A Hand at the Rio

An interesting hand occurred last night playing 2/5 NL at the Rio last night.

I have 750 and everyone has me covered. Preflop there's a button straddle, a raise to 35, and 2 callers before me. I have 79 of clubs one off the button and call. Button straddle calls.

Flop comes 254 two clubs. Checked around to button, who bets 80 into a 180 dollar pot. All folds to me. I call out of position heads up with the button.

Turn comes the 3 of not clubs but presenting another flush draw. I check. Button checks.

At this point I feel like the possibility of him having a straight is fairly low.

River is a probable blank, a jack that completes no flushes. I think about betting for a moment, but decide that such a bet would likely be called very light, and I suppose it's possible he does have an ace, or possibly a set he simply won't fold. I check to him, and he bets 220. At this point my shit detector is ringing loud and clear.

Against a good player in a 400NL online game I would simply give up at this point. He knows everything that has transpired leads me to believe he's full of shit. He would likely call me down here with as a low two pair simply because there's no reason for him to believe that I have anything, and he knows I could be making a play on the river.

Against a below average player, a reshove over the top on the river might be mandatory. He's shown little strength over the course of the hand and he's not going to call a reshove without a straight. His thought process will likely not extend past the point of 'I'm not calling another 400 with a set on that board'.

However, in this live game to which I was fairly new, all I knew was that I was against a loose french player with a very large stack in front of him. And perhaps he was the type to call down very light simply because he was a fish (even worse than the below average player above!). So I reluctantly mucked my nothing hand in this spot due to a lack of a read on my opponent, even though it was very unlikely that he had a straight. An Ace straight is possible, but I also believe that given the two flush draws he would probably bet the ace on the turn.

He showed T8 no flush draw for absolutely nothing after he folded. I told him he had the best hand and that it was a nice value bet. He got up one orbit later and the whole table left with him. Damn.