The river. It's a legendary street in Texas hold'em; fortunes are made and broken. However, most people, now having seen all 7 cards they can use to make the best 5-card poker hand, are no longer interested in wagering against the other players on the value of this hand. This strikes me as curious. After all, wouldn't you be more inclined to wager once you have the maximum information about your own hand — and 5/7 worth of information about your opponent's hand? But no: everyone is so excited that the drawing of cards is over that they must see the showdown immediately and find out who won the pot.
This fear of value-betting rivers is not an isolated symptom found among a few people here and there. In fact, we all go through it in our stages of poker play. Most of us, when we begin, freeze up when a scare card comes on the river and don't bet our hands. Later on, even once we understand poker theory, still chicken out and check/call when we've been betting the whole hand — even when in the back of our minds we understand that bet/fold is much more +EV.
Even though I've definitely improved in this regard, I'd say my river play is my weakest spot of my game. Sometimes I try too much to induce bluffs instead of betting and hoping to get calls from ace-high. Sometimes I'm guilty of being sure that scary river just nailed my opponent's draw. But as much as I'm hard on myself for weak river play, it's my opponents who constantly astound me with their reluctance to value-bet rivers.
The first minor example I have from a recent session at Commerce 20/40 (remember, folks, this is Medium Stakes hold'em — not a 3/6 game, not pennies here, people who have actually played enough poker to think it's a good idea to buy in for at least $500 of their hard-earned taxi-driving fares) is a lady who held 32o in the BB and faced a flop of T43. She checked, a tight, old, unimaginative player bet somewhere, and only she called. Turn was a 2, and lady bet out her two pair. Old guy called. River is an A. Lady disgustedly checks. Old guy is happy to see a free showdown with his QTs and the lady is even happier that old guy didn't hold a 5 for the straight. What hand can he bet the flop with that includes a 5??
I guess I'll forgive her for fearing that weird runner-runner wheel (partially because I guess AT is in his range, but it's still an easy bet/fold on that river…. but mostly because I loved playing with her — she was awful and played every hand and was just a calling station idiot), but I won't forgive this one hilarious idiot. Actually, before I get into his story, let me relate one hand I played against this lady that fits with this post because it involves another river check-around:
I limped behind a few limpers in the CO with Jd8d. Button folded, blinds completed/called. Flop came Js5s2h. Checked to her in EP and she bets out, folded to me and I raise, blinds fold, lady looks at me and goes, "you have flush draw?" and calls. This is a great live tell that almost always means she has a flush draw. So I tell her, "Yes. I have a flush draw." The turn is an Ac, and she goes "OK then I bet" and donks into me. I raise again because fuck her, MHIG most of the time and I'll take a free showdown because betting the river would be bad against a missed flush draw or an ace that has me beat. She calls my raise and the river pairs the 2 (non-spade). She checks and I check, I show and she mucks. This is a case where I'm pretty sure the FSD play was correct, but I don't do it all that often.
OK, on to the hilarious idiot guy. So I limp behind a couple limpers in MP with XX (I'll reveal my hand later). Guy limps on the button with QJo. The flop comes As Td 5c. That's a dry rainbow flop if you've ever seen one. Checked to me and I come out betting. Start putting me on a hand if you want, but I'll spoil it and say I'm likely to have an ace here. Guy calls with his gutshot. There's one more caller somewhere. The turn is a Kd, completing his nut straight. I bet again, and he raises. Other guy folds, and I sigh and call and check dark. The river brings the harmless 2d (yes, a possible backdoor flush, but I have an ace here most of the time, so please bet your broadway) and guy sees the river and goes "did you check?" and I nod and he quickly tables his hand. I sheepishly table Ad 6d for the nuts and he smugly — proudly — crosses his arms that he avoided a river checkraise. Another guy not in the hand starts discussing the river with him, and somewhere in there I think I hear me being criticized for not betting the river and him praised for not betting it. His response is "Hey, I'm not gonna bet that shit, what if he made a flush? If I bet I lose another 80 dollars maybe, but if I check and win the pot, I'm happy to win the pot!"
Just to discuss my play for a second, I hardly ever check dark and I almost always bet my hands OOP on the river when I make them because I know people get passive on the river. But in this spot, I had a great read on him that QJ was his hand, and there's no way he can put me on diamonds when it's clear I was betting the flop and turn with top pair. It's a well disguised flush draw and this is as good a spot as any to get in a river checkraise. He has to pay me off with Broadway, right? How the hell does he not bet that river?! Anyway, the funniest thing about this hand is the consequences it had.
First, a few hands after that — when idiot is still frustrated/steaming that I "sucked out" on him with the river flush, but still basking in the pride of avoiding the river c/r I had planned — I show him how fucking value-betting is fucking done at Commerce, boy. There were a couple limpers and a sLAG raised from the hijack. I floated on the button with JTs. Blinds called and it's a nice pot to a flop of JTx. Sweetness. Checked to sLAG who bets, I raise, idiot looks at me in the BB and says "I got a funny feelin' I should actually call this" but he folds, muttering something about sLAG possibly 3-betting. We get one cold-caller, and sLAG just calls. The turn is an A (also putting a 2nd club out there and completing Broadway for KQ). The sLAG donks into me so I raise again. The cold-caller folds. The river is a low club making a possible flush, sLAG checks, and I value bet like a standard winning player would. sLAG calls, I show, he mucks.
I know the idiot was paying close attention to this hand because he folded what he thought was a good hand on the flop. It's clear my top 2 was superior, but I'm wondering to myself if he noticed my river value bet. I wasn't afraid of KQ and I wasn't afraid of the backdoor flush. Because the sLAG would have checkraised KQ on the turn, I thought at worst I'm losing to aces up but I won't get checkraised anyway, but more likely he just has a hand like A9, AQ, AK and will pay off. And that's what happened.
Because I don't educate the fish, I didn't go over to the idiot and point this out. But I think he actually noticed, because a hilarious hand ensued shortly thereafter where he totally misapplied his newly learned lesson about betting rivers. He was losing enough to be on tilt now, so he limped in EP with T9o (actually this is standard for him, he had limped K3s and 87o before, and defended his BB with Q2o) and saw a multiway flop of A87r. The sLAG bet in LP, he called, and another decent player called. The turn was a Qc putting a second club out there, and the same action occurred. The river was a 6c completing the flush. Now, last time, this idiot specifically told the entire table out loud how he's just happy to win a pot with a nut straight, and doesn't want to get raised by a flush. He said this when he was in position, heads-up. Now he is out of position, in a 3-way pot, and apparently he changed his attitude because he bet out the river. Second guy looks like he is considering raising but just calls, and then the sLAG who had been betting the whole hand instaraises. Idiot calls and the other guy calls too. Other guy had a J-high flush (with a flopped gutshot), sLAG had Ac 3c for the nuts, and the idiot goes on ballistic tilt upon coming in 3rd.
Psshhh… some people never learn.
