Puzzles
#20
River Defence
Intermediate
50bb effective

The river is a structure, not a board

One river decision with the best hand you could possibly hold that still loses to everything worth betting. The cards stop mattering the moment you can name the shape of the spot — after that it is arithmetic.

  1. River

Hand info

Seats
BB vs BTN
Street
River
Pot
30 bb
Effective stack
40 bb
Villain bet
10 bb
To call
10 bb

Heads-up, single raised pot, no ante. Blinds 0.5 / 1.

Pot30 BB
HERO ·BB
CHECK37.5 BB behind
10
D
BTN
BET27.5 BB behind

RIVER · 40BB EFFECTIVE

RIVER · BB CHECKS · BTN BETS 10BB

2-max table. Hero is BB with 40 big blinds effective. RIVER: 9s, 6s, 2h, Ks, 4s. RIVER · BB CHECKS · BTN BETS 10BB. Hero holds Kh and Kd.

Hand history

Pre-flop

  • BTNRaises to 2.5 bb
  • BBCalls 1.5 bb

Flop

  • 9♠ 6♠ 2♥
  • BBChecks
  • BTNBets 2.5 bb
  • BBCalls 2.5 bb

Turn

  • K♠
  • BBChecks
  • BTNBets 5 bb
  • BBCalls 5 bb

River

  • 4♠ — pot 20 bb
  • BBChecks
  • BTNBets 10 bb

You turned a set of kings and check-called again. The river is the 4♠ — a fourth spade. Your hand did not change; the situation did. On 9♠6♠2♥K♠4♠ there is no pair on the board, no straight available and the last king is the board’s own K♠, so your set beats every hand in the deck that does not contain a spade — and loses to every hand that does. The button bets 10bb into 20bb.

What do you do?