:Pot Stuck

I love this saying, it makes me giggle and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Heres an example:

$2/$4 No Limit Hold’em - 4 players
Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $697.00
Hero (SB): $589.80
BB: $564.20
CO: $566.40

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with 2 2
CO calls $4, BTN raises to $20, Hero calls $18, 1 fold, CO calls $16

Flop: ($64.00) 8 2 J (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets $45, Hero calls $45, CO folds

Turn: ($154.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $84, BTN calls $84

River: ($322.00) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $175, Hero raises to $440.80 all in …..

BTN in this hand is a little nitty. I just call the flop for a number of reasons, the most important being that the CO in this hand is a mega fish. If he calls this flop he is NEVER folding his hand. So doing anything that could potentially push him out of this pot is nothing less than retarded.

The turn lead is pretty standard for me. I don’t want this guy to take a free card with a draw he may have just picked up or try to control the pot with an overpair. Now, the really odd thing about this hand is my turn bet size. I thought about betting closer to 100% of the pot, but that puts us in an odd river spot if he calls. I would basically have to bet 100% of the pot again on the river, close to 100bb, and he will probably fold an overpair here taking that amount of heat from me. The goal here is to win his stack, so I figured betting around half the pot was correct. Heres why:

I can then check the river:

a) He will have a large enough stack for him to bet/bluff with his busted draw.

b) It will really confuse him and he will want to value bet his overpair, since now my line looks really strange. This is the primary goal of this hand, and since an overpair makes a huge part of his range now its also the most likely to happen. It is also going to confuse him even more when he gets check raised on the river. He will have no idea what to do, and ultimately since he is getting such a good price he will make a crying/wtf call. Yahtzee!

Both options A and B cover his entire hand range once he calls my turn bet. The river card changes nothing, it does not improve my hand one bit and the BTN should know that it also does not improve his hand, since I never have J9/89 in this spot.

In retrospect I absolutely should have bet a bit more on the turn, $100, just in case a river check raise fails. Also, I would only make this play against a player who I know is going to try to squeeze value out of his overpairs when I check this river. 90% of the people monkeys I play with would snap check this river and then be so happy/thankful they just won a pot if their hand holds up.