Gaming Club .50/1.00 NL $100 max buy-in

No particualr read on the opponent. Haven't seen anything crazy from him, however.
ME =$170
Opponent = $163

Dealt [Qs] in the sb. 1 limper (the opponent). I decide to raise here to $4, to get the BB out and to give myself a better chance of winning a missed flop.BB folds and the opponent calls.

FLOP $9 pot


Decent flop for AQ. I lead out for $8..my standard bet after a $4 preflop raise heads up. Opponent calls.

TURN $25


I've seen worse cards then this deuce. I lead out again, this time for $16 into the $25. Opponents waits a bit like he's thinking .and calls.

RIVER $57


This is where I make my mistake?? I lead out for $20, making a value bet, because I feel my hand is still good. I beleive I'm looking at my opponent holding AJ or A10. Opponent waits till his time is about 3/4s over.. (which isn't very long..they don't give you too much time on GC) and reraises me all-in. It's $110 for me to call. The pot is $212. I fold fairly quickly...I'm not looking for mediocre situations like these. He doesn't show.


So what did my opponent hold?? I'm pretty sure he didn't have the flush. Before I made my river value bet I noticed I held the which made a backdoor flush draw very unlikely for him. The only other things I can think of are trip 99, A9, orAK. If he bluffed me out of it, it was a brillant play.

I assume most of you guys would check the river here?? What do you think my opponent held? All comments and advice appreicated!!

Still a little tough to say without knowing how this guy plays. He could have flopped a set and have been over betting on the river with the flush card, but that seems unlikely you most likely would have been reraised on the turn after the second flush card hit. From the little information, my gut says 2 pair, possibly A/2, he made his 2 pair on the turn and was not very happy with the river card. If he was a good player, he might have been making ap lay at you with A/10 or A/J figuring he might be good anyways but, he could most likely take the pot down here. If he did make the flush he misplayed his hand badly, you would pretty much had to call a $20-$40 reraise and a value bet is more likely from a decent player in this situation. With the gross overbet on the river it smells like a knee jerk reaction to an unfavorable river card.

I agree with Rhound,
his play reaks of a strong hand letting you bet it for him, then reacting (poorly) to the flush card on the river or trying to get some more $ out of you (again, not handled very well). It's possible he's a total lunatic and is playing flush cards here (figuring after all the betting you did that you'd call the final bet), but any way you look at it after being cold called on the flop and turn and raised on the river I think you're going to be beat. It would be a very ballsy and advanced play to make that move with a weaker hand then TP, and it's just not worth that much $$ to find out, you can watch his play in later hands.

As for the river bet, there are several reasons why I might just check here. First, he cold called a couple of your bets, so he either has something or is a complete idiot, which leads to the second point and that is if you don't have a read on this guy it may be worth giving a free showdown to see what he had. Finally, you are out of position, so with you leading into him on every street, you have no read on his hand.

On second thought, however, this board is a good one to bluff on, so checking the river could put you in the same situation as betting did. Can you call an all-in if you checked to him? What about a pot-sized bet? Thinking a little more about this a value bet gives you the best information. If he has a small piece of the board he'll likely call since he's called down every other bet so far, and it would show a lot of strength (or guts) to raise you on the river after all the aggression you've shown so you could pretty safely fold in that case. The only change I would make would be to make the value bet a little bigger. After an almost 2/3 pot bet on the turn a 1/3 pot bet on the river might be seen as weak is more likely to induce a bluff than say a 1/2-2/3 pot bet (but, again, it's a pretty aggressive/advanced move to make that raise here)

I think that river raise is a good move to keep in mind for use against a decent player in the future (very rarely, and prob not as much of an overbet, though). It sets off all kinds of alarm bells, and with no draws on the board and the standard betting pattern on the flop/turn/river you can be pretty sure your opponent is sitting on a TP kind of hand and will have a hard time calling a big raise on the river.