2/4 Stud hi fine laydown?

[Micturition Man]

Seems like commonly accepted play deviates more from optimal strategy in stud hi river play than almost any other poker situation.

Game theoretically speaking your opponent has to call with many many hands that are worse than queens up.

You could easily have played a flush draw (with or without a pair) this way up until 7th and then bluff the end.

And if your opponent is actually folding two small pair as some are suggesting then you should definitely bluff with just the queens.

Likewise game theory would have you value bet-folding only a slim % of the time. Probably never with this particular hand.

However theory and practice are different. Just based on how competent opponents play I absolutely value bet the end here, but I would not feel bad about folding to his check-raise if I think he's just a vanilla player.

If you do fold you're of course hugely exploitable by people who check-raise their crying call hands like two small pair (which is a great play to make against a wide range of competent players).

[SweetLuckyMe]

I'd prefer a check/call line in that spot. You may induce a bluff or a value bet from two smaller pair, and you'd avoid this specific situation.