$10R - HU - facing big river bet
 

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t40000 (2 handed) internettexasholdem.com

Hero (t458060)
Button (t1381940)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
Button calls t20000, Hero checks.

Flop: (t64000) J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets t56400</font>, Hero calls t56400.

Turn: (t176800) 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, Button checks.

River: (t176800) 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets t180000</font>, Hero ???

Final Pot: t536800

Reads on villian: Pretty solid, but certainly mixing it up. Playing a little tight pre-flop (i.e. letting me raise and steal more than my share of blinds, but sometimes 3-betting). I think his PF raising range is about Ax+,K8+,QT+, PPs, SCs and one-gappers above 76, with him only raising the weaker hands 50% of the time. Post-flop, he's been fairly aggressive with bets and CRs, but he's also made several laydowns. I certainly can't call him a maniac or a calling station. Only a few hands have showed down, and he's bet draws and air along with solid hands, so he's good at mixing his play.

I thought about this one for a while. My hand is nothing more than a bluff catcher, but the board and his line feel like monster or air to me.

Call or fold?

Re: $10R - HU - facing big river bet
 

Your right about your hand being nothing more than a bluff cather. The thing w/ HU and shorthanded play late in tourneys it's hard to give the right advice because its very player dependant and without observing the flow of the play and having the reads you should have by this stage in the tourney there's is no right answer to your question.

Edit: If you can give us a more detailed description of villain's play or post any other HU hands that went to showdown that might give us some insight on how to play this one you should do that.

Re: $10R - HU - facing big river bet
 

AA is right. To not have reads at this point of the tournament is an enormous leak.

In isolation you should be folding this river more than you call.

Re: $10R - HU - facing big river bet
 

Noted. I've edited my original post to add some reads.

Re: $10R - HU - facing big river bet
 

This is a weird line by villain. One reason for the check on the turn could be to induce a bluff on the river from you but that means he limped on the button w/ a hand he usually would raise w/ according to your description of him. A hand such as A4 could obv be a possibility but you say that he would've raised w/ that preflop. The only hands he might call preflop w/, bet the flop, check the turn to induce a bluff or get a marginal call is JT, J7 or T7. However, this could also be a busted draw Q9 or 89 that takes a free card on the turn but bets the river because he thinks you probably caught a small piece of the flop and he feels like he has to bet it to win it. I might call here but it's close. It depends a lot on villains previous play as I stated before.