Straight on the board

[deacon_bluez]

I ask this stupid question because it has happened to me twice in the past week.

Two-player hand on the flop, both of us with full stacks and I hold something decent like QQ out of position, bet out flop and get called, same on turn, and the river makes a straight on the board with no flush possibilities (something like 4-8), counterfeiting my queens. I checked the river, figuring a chop and trying to keep the rake down. But villain bets out about half a buy-in. Do I call this bet? Or should I have beat him to the punch and bet out myself? I hate dumb, trivial decisions like this when I'm just trying to play decent poker. Seems kinda meta-game, but how do you play it?

[bikes]

As much as your gonna hate to hear this....

It depends on reads on the villain and what range you put the villain on.

[Erpel]

At the risk of being slapped around: Put him on a range.

The straight is an 8-high straight. The only real question here is how likely he is to have played a 9x hand. If a couple of 9x hands are smack dab in the middle of his range there's a slight chance you want to consider folding.

Most of the time even if 9x is in his range so many other hands are also in his range that you can't not call.

How much did you bet out on flop and turn? (Did you give him a good price on a draw?) Did he already have a straight? Did he have a combo draw (with a 9) to a straight that allowed him good odds to keep calling your bets?

More relevant to the calling question than the size of his bet relative to buy-ins - what size is it relative to the pot? If you call and he has a 9 you lose your bet. If you call and he does not have a 9 you win your bet back plus half the pot. If the bet is much larger than the pot this is a situation where he doesn't need very many 9x hands in his range to justify a fold. If his bet is small relative to the pot he cannot possibly have enough 9x hands in his range to justify anything other than a call.

If he makes a pot sized bet and his range (counting all hand combinations) has 1/3 of hands including a 9 it's an even money proposition. If he makes a double pot sized bet and his range (counting all hand combinations) has 1/5 of hands including a 9 it's even money. If he makes a half pot sized bet and his range has 1/2 of hands including a 9 it's even money. If he makes a quarter pot sized bet and his range has 2/3 hands including a 9 it's even money.

[aka_red]

i always like to play the agressor if you bet enough you can take away the CHOP scenario and win w/e pot is. obviously this is retarded to do if the pot is not sizable but on a likly split board i usually like to half pot it or pot it depending on the amount of bb in pot. youd be surprised how often people give up on pots like these. not to mention you can hide your junk that you raised with preflop

[aka_red]

whhops 2x post plz dlt

[ndpg]

if you be free flop a lot then there isnt much hands you would be called and you would be just fine to go all in after flop

[jyms]

if you be free flop a lot then there isnt much hands you would be called and you would be just fine to go all in after flop

Wow, how stupid are you?

[martindcx1e]

if you be free flop a lot then there isnt much hands you would be called and you would be just fine to go all in after flop

Wow, how stupid are you?

trainer you obviously don't be free flop a lot

[deacon_bluez]

if you be free flop a lot then there isnt much hands you would be called and you would be just fine to go all in after flop

Wow, how stupid are you?

trainer you obviously don't be free flop a lot

yo yo yo, i be dope free flop