Hope You Can Use This

The river is a unique round. During all previous rounds of betting, each person had a chance of improving his hand. On the river, bets are pure value bets or bluffs. There is no need to knock someone out, and it is impossible to semi-bluff. These changes in gameplay require an alteration in strategy. While each river is different, I will highlight three common situations where an advanced player can gain an edge.
Multi-way pot with semi-strong hand:


Your Hand
BoardYou are in middle position. You wait for the check-raise. The button bets, small blind calls, you check-raise, button and small blind call your raise.
The turn comes another jack, so now you hold trips. You bet. The button and small blind call.
The river comes a ten, but there is no flush draw on the board.

Your Hand
BoardBesides you, two other players are still in the pot. The small blind bets. It is your turn and the button is after you. What do you do?

P.S. More on Strategy's from un-known source, im soaking it up anyway.

SHERMSTICK

You raise here for value. While its possible that the small blind was sitting on QK for a gutshot straight draw, the 10 is a relatively safe card. IMO, the only straight draws still in hte pot are going to be open ended, and therefor already contain a 10, such as 10/8 or 10/Q. Either way, the 10 paired them with the second pair, and its probable that they will not put you on a jack once the second jack hit the board.

Another possibility is that they have the fourth jack. If thats the case, you're likely ahead as they're probably playing QJ or KJ. I do not think this is the case however, because they aren't showing too much strength on the turn. Trip jacks surely would have raised here. Pocket 10s is a possibility for the boat, but again, you can't second guess yourself here, and you have to raise for value. You're getting the odds to raise here because You only will have to win this pot 1:8 times or so to break even, and quite frankly, trips with ace kicker is more than 1:8 to win.

By the way, I'd like to point out that its a bit tougher to make a desision w/o the preflop action. A strong action from teh SB could indicate a big PP like AA QQ or TT. Without this, i'm just going to assume everyone limped in, no strength shown. So, thats why i'm shrugging off 10/10 so easily.

I would put down the value bet here. If the button and the sb have gone this far with you then they were either chasing something or had a pocket pair that didnt spike so far or did and they are trying to slow play. I can only assume that the sb bet the minimum so either he expects a raise or thinks his two pair perhaps 9s and Js are good. You have to think that your hand is good and bet here strictly for the value you think its worth.

Thanks Guy's:

I will take those comments an use them to my advantage.


SHERMSTICK