To block or not to block?
We were happy with our hand until the equity shift on the river. Can you assess the situation and find strength to continue?
Back at NL50, we wake up with a nice hand. But they won't let us just take the value and be happy, will they?
The preflop play looks standard except the MP Villain flat calling our raise. But with the second best starting hand there's nothing to fear just yet.
The flop looks somewhat coordinated, so our best bet here is to make all the draws and pairs pay us. By betting we also make our claim for the pot, so if the Villain has anything worthy to protect then there's no action to delay. In other words, if the Villain raises we can safely assume a strong but still vulnerable hand that can't be slowplayed. Considering his preflop flat calling range to be somewhat standard, such hands are sets (88, TT, JJ) and two-pairs (JTs). That means we play bet/fold on the flop. Remember not to overplay your overpairs in such spots unless you know where you need to go.
The Villain calls our bet, so we assume he has none of the aforementioned hands or random straights with 97s or Q9s. Nothing's off the table though. The turn card looks blank, so we can continue our line. We can't let a bunch of straight draws and gutshots get to the river for free. Weaker made hands also should pay before the board gets too scary for them. Our Hero chooses to keep value betting but, as usual, the river card makes the whole situation a lot more interesting.
We see probably the worst possible card for our holding. It's obvious our hand has lost some equity but how much exactly? Time for you to tell us. One thing is certain – we can't play automatically.
Now, to the options. We can assume our hand is done for and check/fold right away. But why should we be afraid of every river like that? If we check we clearly show weakness, and the Villain's bet will kick us out right away. Maybe we should provoke him to turn his showdown value into a bluff? And there's also a block bet of around 1/3 of the pot. If we can't block this bullet, we can always dodge it later. Time to vote!
//
Previous poll's results
Last time we were trying to handle a pot bet on the River with our top triplet. As always, we faced a tough decision.
By default, there's no value in pushing the River against a regular player. Even more, it's a huge mistake. A pot bet with KQ, especially from a rather passive opponent, is highly unlikely. So it's actually a tough choice between a fold and a crying call. What you actually choose should depend on your actual reads. Understandably, it's very sad to let go of such hands. That's why 3/4 of our voters decided to call.
