$200 NLHE Full Ring: Full house facing a raise on the river

$1/$2
Live cash game. Hero has been playing quite aggressively and running well. Table is quite passive in general. Not much history with villain.

Hero(UTG+2): ~$800
Villain(UTG+3): ~$700

2 limps and Hero opened to $8 with pocket 4s. Could have limped but table has been limp folding a lot. Villain 3bet to $24. Folded back to Hero who called hoping to set-mine. Pot around $56.

Flop came A 4 7 rainbow. Hero checked and Villain bet $16. Surprisingly small cbet and did smell a little fishy. Hero check raised to $52 to get values from all Aces combo and Villain called.

Turn came another Ace. Hero bet $130 and Villain called again. Pot around $400ish.

River came an off suit queen. Not the best card but Hero still bet $200. Villain tank and shoved for around $300 more. Hero ???

Obviously Hero is losing to AQ and pocket 7s but the price was too good to turn down. Hero called and was shown AA.

In retrospect could Hero have done anything differently? Would a check call line make more sense on the river?

the re-raise to 24 would have made me put him on high pair to begin with. having said that, seeing a 4 on the flop had to put a twinkle in your eye and his small bet was odd. the second ace on the turn would have given me pause as now he could very well have the higher boat with just one ace back. think I would have checked and hope he kept betting small enough to call. damned hard to fold your own cards, sometimes you do the right thing and still lose.

I don't think we're getting away from this hand, I mean yeah set over set happens, boat over boat happens, quads over boats happen. But the statistical odds of them occurring I think are low enough long term that I'd be happily getting my money in. I agree with froggeedogs that some red flags go up when the turn brings another Ace, so maybe just a smooth call here to keep pot control would be ok, then if he shoves river...maybe just maybe could find a fold. But if he small bets river, a sigh call to see if your boat is still good might be ok.

I think if you feel opponents will call all streets and raises with AK then its justified and your bound to run into coolers.

But at tighter tables and against regs... more people these days can fold trips without too much.

It all lies down to what mistakes your opponents will make.

It can look very obvious with the betting every street and raising that you have a set. So you have to think what is he calling with? especially on the flop.. once the board pairs it does give more hands we beat though and AK will get trapped most times. The Q does minimize though hands we beat.

In low stakes live poker I find a lot of players who will only 3b AA. And given you said table is passive I would probably fold pre and look for a better spot. With deep stacks calling the 3bet is ok, but I would check call FTR on this A high board expecting AA a lot.
With more active table or higher stakes I am going broke with this hand.

nothing you can do about it unless you folded to his 3bet

Call flop, don't raise. You are targeting a very narrow range here. If he has KK, QQ, etc, else don't want to fold him out, so yeah just call flop. It is very possible he bets 10-10+ here just cause he doesn't know what to do. Most people fire those once and check back turn.

Aside from that, as played, you are never against trips on the river. You can find a fold there. People at 1/2 aren't value owning themselves with huge raises on paired boards like this scenario. He told you that your hand is no good with the river jam. Too deep to be making calls like this bro.


That's my thoughts anyway. Bet fold river and sigh.

Hy!
This is bad luck. But U should have concidered the quite big OR, it represents a strong hand- and it was. U said passive table. So they only play once they have decent cards.
Once the flop lay there U were done. U can´t get out and he as well.
But think of any A plus board card, maybe s. it´s the higher full, wich happens moreoften.
So think and maybe .... fold a full. Oh lord....!!!!

I would ask if even getting involved at all with 44 so badly OOP is wise here. The negative implied odds of getting sticky with bottom set (realistically the only nuttish hand you could flop) when you are 350 BB deep is avoidable in my opinion.

As played though, I would have to call the river.

“Must be careful not to be too careful” are words taught to me by my dad. That’s not to say that there is not a lesson to be learned here. That lesson, I’d say is that when you build up to 400 bb at a table and you are the big stack by a lot (or one of two of the big stacks, as in this situation) it’s best to get up and either call it a night or sit at the next higher stakes game.
The risks outweigh the possible reward.

Preflop I would give as you raised form UTG +2 and he reraises from UTG +3 a range of a big pair or AK and perhaps some bluffs with e.g. A blocker like A5 suited. You call to set mine which I dont have a big problem with as the stacks are deep enough.

On a A high board villain bets small now that does not say much about his range. You decide to raise here to target his Ax holdings which is fine and he calls. You have now limited his range to AA, AK, Ax suited (prob not much Ax suited combos). So you are either way ahead or way behind by now.

Turn is a second A making that there is one AA combo and 4 AK combos. And from his perspective you have either an Ax hand (if he has AK) or a set so he beats only Ax hands if he has AK. You bet he calls making Ax less likely by now only A4 and A7 suited will still be in there.

River is an off suit Q (given the line taken it is unlikely that this helps your opponent). You bet to target AK which is fine. He decides to jam. The pot is now 1100 and you call another 300 as the pot-odds are just to good.

Yes you could in retrospect do it differently and e.g. check the river and hope he checks back and does not jam with e.g. AK. Or you could bet smaller such that if he raises you have worse odds and hero fold. But as you did not know anything about the opponent I think your play is ok/good. He just happened to have that one combo that beats you which is just bad luck. If he had AK you would have probably won a big pot and there are still 4 combos of those.

Afterthought as you mention that most players are tight-passive but they limp a lot that normally means that they are sticky and will call you down with AK? That is the one question that you should ask your self.