How to play a hand with NO correct option...

[Cell40k]

Well, there could be one, but it boils down to really knowing your player, and in the internet world you can never know anyone good enough to decide this. You raise preflop, get one caller, and flop top pair top kicker. You are first to act, you bet 2/3 the pot and are called. The turn brings a blank, and you suspect your opponent either has a draw or has a lock on the hand. Some people advocate checking the turn here with just a one pair hand for pot control. let's assume you do this. The river brings a blank (after he checks behind), and you fire another 2/3 pot bet, only to be raised.

WHOOPS....you don't know whether he had that lock from the flop, or if he's just assuming you're weak since you checked the turn and is making a big bluff....either way your chances of making a mistake are pretty high.

And you could also give him the free card that beats you by checking the turn.....so what else can you do, other than just fire incrementally larger bets the whole way?

I hate this game b/c of this situation alone -_-

[ikestoys]

bet turn

[Stonewalled]

Play less out of position. It makes for tough spots like these.

[RAHZero]

Either bet the turn or check-call the river.

Firing 2/3 on the river makes absolutely no sense if you don't intend to call a raise, which is dumb in the first place. If you fire 2/3 and he missed his draw, he'll either fold or raise, and if he had a lock, you're obviously getting raised. Either way, your bet is never getting called, so it's not a value bet, it's a bluff against a hand you can already beat. If you check the river, villain can either check behind a draw (fine since you weren't getting any value out of one any way), bet the missed draw, or bet the made hand. If he's equally likely to have either hand, you have an easy call, unless he overbets the pot, since a PSB gives us 2:1 odds so we only have to be good a third of the time.

[Lucky]

To avoid these spots, just bet turn and let him deal with decision.