Limit Hold'em Quiz #32

[Matt]

You open-raise from middle position with K:diamonds:J:diamonds:. Everyone folds to the button, who three-bets. Both blinds fold and you call. The flop is 5:hearts: 6:diamonds: J:clubs:. You check and call. The turn is the 2:diamonds:, giving you the second-nut flush draw. You check and raise when the button bets. Much to your surprise, the button three-bets. You call. The river is the 7:diamonds:. You have made your flush. What do you do?

[Nima]

I'm always skeptical about check raising the river. The other player is intelligent and might very well have put you on flush draw, and that's why he was punishing you to draw. So he might check behind on the river...

At the same time he probably has a set here and thinks his hand is very strong (which it is), so he might try to value bet...

In general, it would depend on the player that I'm playing against. If he is aggressive, I'll check raise him, if not I'll bet out... If I just sat down at the table and don't know much bout him, I would still bet out...

Also you have to consider that if he has a very strong hand like JJ, he might not believe your river bet and reraise you giving you the opportunity to three bet it...

Nima,

[Matt]

Going for a check-raise on the river is often a mistake, but I think it's a good move here. Betting out is fine too, but given our opponent's play thus far, it's likely that he'll bet for value on the river. Our check-raise on the turn doesn't necessarily indicate a strong hand. It's not unusual for a player to check-raise the turn with top pair against a pre-flop raiser. The three diamonds aren't that scary either since two of them came on the turn and river. I don't think our opponent would raise a river bet. Betting the river after getting three-bet on the turn would look very suspicious. Most players will make a crying call instead of raising.