Value in Raising on the River with the best hand?

[AngusThermopyle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Your reading comprehension is horrible.

[/ QUOTE ]

I overlooked the last to act part.. but thanks for your very insightful post, it brings alot to the discussion. Guess you've never misread anything before, we will all strive to be more like you.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Having "the best hand" on the river is easy to see after the hand is over. It is not the same as "having the nuts".
2. Flat call you gain information about your opponent, but you give away information about yourself to the entire table, since you now must show your winner. Raise, opponent mucks, nobody at the table knows what you had...including a possible bluff.
3. If you are that sure that he will insta-muck, why do you need information?
4. One of the hands you referenced (but did not bother to include in your post):
_______
5 players left / 25,000 - 50,000 blinds

Seth Berger (705,000) - 55
Raj Patel (3,220,000) - AJ

Seth raises to 155,000 and Raj calls from the small blind.

Flop: KJ10

Raj checks; Seth checks.

Turn: 10

Both check again.

River: J

Raj checks; Seth quickly bets 300,000; Raj just calls.

"What if he had pocket Kings? I can't raise."
__________________

a. Final table, 5 left. What good is info on a short stack?
b. A raise puts Seth all in. What is he going to call with, and lose?
c. Value of knocking out a player vs possibly giving him 300K extra. Discus.
d. KK, KJ, TT all beat Raj. Do they make sense the way the hand was played?
e. "Raj Patel, who’s been playing for two years. Raj Patel, who was playing in just the third tournament of his life. " ... from the WPT report

6. As has been pointed out, with deeper stacks, raising with a very strong hand on the river opens you up to a reraise that can either 1) cost you a lot or 2) cause you to muck the winner.

[Small Fry]

Good example.

THe way Seth played this it looks like he wants a raise from Raj on the river as he's practically pot committed to calling it. He started with 705,000, Bet 455,000 of it leaving him with 250,000. Pot is at about 610,000, Raj needs to call 300,000 and can only raise 250,000 (amount Seth has left) more. If he does that the pot will be over 1,000,000 and Seth needs to throw in his last 250,000. So to me his 3000,000 bet looks pretty strong. But Raj has a boat and a huge stack of chips so he can afford to call. Maybe he could have gambled that Seth was making a desperate move and raised, hoping he'd call off his last 250,000 with a worse hand.

Keep this in mind for the future in case you run into a situation like this. Understand when a player has pretty much committed himself to a pot and ask yourself why would he do that. Why not go all in? Why did he leave some chips behind? Is he saving them in case he's wrong. Or does he have monster and is hoping you'll raise?