semi-common river situation that I think I've been playing wrong

[Mr. Orange]

This is a situation I've been thinking about lately and I think maybe I'm playing it wrong.

The situation is when I raise PF get a small numbers of callers (sometimes just the BB). The flop is paired and totally ragged (i.e. 993 rainbow) I usually continuation bet the flop and end up with one caller. (assume the caller is a decent player- not a station or overly tricky/aggressive) On the turn I usually decide I'm usually gonna give up if I don't improve but pick up a draw which I usually need to hit because I put my opponent on trips. On the river I hit top pair and my opponent bets. What do I do? I've been calling at the end but I think this is wrong.

What should I doing on the river in these situations. Assuming:
- I raised preflop and have position post flop
- the opponent at the end is solid and the pot is usually 2-4 handed but always 2 handed at the river.
- Based on reads/the flop your pretty certain (but not 100%) sure that your opponent has trips.
- I picked up a draw on the turn
- Pot is small-ish

Here are some recent examples:

3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) internettexasholdem.com

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
5 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, SB folds, BB calls

Flop: (4.33 SB) T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB cals

Turn: (3.16 BB) 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (3.16 BB) Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets, hero?


3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) internettexasholdem.com

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
3 folds, MP1 calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, Button calls, SB folds, BB calls, MP1 calls

Flop: (8.33 SB) Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (4 players)
BB checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets, button folds, BB folds, MP1 calls

Turn: (5.16 BB) 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

River: (5.16 BB) A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
MP1 bets, hero?

[jstill]

what makes u pretty sure either of these guys have trips thats ridiculous, solid players should be check-raising trips here like always so u cant check behind on the turn. This would be less true if in either example he had a couple players behind him to act but in both villain is HU when he calls ur flop bet.

even more ridiculous is the thought of not calling on the end the way these hands have played out. people autofire tons of hands after u ck thru the turn, Id be more likely to raise fold either than fold but I call both and love doing so. BB in esp the first hand could have like 33-88 A2s ect ect (plus the chance a 3/6 relative unknown is less solid then u think and may peel any hand with a bdfd from time to time and bluff on the end after u ck the turn almost always), the second hand the river may make him hesitate with those kinda holdings but its still a definite call and even moreso if the river was a J. Im guessin u are just running bad in these spots.

[SpleenLSD]

If they have trips, and they're not a station or "Overly tricky/agressive" why would they check trips on the flop, and check trips again on the turn? Trips is betting out, or raising on at least, if not both of those streets if they're a decent player.

My read would be that they're holding a middle or low pair under the pair on the board, and think 2 pair i good or want to fill up. Hero checking the turn and river looks weak, so why wouldn't they bet out on 5th Street?

[Bob T.]

Calling doesn't seem bad. Raising might be right, but it also might make you face the ugly threebet. Were there any other options?

[JKDStudent]

I think it depends on your hole cards. To use the two example hands you gave:

Hand one is fine. I'm calling the river.

Hand two, I bet the turn. You've got two over cards, and even if you get raised, you picked up a flush draw. If just called, I bet again on the river having picked up the Ace.

Of course, I suck.

[jstill]

hand two id rather ck and call a bet UI then bet the turn fwiw

[Chino987]

you cant fold any of these hands on the river.

given that you picked up some draws on the turn for both of these hands, the turn check is fine as well.

these hands are Well played IMO

[James.]

the question is not about calling or folding, it's about calling or raising. checking the turn completely dictates the situation to be as such. that makes the correct play opponent-dependent most of the time.

in hand one i usually raise because it's such a huge mistake for worse hands to call and they will pay off more often on that board.

hand two i usually bet the turn because people make loose flop peels on paired boards alot. plus, we actually have the best hand some of the time and we have alot of outs to improve over better hands if we're behind. on the river i would call. they make fewer mistakes versus our range when the ace comes(since we always have AK)and payoff worse hands less frequently.

it does appear that you may be running bad. this just based on the "monster under the bed"-sounding comments. mathematically paired boards hit fewer combinations of hands so you need to understand you are usually in better shape than you seem to think. especially online, you cannot fold these hands. you simply won't be able to beat the games regularly folding TP, HU especially after checking the turn.

[Mr. Orange]

Yeah. I'm definately running bad. thanks for the insights.