The Four Major Considerations For River Value Betting

As we head into the river, there is only one street of betting left. The pot is the biggest on average going into this street, and our remaining stacks are the smallest on average. We also have the most information going into the river than we do in any other point in the hand because we know what all of the community cards are going to be and because the strength of our opponents' hands are more easily known because we've seen them play most of the hand out.

Despite the abundance of information, the massive size of the pot makes it easy to make mistakes on the river, especially when deciding if you should value bet or not. Use the following guidelines to decide if a big river value bet is going to be profitable:

• To make money with a value bet, you want to make it to the showdown with the best hand most of the time. Therefore, you should only bet if you're going to be ahead on average when your opponent calls.
• If your opponent likes to bet a lot as a bluff when checked to on later streets, you should check to him with some of your medium strength holdings that you aren't sure if you should value bet or not. This way you can check and then call to pick off his bluffs.
• If your opponent likes to raise late street bets as a bluff then you have to value bet less often if you plan on folding to his raise.
• When you have an exceptionally strong hand, you should often go ahead and bet instead of trying for a check/raise if you think your opponent will call a bet with more hands than he will bet when checked to.

Being better at river value betting than your opponents will give you a definite edge when it comes time to play those big pots that have lots of betting and raising on all of the betting streets.