How would you play this?

[mongidig]

live 20-40 9 handed. I have a tight image. I have only raised a couple times and have shown down KK and AK. I am card dead so I haven't been in many hands.

UTG limps(She is decent but too loose preflop. She will play any broadway, pairs and many suited connectors from this position. She turns into a calling station post flop and will check call all the way with as little as bottom pair although usually has better than this including top pair. When she bets she has a strong hand.) MP raises(He is tight and passive, will have AQ,AK, or big pocket pair here. He is very straightforward post flop and easy to read. He never bets his overcards if he missed but will check call all the way with them.) It is folded to me on the button and I call with 99. The blinds both call(They are both a little too loose preflop but decent postflop.) UTG calls.

The flop: 8cTd4h

Checked to me and I bet, blinds fold, UTG calls, MP calls.

The turn: 8cTd4h3s

I bet, UTG calls, MP calls.

The river: 8cTd4h3s3c

We all check.

My first question would be preflop. Should I have three bet or folded? I thought about three betting and figured there was a decent chance to get the blinds out since they respected my raises but figured UTG would call for sure. I also figured there was about a 50% chance or better that MP held a big pocket pair. I figured by calling I would have a decent chance of getting 5 way action and could reavaluate the situation post flop.

My second question is should I have bet the river?

[Captain R]

Honestly, preflop if I can isolate a loose raiser, I re-raise and try to get to get it heads-up. If there are like 5 people in the pot, I will just call.

If it's a very solid guy who only raises preflop with very good hands and it's likely to go 3-4 way, I fold.

River would she call with a 4? If so, I guess you're ahead of the 8/4 other pocket pairs, and behind the T. So on average, a bet is going to make you money. If MP will call down with Ace-high, then a bet looks +EV to me.

[andyfox]

I don't see anything wrong with calling pre-flop. You could raise too, but folding would be wrong. Your hand has too much value and playing against a calling station and a perfectly readable player is too good a situation to pass up.

On the river, according to your description, pre-flop raiser has unimproved high cards, so you have him beat. You have a tight image so it's unlikely he'll call your river bet. That leave UTG. She could have any number of hands, since she'll play even a ten passively, calling down all the way. But she might have a pocket pair you beat or an 8 and, the way she plays, you really don't have to worry about a chck-raise, so I'd have bet it on the river.

[aK13]

I think you missed a value bet on the river.

I think calling is fine preflop -- I think everyone will agree TT is 3pop though, so going 3 with 99 probably isn't so bad either.

[CardSharpCook]

PF can go either way. I usually just call. Obv you need to bet the river.

[Yads]

I'd raise PF, but calling is fine too, please bet the river.

[ActionBob]

Preflop I'd likely reraise but I can live with the call here.

River is clearly a bet.

-ActionBob

[andyfox]

Just a note for you guys who are saying this river is "clearly" a bet. It's not that clear. Remember, UTG could easily have a ten here and the other player has unimproved high cards with which he will not call a river bet. I still favor a bet here, but it's not a slam dunk.

[CardSharpCook]

Andy, I think we all know that we're not ahead here 100% of the time, but it doesn't change the fact that you bet this 100% of the time. They are not suddenly folding an 8 after getting this far with it, and you get enough calls from ace-high, 55,66,77,22 and all those 8s to balance out all the times someone has a T. Also, we get to discount tens a little as some %age of the time in which a player has a T, they'd have made some aggressive action by now. You're good here well over 55% of the time when called, which should be the criteria for betting in this situation, esp given the low likelyhood of a chk/raise. I would argue that this is indeed a slam dunk bet.

[andyfox]

UTG has previously shown down top pair when just checking and calling. The other guy, by OP's description, would never call down on the river with just two unimproved high cards. So it's not, in my judgment, a slam dunk; if UTG would never play top pair this way, then I would rate it a slam dunk. I agree, and posted the same, that the almost zero likelihood of being check-raised does indeed mitigate on the side of betting.