€400 NL HE Full Ring: Facing a big River bet with a set but no Flush

This is another hand from yesterday's session. This time I'm in the big blind with . It folds around to the SB, who limps.

SB is a player I don't remember having played with before; however I've watched him extensively on that day, and he was very aggressive, betting all the time. I don't think he knew what he was doing, it didn't look like controlled aggression to me. I don't really think in terms of player labels but if you did, this would very much be a LAG (probably not maniac territory).

I like bluff-raising the BB against SB limps with almost any two cards, but not against this guy. However, I do like value-raising against this player if I have the hand, and of course this hand is very strong. So I make it 14. SB sighs and says "why are you raising, I'm ahead" and calls.

Flop comes (Pot=28). Villain leads (donks?) 20.

There is a flush draw here but you musn't be afraid. I haven't been raising a lot and if I raise here, it looks super strong. This is a situation to let him barrel. I call.

Turn comes the (Pot=68). Villain says they don't like the diamond, then checks.

I wasn't sure whether to bet this or not. I'm still not too afraid of the flush, I'm more still concerned with keeping villain in the hand. Betting this just looks too strong for my taste. But maybe that was getting too cute. I'm not sure. I decide to check it back to get a juicy River bet in.

River comes the (Pot=68). Villain thinks for a bit then bets 50.

Not the card I wanted to see, at all. Now the diamonds are scary. So what now?

My action: Result if I decided to raise or call:
Reasoning:

I really like the breakdown here—it’s a solid demonstration of recognizing player tendencies and adjusting accordingly. Given that Villain was overly aggressive but not necessarily calculated, your logic of letting him barrel rather than raising makes sense.

Your River decision was tricky. The flush hitting with the 4♦ complicates things, but your thought process on calling was sound. You're right that aggressive players will bluff these spots with a naked fourth diamond or weaker hands. In fact, players like this often feel compelled to bet just because it looks scary. You needed only around 30% equity, and considering the reduced flush combos due to big diamonds being on board, a call was justified.

One interesting takeaway here is Villain’s table talk—claiming to be strong preflop when he clearly wasn’t. Some players use speech patterns as part of their deception, but it does seem odd how confidently he tried to sell it. Have you noticed if he does this often? If this guy is a frequent verbal bluffer, that could be useful for future encounters.

Overall, good work keeping your opponent in hand while controlling the pot size. How was the rest of the session? Anything else stand out from your play?

mardi1987 said:

Have you noticed if he does this often? If this guy is a frequent verbal bluffer, that could be useful for future encounters.

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I haven't; this was the only time actually where I remember him talking about his hand. Might just be because I was sitting right next to him (and I was the only player next to him, he was seat 1 on the table and I was seat 2). I also don't look intimidating, which definitely matters; people are never afraid to trash talk to/at me.

mardi1987 said:

Overall, good work keeping your opponent in hand while controlling the pot size. How was the rest of the session? Anything else stand out from your play?

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Well there was this hand...

The session was quite lucky overall, I hit the Flop much better than average.

I think you need to raise flop, sure it might scare some bluffs away but any flish draws or open ended straight draws arent folding. Alot of fish wont fold a pair.

On the river against this type of villain i agree calling is the best play, he only limped pre so is unlikely to have a high diamond and his range is full of non diamond combos that might bluff.

Station_Master said:

I think you need to raise flop, sure it might scare some bluffs away but any flish draws or open ended straight draws arent folding. Alot of fish wont fold a pair.

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I really don't know about this. People don't raise enough live. A raise is usually seen as really strong. The guy had bottom pair with medium kicker. I think if you raise, he's most likely gone. And bullying your opponent out of the flop when you have such a monster is really bad.

I agree that flush draws aren't folding, but why would we put him on a flush draw? There's 11 other diamonds out of 47 cards. It's not likely at all that he has two of them.

Preflop
Obviously always raising a hand this strong.

Flop
I dont agree, that raising a donk bet looks super strong. Some people will raise, because they feel, a donk bet is almost an insult. You also have the perfect hand to raise for value, since you unblock both top pair and all the draws. It would be more reasonable to slowplay QQ, but on such a wet board I would lean towards raising even that.

Turn
This is a very bad card, not only because it completes the flush, but also because its scary to top pair and straightdraws. But even so I would still go for a small bet for value here. You can still get value from top pair and draws, especially if he has a diamond in his hand, and your hand is strong enough to call a raise, unless he jam or something.

River
Now your hand is obviously only a bluff catcher. I dont see any reason to turn a bluff catcher into a bluff and try to make him fold a hand like the J or T of diamonds. So its between call and fold, and to be honest I dont care to much. With 4-flush boards you basically cant have any relevant blockers, so its more about frequency and opponent tendencies. Other than having a flush you are very high in your range though, so if you attempt to play at least a little bit close to GTO, its probably a call.

Results
Nice call and being super results oriented you probably got the most out of him by playing in this passive way.

kdmeteor said:

I really don't know about this. People don't raise enough live. A raise is usually seen as really strong. The guy had bottom pair with medium kicker. I think if you raise, he's most likely gone. And bullying your opponent out of the flop when you have such a monster is really bad.

I agree that flush draws aren't folding, but why would we put him on a flush draw? There's 11 other diamonds out of 47 cards. It's not likely at all that he has two of them.

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You want to win big pots with your big hands, sometimes they fold, so be it. Maybe his exact hand folds (but maybe not), but you dont know his exact hand in game, he is probably.not folding Qx or strong draws.

Station_Master said:

You want to win big pots with your big hands, sometimes they fold, so be it. Maybe his exact hand folds (but maybe not), but you dont know his exact hand in game, he is probably.not folding Qx or strong draws.

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I totally agree with this, and it also does not make much sense, that he donk for 20 into a pot of 28 with bottom pair. If Hero has a better hand, he is almost never folding, and if Hero has a worse hand, he is almost never calling. So whats the purpose of this donk bet? Of course people will sometimes do strange things, but when we plan a hand, we need to put them on a range, that makes sense for the way, they have played so far. And in this case I would not include second or third pair in the Villains range.

I'm quite surprised that you both want to raise there, hmm.

fundiver199 said:

also does not make much sense, that he donk for 20 into a pot of 28 with bottom pair

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I didn't find it unusual. The guy is aggressive, it's blind vs blind where most people don't hit anything, and it's just two chips. I think all this bet means is, hello I would like to win the pot please. I would like you to get out of the hand please, thank you. I realize this bet is technically large in relation to the pot but the situation is so different; I never viewed it as strong.