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Hand: 5♥ A♠

Hero Stack: t3010 (100 blinds)

Villain Stack: t3920 (130 blinds)

Blinds: 15/30 (early stage)

Board: 9⋄ A♥ 4♠ 3♥ A⋄

I was in BB, i checked preflop. He min-bets both Flop and Turn, everyone folds but me. We're HU on River.

On river the pot was t270, and he made a pot-sized bet, building a pot of t540, giving me 33% pot-odds. Because of his min-bets, i put him on any 9 or 4 or a weak ace or any broadway combination and considering my weak ace and good pot odds, i was just calling him, not bloating the pot.

Then, he made this suspicious bet on the River. He certainly announces he has an ace, and probably a good one, however his play on Flop and Turn does not show a strong ace. I was buffled.

Should i call a bet of about 9% of my stack with weak ace trips? I ended calling him anyway. Although, i was ready to click Fold, thinking the pot is small and this kind of trips is just troublesome. What do you think? Had no history against him.

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Since you were able to check preflop as the BB, the villain (and anyone else still in at that point) must have limped, so I'm not expecting any great hands here, let alone monsters.

That betting pattern makes me think maybe villain flopped a monster though, and just min-bet the early streets to squeeze out a little value while still trying to keep people around. Maybe A4 suited or pocket 4s?

Of course it's also possible that he was betting "honestly" with a random 4 or 9 or weak ace as you said, but I don't see that happening as much; those hands should either come with a larger bet or nothing at all, because villain would have to be scared of a call or raise.

If I'm right, then you got crushed by a boat, but in fairness, I'd be pretty tempted to call off 9% of my stack too, to see if it was a bluff. In the no-pressure, hindsight analysis situation of an Internet Q&A site though, I don't see these actions adding up to a bluffing story. For you to float villain's flop bet and then turn bet and then for him to show up with a huge river bet just doesn't smell right.

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  • thanx for the answer. Yes, we were 3 limpers and one checker on the flop. However, i don't expect players with any kind of monster to min-bet, for example it doesn't compute for me to min-bet with 44 here, unless the player doesn't have a clue about draws (there are some straight draws). I'm more expecting an ace or a 9. Of course, a flopped boat could be played extremely passively as here, if a boat could be flopped anyway. Anyhow, his weird strategy worked against me and i called (and lost) by the obvious hand ;) Probably the worst case of trips is aces with a low kicker :)
    – user1165
    Oct 30, 2015 at 21:55
  • Ugh, this is... not my best work as an answerer. I didn't give consideration to the straight draw at all. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you, anyways.
    – Pops
    Oct 31, 2015 at 17:50
  • hey no problem :) You've right in your last sentence about huge rivered bets and honestly i forgot that river bets are smelly in low-stakes :) It's helpful to know that someone else would call around ~10% of his stack in this rotten situation as well :)
    – user1165
    Oct 31, 2015 at 18:04
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Any other information on this player would help. Does he min bet a lot? Or does he usually make reasonable sized bets?

Absent any other information, do you really think you are best here 1 out of 3 times? Any ace has you beat except A-2. Limped 4's at a passive table makes perfect sense as well. Not only that, your entire line of play pretty much puts you on a weak ace as well: what else could you possibly be calling min-bets with, but not raising? Would you make a pot-sized bet the river without at least an ace here, given that's it's highly probable you have one? Without an ace, what exactly does he think you will have that currently beats him that you will fold to him here? I don't think he can logically bluff here.

Personally, I wouldn't have gotten involved at all with this hand and just folded on the flop. You are out of position with an easily dominated hand, and you have no voluntary money in the pot to start, so you are not in a position to create a large pot when you do flop the straight or two-pair, and you lose very little table image when folding: no one expects the blinds to have anything anyway.

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  • Thanx for the answer. Actually, the only reason i called him post-flop were the gigantic pot odds, regardless the number of opposition. When he bets 30 on a pot of 120, plus a call from another (120+30+30 = 180), i have been given about 15% pot odds which are too generous for my A-rag. I'm obviously playing to hit my 2-pair here or showing cheaply my A, nothing more. The turn bet was the same as well, huge pot odds to merely call, but i don't like raising early in SNG in marginal situations. That was pure pot odds play. Folding on flop would not be unreasonable, but costs me only <1%
    – user1165
    Nov 3, 2015 at 16:52

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