In the past week or so, two of my big mistake hands have involved poor river decisions. On one of them, I really should have known better. On the other, I'm not sure whether I should have made the call or not, but it did teach me a few things.

I'll start with the obvious mistake hand. I have AA and raise to around $20, getting a few callers, including one guy who's just a very obvious calling station, will passively draw to anything halfway realistic and then bet when he makes the draw. In this case, I think he called with 6s3s (something like that anyway).

So, the board comes something like T62 with 2 spades (my aces are red). I bet out $60 (pot). He calls. Turn is a blank. I bet $100, he calls. River is As, making my set and his flush (which I really knew he had). I check, he bets $100, and I call.

First, I think that against this kind of player, I need to bet the turn a little harder (I'm thinking somewhere around $120 or closer to 3/4 pot) when he clearly misses on the turn. This guy is pretty predictable (flush is much more likely than straight, although I have to watch a little for both out of position anyway). But the main thing is that the set of aces actually didn't help me at all. Flush is flush and wins the hand.

Now, another hand which escalated into a crazy pot where I made a bad laydown on the river. Mini-stack to my right moves in for $55 after a few limpers, one of whom is a 10/20 player who brings a lot of chips to the table ($1,200 or so). He's pretty loose, and I figure my AJ actually has a good chance of having him dominated (I think he ended up turning over something like A4o), so I call, as does big stack.

Flop comes JT7 with 2 clubs (I'm pretty sure my A was Ac), somewhat dangerous actually, but I have top pair here (and myself a stack of about $800) and bet out $150, and, to my amazement, big stack flat calls. So, what does he have? I just really don't think he has 98 the way he's acting and with the flat call here. I'm actually putting him on KQ.

Turn is another 7 (not a club), so I fire out $250 and AGAIN get a flat call (I thought the paired board might scare him even if he did have the straight, but that's very optimistic at this kind of table).

River comes a 9, still not a club, but I was putting him on KQ, in which case he just made his straight. I check, and he bets $300. I fold.

What did he ACTUALLY have? Tc9c, so I had him beat.

There are actually a couple of aspects to this hand. First, I think these limit players are less accustomed to the TP check on the river which is pretty standard in NL. Please, limit players, tell me if I'm wrong, but I think they expect another river bet, and a check apears weak to them. I don't really think that's any kind of good reason to change my own traditional river check, but it is a good reason to carefully examine the board in making a decision about calling or not when they bet it.

Moreover, there's a tendency in big pots (I've observed this several times, particularly with players who seem to have more money than I do and hence are less worried about throwing out a $300 bluff) to make a stronger bid for it on the river when things have escalated. Hence, in a big pot, a river bluff is not at all unusual.

Well, this guy, while I think playing T9s to $55 PF is pretty rash, again had a very similar draw to the other guy, and I have a lot of stack depth, too, so, it's at least not insane (54s through 98s wouldn't really be that bad, I think, although awfully aggressive).

I guess after seeing his hand, 98s was a lot more in the range than I had thought, as well. So, it's rather unclear whether I should have even proceeded against big stack with my AJ--probably not. Heads-up against the short-stack, sure, but multi-way in an enormous pot, it's really not good. So, I suppose my best play was actually check-folding the flop in light of the possible made straight, particularly since big stack has position on me. I like AJ against one loose short-stack, but not against a huge stack on a coordinated board and a pot that, by virtue of the situation, is going to be enormous.

But back to the river fold here: Obviously I have to make it putting him (wrongly) on KQ. But I think that I needed to be more aware of what draws were actually possible here and also expect a river bluff on missed draws in big pots sometimes, particularly from limit players.

I suppose the fold was correct (just should have done it on the flop) on the river, assuming that he would have played KQ the same way. JT also has me beat from the beginning, too, although he probably would have raised the flop, I think. And I don't know whether this guy would have played ANY flush draw the same way (adding 65s and 54s to the hands I beat). If he needed flush draw with pair (giving him significantly more outs, and here, he had the gutshot as well), then actually Tc9c and Tc8c (which would have given him the river straight anyway as well) were the only hands he could have.

Well, I thought the moral of this story was going to be to make some calls on the river that do seem like crying calls, but, the more I think about it, the more I think the laydown was good (too many KQ hands over and against the hands I beat), just way too late.

The first hand I think you played fine. I would probably check/call the river there also. You mentioned you should make a bigger turn bet. I swear that EVERY time I do that, he has a set. It happened twice yesterday when I had AA and they hit a set.

2nd hand....No way Im playing AJ in that hand. I would much rather have T9s than AJ. (preflop I mean)

Ais.. the first hand, there's nothing your gonna do about it... If any other spade hits, you have a halfway decent chance of getting away from it... But, you're not going to easily lay down trips, especially against someone who will play 63s to a bunch of large bets, just chasing...

As for the 2nd hand... I agree w/ Ice... I'm not playing AJ against another big stack, I don't care how loose he is... If you wanted to play the hand against the small stack, I would've reraised to isolate... I wouldn't play it for exactly the reason that happened... When a J flops, you don't really know where you stand... And, when an Ace flops, it's even worse... I would've been a little more worried about J10 in that hand than the straight if I was you... Everyone, especially loose players, LOVE J10... it's the new fasionable thing...

Objectively you're right. I think after my initial ultra-tight (to be honest, I should say "scared") phase at this B&M, I've gotten too inclined to make certain moves on players, indeed on the basis of reads.

But several of these situations have gotten me into trouble later. I need to find a better balance somewhere between rock and over-aggressive TAG to optimize my win rates.

The one thing I do get out of these hands (despite some very big losses) is some more exact reads, and I think the REAL B&M trick is going to be playing the player much more than is really possible online (I'm still learning a lot in this regard). This pot just gets way too out of control, and I really agree with you. AJ just isn't a hand you want to be sitting on going into the flop with $150 in the pot and a stack that covers you still in the hand.