Standard HU spot

[iceman5]

I know alot of you dont play HU, but for those of you who do, what do you do here? You can chime in with thoughts even if you dont play HU of course.

1/2 HU......I have about 100 hands on villain and have played him for a short time before. Hes typical shortstack HU donk that I look for. Plays about 55 / 25 which would be good stats except that all of his raises are min raises (as per the official donk handbook). Hes no overly aggressive or anything like that. Typical player.

I raise to $7 with [Tc] and he calls.
Pot $14. Flop [7h][2c]. He checks, I bet my standard $11 CB and he calls.
Pot $36. Turn . Heres the question. What do you do when not only an overcard but also a flush card hits? I doubt hes going to bluff raise, but he will flat call with a T, a flush, 98, or something like [7c]. So if I bet and he calls I have no idea if Im ahead or not and dont know what to do on the river.

If I make my standard $24 turn bet and he calls, he will have $57 or so left with a $85 pot.

So do you bet and check behind on just about any river?
Or do you check now and see what happens?

This is a spot that comes up all the time.

[paulee]

[iceman5]

[Xaston]

[Triple B]

What Xaston said. Bluffing there would be burning money.

As for Ice's question, I would normally check behind the turn and then the river would be a heart about 80% of the time. It defies the odds, but I swear its true.

[Stelvask]

[iceman5]

Im playing mostly FTP. I dont hate Stars, but I dont have much money there and of course theres no rb.

[Stelvask]

[paulee]

[Aisthesis]

Haven't read anything but the original post yet, but here's my take based on that:

If he's pretty tricky and aggro (sounds like he really isn't), I'd probably check behind. But against most players, I'd bet this to a check. The A should be a scare-card for him anyway and the flush may scare him, too.

OOP I think it would be more difficult, although I guess I'd still consider betting.

Anyhow, 24 sounds to me like a good turn bet. If he still calls and checks the river, I'd definitely check behind.

[Aisthesis]

Now having read the rest of the thread: There's an EXTREMELY wide range he can have here. A LOT of players will float middle or bottom pair to a raiser and will fold it to a turn bet, particularly with the A showing. Of course, he can also be floating a naked A (which I also see a lot) and think he's in just as good a shape as you are--and in fact just passed you on the turn.

Also, something like 87 with 8h now has a lot of factual outs but will have difficulty calling this turn (unless he's super-chasy). You indicate that the hearts don't bother you, and he's drawing to a very weak heart.

What I hate on checking behind is that then a 7 or 2 hits the river and you're beat when most players would've folded.

Anyhow, I think you're ahead significantly more than half the time and have some decent fold equity even against a lot of hands that likely have more outs than they may realize.

Also bluffing any river I think would be very bad indeed. I'd probably make a vb if a T hit, but even that I'm not super-excited about.

One suggestion: I'd make the raise with position smaller. I really like 2.5 BB or $5 here. I used to think that I should beef it up if they called too much, but then I realized the following: Why should I change anything at all if they're calling too much when I have a better hand AND position? That's actually a great thing for me, so let 'em keep doing it!

In this case, it would lead to the pot not being quite so inflated, so you're not so much playing for his whole stack as just a sizeable chunk of it (you can CB maybe 7 in the flop pot of $10 and then bet the turn also at 18 or so rather than 24). The one downside in a cash-game structure might be the rake. I think playing that style, you may want the match to end more quickly rather than getting involved with lots of smallish raked pots--so that may speak for going with 6-7 after all.

[iceman5]

I checked behind. River was the and he led $20. I called (knowing it was totally read dependant). I dont call there every time and probably call too many rivers when playing HU.

He had 97.

I always raise to $7 preflop. No particular reason other than I think it may take people out of their comfort zone because most people either raise $6 or min raise ($4)

[Zeestein]