AJo with 3bet pot: should I bet on the flop? / raise on the river?

checking the flop has pros and cons.
"Never give the weaker hand a free draw"[1] but on the other hand, you disguise your hand.

With the runout as shown, I'm happy just to call the river

[1] from the collected sayings of Vorpal Swordsman

Well played I think. At NL5 that flop check could easily decieve them thinking you dont have Ax. The problem vs more thinking opponents is that, your entire air range should bluff somewhere, and it would make zero sense to check air there, so if you check, you always have something, which he might notice.

So you could range bet the flop with your entire range like 3 or 4 bb, but yea, the "checkback exploit" is more +EV maybe but is also more risky as he might just put you on AK if he is good and just snapfold turn.

I think you can bet the flop, but than you need to fold against a check/raise. Indeed if you check you hand looks weaker, but it's also hard to get to much value with betting multiple streets with top pair.

On the river it's hard to get value of less than top pair. Villains lead is weird and I don't think a middle strengh hand that he most likely has will call a healthy raise.

Cheers,
SDK1987

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
checking the flop has pros and cons.
"Never give the weaker hand a free draw"[1] but on the other hand, you disguise your hand.

With the runout as shown, I'm happy just to call the river

Hi VorpalF2F,

I see. That's cleared my head! I remembered "Never give the weaker hand a free draw".
Thanks

Originally posted by taavi1337
Well played I think. At NL5 that flop check could easily decieve them thinking you dont have Ax. The problem vs more thinking opponents is that, your entire air range should bluff somewhere, and it would make zero sense to check air there, so if you check, you always have something, which he might notice.

Hi taavi1337,

Yeah, you really know the 5NL players on PokerStars
I guess it was a little bit not standard play, it was a more exploitable move for PokerStars's 5NL normal table players.

Originally posted by taavi1337
So you could range bet the flop with your entire range like 3 or 4 bb, but yea, the "checkback exploit" is more +EV maybe but is also more risky as he might just put you on AK if he is good and just snapfold turn.

I see. Thank you for telling me your point of view

Originally posted by SDK1987
I think you can bet the flop, but than you need to fold against a check/raise. Indeed if you check you hand looks weaker, but it's also hard to get to much value with betting multiple streets with top pair.

On the river it's hard to get value of less than top pair. Villains lead is weird and I don't think a middle strengh hand that he most likely has will call a healthy raise.7

Hi SDK1987 :f_grin:,

I see. That makes sense, if I check on the flop, it's hard getting value...
On the river bet was weird. If it seems hard to raise, 15% donk bet (5bb/34.4bb) could be a GOOD donk bet?

Thanks again, everyone. I learned a lot from your replies.

Glad to hear it will help improving your game.