Two shorthanded limit holdem hands, including a ten-high river call

Both 3-handed at 30-60 limit online. Both opponents decent but spewy at times.
Hand #1:

You're on button with AsKc, raise, SB 3-bets, BB folds, you cap, SB calls.

Flop: Td6s6h

SB checks, you bet, he calls.

Turn: Ts

SB checks, you bet, he calls.

River: As

SB bets, you raise, he calls.

You win, has he has A8 offsuit.



Hand #2

You have Tc8s in SB. Button folds, you raise, BB calls.

Flop: 6c3d3h rainbow

You bet, BB calls.

Turn: Ad

Check/check, planning to have folded if bet against (bet/fold to raise would have been a reasonable line too)

River: Kc

You check, BB bets, you call.

He shows 94o and you win with ten high.



Analysis next post.

Hand #1 has two questions -- do you still bet the turn on the TT66 board, and do you raise the river, given the flush and double paired board?

You bet the turn because SB can have too many hands without an ace or pair which would benefit from a free card, and there are no made hands possible which don't involve a T, 6, or pocket pair. His 3-bet pre makes the 6 less likely, and his lack of raise on the flop makes the T less likely.

The river raise is easy because he likely does NOT have a ten, and will be scared to re-raise with anything but a ten or 66. So even if he hit the flush, or if he holds just a 6, he won't re-raise you. The chance he has a weaker A is much higher than him having you beat, so you raise here.





Hand #2 has two reasonable lines to take on the turn. You can try to rep the ace and get a lot of hands to fold, or you can just check/fold and give up. I will mix up both, but I chose to check/fold here, especially since the ace is a second diamond, and he might bluff-raise diamonds here (or bluff raise anything), and I'll have wasted a bet. But sometimes I'll fire this. Either way is okay. You shouldn't give up every pot in this spot, but you also shouldn't be afraid to check/fold sometimes.

He checked behind, so I lived to see another street, and then it became a different story. The king changed nothing. If he had a king, he already had me beat. But the check behind to me indicated that he wanted to see a river, but wasn't interested in betting for value. In fact, he might have feared a check-raise and wanted to see the river free. This looked like a weak draw such as 75, 74, 42, 52, etc. The check on the turn made it likely enough he had low trash to where T high could very well be good. I was surprised to see the complete trashy 94o, which missed the flop, and should have folded. And given the flop call, he should have bet the turn to my check if he really wanted to be tricky. Still, I made the right call. His lack of 3-bet pre, combined with his flop call and check behind on the A turn, screamed low cards to me, and I was right.

You might wonder if someone with an ace will check behind here, wanting to induce river action. Sometimes, but not as commonly with a board which has more than one draw on it, which this did.

Sometimes it won't work out. Sometimes he'll show you a weak ace, or have slowplayed the 3, or king-trash, and you'll feel like a fool. Don't. Making these calls in the right spots are important to playing a winning game shorthanded.

spewing from sports better on 10 high hand