Value Betting on the River

Betting on the river is very complex business... if you have a hand, you wanna extract the most value out it... that's generally one of the the big differences between the good players and the better players... where as i might make 15-20 big blinds with top pair, top kicker, a better player would make 20-25 big blinds... and those extra blinds keep stacking up... the difference is generally the river bet or raise...

the problem is, if you start off with top pair, top kicker and don't improve your hand any further, it is very difficult to assess the strength of your hand at the end... i mean what in god's name was the other guy calling with all along... of course if there were any draws on the board and you were unable to get the guy off his hand on the flop or turn, now you gotta worry about that too... or that he started off chasing a flush or something and ended up making two pair or trips in the process... so i used to generally shut down on the river (unless i decide to bluff...) and leave it up to the poker gods to decide who gets the pot...

but over time, i have realized a few things about betting... as much as it sounds like a good idea to bet when you are ahead, it also has the drawback of semi-revealing your hand to any worthy opponent... you hit top pair, you bet, turn comes blank, bet big and make it expensive for the fish to draw the last card... the only problem is, that this works the first two times... after that everyone catches on to your play, and now they know that you don't have trips or anything and thus you can not stand any heat... you bet on the flop they call, you bet big on the turn and some sick person (like me) raises... now what do you do... do you call ?

if you are playing against any decent player, i can tell you what's coming on the river if you call the raise on the turn... another big bet to make you to twitch and twist... say... about 30-40% of the pot... (are you being bluffed or milked ?)

or, worse, you bet the flop, he calls... you bet the turn, he calls again... river comes "blank", you bet, he raises big... (and now you begin to think he hit a set somewhere or made two pair on the river... or just plain missed the draw and is bluffing... either way, tough decision)

since you were not putting true pressure early on, you have no way to know what to do now... i know betting out right is a good way to put pressure, but it doesn't rattle anyone...

i check...
you bet...
you have a pair... (big deal...!)
you have no clue what i have... (i could be slow playing a monster...)
you get the picture...

so here is what i propose and what i have been doing lately...

raise pre-flop when you have a hand you wanna play...
check-raise the flop or
bet the turn if everyone checks flop... it would bes if someone bets into you on the turn and you get to check-raise...

that would make it much easier for you to bet the river... once you have check-raised the flop or the turn, you are in a much better position to bet the river... you might even get the other person to fold two-pair with your "value" bet...

i know the downside of checking the flop and giving the other person a free card... but trust me, if they are on a draw, they are gonna call at least one bet to see the turn... and if the card they need is going to hit the turn, there is nothing you can do about it...

alternatively, you can use the same free card as a scare tactic against them... if nothing else, now when you bet the turn, they don't know what you have... regardless of what they do now, you'll have a good idea of what they have and you can decide accordingly on the river... the plus side is that since they have no clue what you have, if another scare card comes on the river, you can bluff them pretty easily...