than check, making a bet a positive play? (until we know more)

I personally don't believe there's any need to show caution here, as the hand is pretty easy to read, and he shouldn't have an ace. Also, as the pot is so small, and the risk of value betting and having to fold to a re-raise, aint a big one, it's only 5xbb for a £1 value bet......

I suspect he probably did have an ace as it's been posted, but we're only human and will make mistakes, maybe he has notes that Silentbob bets marginal hands on the river, and has read the hand and played his holding to perfection.

Sometimes we do get owned like that

zing

check he has quads

DeucesLive

Agree for sure with dohhh- a bet here is the best play IMO, by the way it's played it doesn't look like he has a massive reraise bluff in his armory, so the worst case scenario is folding to a large shove, but you get some big information on how he plays for it.

Batkin88

Im sure i know this player, and he is more than capabl of playing an ace like this, however 9 times out of ten there is no ace here, he has played it like he has a small pocket pair maybe a queen.
Bet 70p and fold to a shove or re raise
Or check and keep the cards he has in ur noted on him.
As this is on forum however im guessing he had pocket queens lol

YOUNG_GUN

60p bet and fist pump! no ace here 99.9% of the time

OMahonyO

half pot bet for me.....fold to a raise

silentbob

Cheers peeps

Seems I may have missed a little bit of value here then. I did type in to bet 60p but something was just nagging away at me & with only 15 seconds to act I decided to check behind at the last second. Turns out he QJs so a small bet almost certainly would've been paid.

The thing is, I have seen people play a weak ace like this before particularly out of the blinds.

Small pot won, notes taken.