push on river

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

MP1 ($5.75)
MP2 ($1.72)
MP3 ($2.23)
CO ($2.45)
Button ($5.93)
SB ($4.18)
BB ($7.67)
UTG ($2.98)
Hero ($5.64)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Ac, Jc.
UTG calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.1, 6 folds, BB calls $0.08, UTG calls $0.08.

Flop: ($0.31) Kh, Th, Jd (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.3, BB calls $0.30, UTG folds.

Turn: ($0.91) 4c (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1.

River: ($2.91) 2s (2 players)
BB bets $6.27 (All-In), Hero ?

Final Pot: $13.42

BB is a tight-passive... what do i do here, call it or muck it?

i think he missed his flush because i don't think he would have called me down to the river with pocket 2..

1. I limp preflop.
2. I bet less on flop.
3. Explain your reasoning with the turn bet. Why $1? Why bet at all?
4. River is just about about the clearest fold ever. When you have been showing this much strength a missed flush will almost always just give up, especially out of position. If he is loose or aggressive or crazy you might consider a call. He is none of these.

1. you think AJs is too weak for a EP opening raise pf? The PF strat i use is one that is used in the howard lederer dvds... too loose?

2. bet that much to not give the odds to draw out the flush, was going to fold to a re raise.

3. bet a $1 figuring he was on a flush draw and wanted to make him pay to draw.

4. i agree. just checking if i played the hand right... which it looks like i didn't.

i appreciate the comments without flaming me

1. howard's dvd is really basic and it seems to be geared a little more for tournament play where stacks are shallower and the larger blinds force you to play faster. I would almost always open ajs in a tournament just cause the blinds are actually appreciable... here with 250bb stacks they are not. I would also rather open AJo than AJs, when you open AJs you end up pushing out hands like 96s and T7s that you'd rather were in, hands you will stack if you both hit big. plus if you flop your pair the pot is now really small on the flop, which is good since stacks are so deep you don't want the pot to escalate beyond your control, which it often will if you're out of position. Raising isn't bad if you play well enough, it's just a matter of preference and I still raise it with some frequency at soft tables. I just really like playing big multiway pots with it.
2. he is 5-1 to make a flush on the next card and youve given him 2-1. everyone on these boards seems terrified of flush draws. remember people have other hands as well too. you don't even know if you're betting for value yet. you could be drawing to very few outs yourself and are putting a lot of money into the pot.
3. why does he have to be on a flush draw. your bet here is basically a bluff. he's not calling this much with a flush draw and you're not getting called by anything you beat. he could easily have a king or a monster as well and wants to check/raise. you still have a free card to a gutshot, just go ahead and take it.
4. sorry if i came off abrasive, i've been awake for 30 hours straight now and just ate a shitty burrito and am about to get major diarrhea.

in general the check/call check/call lead river line shows a fair amount of strength but not a monster-level amount of strength. maybe something like AK on this board. if they had a monster they would usually check/raise the turn although i see monsters with this line a lot too. something that doesn't want the pot to escalate out of control with a turn check/raise but still wants to get value from hands that just bet the turn for a free showdown (like yours). however with his river all-in instead of a standard bet i would venture to say he has a monster or a bluff, and since hes passive its probably a monster.

thanks for explaining; makes a lot more sense now..

I figured he was on a flush draw because I thought he would have bet the flop if he had K or 2-pair, and re-raise the flop or turn after i bet if he had straight, trips, or maybe even 2-pair.

The river bet had me a little wary so i ended up folding and he showed pocket JJ for a set

people almost invariably check to the raiser if you have raised preflop, regardless of the strength of their hand. as for the slowplay with the flush out there, it's certainly something you don't expect from a decent player, but at the lower limits you will see that kind of stuff all the time. they figure they hit their good hands so infrequently that they want to slowplay and try and get some money for it, no matter the cost of being outdrawed.

as a general rule, never go with a read and stick with it all the way to the end, always consider maybe he is making the unorthodox play and you were wrong at first. good thing you folded to the allin but it should just make you jump out of your chair and say "wait, was he really on a flush draw? that doesn't make sense."

hmm...i usally am the pf raiser for every hand i am in, but when i do call a raise and he has position i hardly ever check to the raiser on the flop if i hit a hand (top pair and above), unless i hit a monster and it is a safe flop for me to slowplay. I usally bet and re-evaluate the situation if i get re-raised.

Is this type of play incorrect? am I loseing money playing too aggressive?

Also, looking at my PT stats for % of the time I won at SD it is 54% of 9.4k hands, is this % low?

Well you're certainly the exception there. Most everyone checks, but like everything in poker, the correct strategy is a mixture of the two... but until you find opponents who correctly balance their c-betting with their checking behind your strategy should lean one way or the other. i.e. if your opponents are really passive and often won't continuation bet, you should tend to lead into them on the flop more. the advantage here is since they're passive you can take down the pot a lot and you don't have to worry as much about pot control. if they almost always continuation bet (which is very true all throughout the medium limits) you should tend to check more - there's no reason not to collect their flop bluffs.

I often hear people say "well I bet to define my hand." What the hell good does defining your hand do? Poker is a game of incomplete information, and whoever has the most information wins - I want to define my opponent's hand while keeping my own hand's definition to an absolute minimum. People bet with the intention of defining their hand, but that's under the presumption that your opponents play straightforward, which is very often not the case.

The advantages to checking are many: pot control (you are out of position, it's very difficult to control the pot out of position), collect flop bluffs, do not give away any information about your hand based on flop action, give aggressive players rope to bluff worse hands they will fold when you bet.

An example of when you'd want to bet is if a very good solid player raises in early position and you call in the blinds with 88. Flop comes 8KK. Here you should often lead into him. For one, he could have ace-king and be prepared to raise you. For two, if he is good, he's checking AA here almost 100% of the time. You can't allow him to do that, you need to build a pot immediately and put him to decisions for his stack, so you want to seriously consider leading. But notice the only reason I recommend leading here is because I know he checks behind a lot. Basically your strategy should be based upon how your opponent plays - whether he checks behind more or bets behind more.

My % is around there as well, I think it's fine considering a lot of hands are just checked down to the end and both player show trash.

its seems like one of those people who likes to "define my hand"... i always am betting the flop to protect my hand.

thanks for your help... its seems like i got a bit of studying to do =P

If you've got a hand to protect then fine. If you didn't hit the flop, continuation bets against low limit calling stations should be used pretty sparingly.