Theory Read – River Check/Raise

Below you will see an interesting discussion on river check/raises which took place in the High Stakes forum.  It started with ISF showing hands and posters such as Sauce123, Massimo, Toadstool, and gabe adding their replies.  View the check raise theory thread here. 

I’ll start off with noting basic factors we consider when we want to decide whether we want to make a river c/r or not. I’m not sure which should be consider "main" factors, but all are definitely relevant.

C/r with nut hands:

1. Is our opponent going to value bet thin and on a similar note is he passive or aggressive? There are a lot of opponents at higher stakes especially that vbet thin like it’s there job. Obviously, if we have a nut hand and our opponent is going to bet a wider range than he will call/raise with, a c/r may be the decision you want to go with.

2. Is he the type of person who cant find a fold button when faced with a minraise? Most of the time money is shallow, so most river c/r’s are close to min.

3. Have we been making a lot of river c/r’s?

More fun is c/r as a bluff.

1. Same as nut hands #1.

2. Is your image tight

3. Is he capable of making big folds.

4. Does our line make any sense?

Possible river c/r discussion hands:

I have been playing very aggro and 0evg0 is making the light vbetting like his life depends on it. I have been c/r the river a good amount, clearly sometimes with the nuts and clearly sometimes with not. He is a very good hand reader. This hand is obviously a bad play by me but worth discussing.

ACR Poker GAME #12269058978: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($2/$4) – 2007/09/25 – 19:42:27 (ET)

Table ‘Wurm’ 2-max Seat #1 is the button

Seat 1: 0evg0 ($1033.50 in chips)

Seat 2: heybude ($621.50 in chips)

0evg0: posts small blind $2

heybude: posts big blind $4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [Kh Qc]

0evg0 said, "****kkk"

0evg0: raises $8 to $12

heybude: raises $28 to $40

0evg0: calls $28

*** FLOP *** [Td 3s Ad]

heybude: bets $52

0evg0 said, "cooler after cooler"

0evg0: calls $52

*** TURN *** [Td 3s Ad] [8c]

heybude: checks

0evg0: checks

*** RIVER *** [Td 3s Ad 8c] [7s]

heybude: checks

0evg0: bets $100

heybude: raises $208 to $308

ACR Poker GAME #12268409962: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($2/$4) – 2007/09/25 – 19:05:03 (ET)

Table ‘Electra IV’ 2-max Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: 0evg0 ($394 in chips)

Seat 2: heybude ($406 in chips)

heybude: posts small blind $2

0evg0: posts big blind $4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to 0evg0 [9d 8c]

heybude: raises $8 to $12

0evg0: calls $8

*** FLOP *** [Kc 9h 2d]

0evg0: bets $16

heybude: calls $16

*** TURN *** [Kc 9h 2d] [4d]

0evg0: checks

heybude: bets $44

0evg0: calls $44

*** RIVER *** [Kc 9h 2d 4d] [9s]

0evg0: checks

heybude: bets $104

0evg0: raises $164 to $268

ACR Poker GAME #12269563212: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($2/$4) – 2007/09/25 – 20:10:56 (ET)

Table ‘Sculptor’ 2-max Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: heybude ($1705.50 in chips)

Seat 2: 0evg0 ($734 in chips)

0evg0: posts small blind $2

heybude: posts big blind $4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [Kc 8c]

0evg0: raises $8 to $12

heybude: calls $8

*** FLOP *** [Kd Tc 7c]

heybude: checks

0evg0: checks

*** TURN *** [Kd Tc 7c] [4d]

heybude: checks

0evg0: bets $16

heybude: calls $16

*** RIVER *** [Kd Tc 7c 4d] [6c]

heybude: checks

0evg0: bets $44

heybude: raises $104 to $148

Another horrible one:

ACR Poker GAME #12268174825: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($2/$4) – 2007/09/25 – 18:51:19 (ET)

Table ‘Sculptor’ 2-max Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: heybude ($868.50 in chips)

Seat 2: 0evg0 ($539 in chips)

0evg0: posts small blind $2

heybude: posts big blind $4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to heybude [4c 5c]

0evg0: raises $8 to $12

heybude: raises $28 to $40

0evg0: calls $28

*** FLOP *** [Th Qc 9s]

heybude: bets $52 (yeah horrible lets just discount this)

0evg0: calls $52

*** TURN *** [Th Qc 9s] [Qh]

heybude: checks

0evg0: checks

*** RIVER *** [Th Qc 9s Qh] [9c]

heybude: checks

0evg0: bets $145

heybude: raises $290 to $435