Playing on the River – Texas Holdem
The most important thing I will say about playing the river, is pot control. Limiting the size of the pot helps a lot to avoid a pricey showdown or becoming pot-committed against an unknown quantity.
If you’re not sure how your hand will fair at a showdown then you should aim to see it as cheaply as possible. For example, if I have K10 on a A-K-6-9-9 board and I think there’s a chance my opponent could be representing the Ace then I’ll try to block bet him out of position or check/call in position. Asides from minimising the risks of losing a big pot on the river, playing this way will also give you some fold equity from the blocking bet (this is when you make a min-bet out of position to block your opponent making a bigger value bet instead).
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Checking the River Out of Position for Maximum Value
Again, let’s say you’ve managed to hit the board and you semi-bluffed the turn, but you got called down and now you’re really stuck having to act first on the river. Your hand could hold up at showdown but there is no way of telling. Should you bluff? If you think your opponent really does have something then the answer is no. Checking out of position gives you the greatest value for your hand because it is cheaper than a blocking bet but also limits how much you lose when you’re behind. For example, I raise pre-flop from BB with 6d-7d and I get called by MP and LP. I flop an open-ended straight draw (4h-5h-Jd) and I choose to check, MP raises, LP folds and I decide to call in the hope of making my hand on the turn. The turn brings Qs, so being first to act I decide to raise the pot in an attempt to scare him with the overcard (representing an AQ/KQs type of hand). Unfortunately, my opponent floats my call to the river which brings a 6d. This puts me in a precarious situation with a pot worth over 40BBs and a high chance that I’m behind. Even though my 3rd pair could hold up, I’m well behind if my opponent has an AJ/AQ type of hand. Normally I would check/fold the river in a pot like this however my opponent could have also been drawing to the flush with Ah-2h or Ah-10h. In the end, I decide to check the river for value, my opponent checks too, and he turns over J10o and wins the pot.
Value Betting the River
I discussed this in depth in another article, but generally speaking you should only value bet when you know you’re ahead. If I hold A8 on a A-6-J-2-A board then I’m going to be value betting the river all night long. On the other hand, with 7-8 on a 9-10-Q-6-K board, even though it’s a made hand you could easily be beaten by the nut straight which makes value betting a bad choice and creates a danger of being bluff-raised.
In terms of how much to bet, the size of your value bet will depend greatly on the quality of your opponent. Against calling stations and fish it you need to make an expensive overbet. You can afford to raise big against calling stations and punish them for their light calls. Against solid TAGs or LAGs I’ll raise approximately 40-60% of the pot, since these players aren’t crazy and they’re not going to make massive calls on missed boards. You just need to be careful not to make your value bets too small because if you’re saying “hey please call my value bet” then obviously it’s going to put off a lot of regulars.
Bluffing the River
In my opinion, only the world’s best LAGs such as Gus Hansen can afford to regularly triple-barrel the river still get away with it.
I think that in low stakes games the average TAG opponent will only call a double barrel bluff when they have something. So before you make a third bluff on the river, I really think you should slow down and consider things. For example, if your opponent called your bet on the flop (5h-8h-Jc) and turn (2s) then he could easily be drawing to the flush. If he doesn’t make his flush by the river then he’s definitely not calling your river bet, and if he does complete his flush then he’s likely going to push you all-in. So you’re not really squeezing any value whatsoever by bluffing the river in this case. Against LAG opponents in the mid-stakes ($3/$6) who regularly float you then I think triple-barrelling is more profitable; but in general I wouldn’t recommend doing it in micro-low stakes cash games.