Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em

Online at Stars- 6 MAX NLHE- 25 cent/ 50 cent- (10 cent ante)

Villain- $120

Me- $128

Folded around to the Villain on the button. (I did not have too previous hands on him..he seemed somewhat loose on first impression..but I have no hard evidence at this point)

Preflop:

Villain opens for $1.50 from the button. I flat call in the small blind with 44. Big blind folds. The few hands I had on this villain, showed he may have some loose passive/calling station tendencies, so I decided against a 3-bet here since I did not have much information on him, my fold equity may be low, and I did not want to build a big pot out of position with a low vulnerable pair, so I call. Pot is roughly $3.75.

Flop:

Flop comes 10-4-6 rainbow. I hit bottom set. I check assuming as the preflop raiser, he'll almost always c-bet here, villain bets $2.50. I flat call hoping he'll fire again on the turn. Pot is $8.75.

Turn:

Turn is another 10. Board is now 10-4-6-10. I now have a full house. With no legit flush or straight draws on the board, I decide to check again, with the intention of check raising, assuming he may fire again, especially if he has trip10s now. I check, he bets $5. I checkraise to $16. He calls. As far as Villain's hand range at this point, I rule out pocket 6's, or quad 10s (or at least I assume against those hands, I'm probably going to lose my stack regardless of how I play)  More realistically, I now put him on a decent 10 hand like A10, K10, Q10, J10, or 910. All of these make sense for an aggressive player to open with from the button in an online 6-max game, and that range definitely make sense to flat call my turn checkraise. Pot is $41.

River:

River is an A. So final board is 10-4-6-10-A. No straight or flush draws. We both have roughly $100 stacks left. The ace scares me a little, but I still decide to bet out $25 for value, thinking if I check, he may check behind with a vulnerable trip 10 hand like J10, Q10 or 109 since I checkraised the turn. My thinking was with those hands, that Villain would likely have to call my $25 river bet. Instead, Villain shoves all in for his last $100. So the pot is now $166, and I have $75 left, so I'm getting a little better than 2-1 on a call. I think for a long time and put him on either K10, Q10, J10, or 109…all of which I have beat…. or A10 and a rivered full house. I end up calling, and he shows A-10 for the river rape full house.

Should this have been a clear river fold without much info on my opponent? I don't mind the way I played the rest of the hand, and I don't think it would've mattered anyways, since he would have likely called a turn shove anyway with trip 10s Ace kicker, then hitting an 8 outer on the river.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you guys to an extent. However, my "passiveness" was mostly intentional, and had alot to do with being out of position, not having a good read on this opponent yet, and the fact he was c-betting often in position (which he did) so I was just letting him hang himself but got unlucky.  

Think about it, if he missed that lucky river (I was an 84% fav to win after the turn) he probably ends up having to call my $25 river bet with his top set-top kicker. (A-10) Which would have won me a $91 pot roughly. ($45 profit roughly) This big win would have happened 4 out of 5 times on the river when he misses that full house, but has trip 10s good kicker with no straight or flush draws.

Lets say I 3 bet preflop, he either folds with A-10 off, suspecting I my have a bigger ace or a high pair, and I only win $2 or so. Or he flat calls the 3 bet (likely) Lets say I then got aggressive like you say, and checkraised the flop, he still probably calls with top pair top kicker heads up in position on a non drawing board (flop was 10-4-6 rainbow) so I don't have any fold equity there anyway. Then when he hit top set-ace kicker on the turn, he's likely not folding to an all-in shove from me anyway, with no draws out there. So the hand would have ended up the same regardless of my postflop aggression. At least the way I actually played it, I could have gotten away from the hand on  river. ( I strongly considered folding because it kind of felt like he had A-10, I just had too good of odds to fold)

Overall, your suggestion of more aggression is correct as a general rule, but I wanted you to know the reason for my more passive play IN THIS HAND. This particular seemed a little loose, and seemed to c-bet often in position, so I let him. If he was bluffing, or had a marginal hand, if I get too aggressive, I scare him off, and get very little value from my set. I took a shot for a big payoff, and was very close to getting it, and would like get paid off huge 4 out of 5 times, so I don't mind my play too much since I don't think it would have changed the outcome IN THIS HAND.

pkrgod said:

You definitely played the hand passively (poorly). Remember, aggressive poker is winning poker.

You CALLED on 3 out of the 4 streets! Seriously, that is NOT aggressive (winning) poker. Stop checking and calling. Bet and raise!

Although I agree with some of your comments. You accessment is a little off… I did call preflop and on the flop ( mind you…with a set, on a dry board, out of position, heads up, against a loose player with a wide hand range at that point, who c-bet often) But I then check raised the turn, and led out with a 3/4 pot bet on the river. ( so really 2 agg plays and 2 "passive" plays) The early passive plays were really just to exploit my opponent's tendencies to c-bet. (which he did)

 (and then called an all in with a full house and better than 2-1 odds)