Buy-in $3 + $0.30
Blinds 750/1500/150
Hero Stack Size: 28,057
Primary Villain Stack Size: 44,245

HJ+ 3 Open shoves for a little over 1BB. HJ+2 Raises all in for a little over 2 BBs. The action is folded around to Hero in the SB. Hero hold Ac8c. Pot is 8,900 and elects to flat. Villain in the BB is a tight player and upon review, Hero thinks this would have been better to raise and isolate the two all-ins, feeling confident that Villain in the BB would fold most of his weaker holdings. Flatting forces Villain to call with nearly 100% of his range having given him 5 to 1 on his money. The pot is now 13,750. Flop comes 5d8dKh. Hero checks wanting to control the size of an already inflated pot. Villain checks. Turn comes 4h. Hero bets turn for 3500 (about ¼ pot) looking to get value from his hand. Villain calls. Pot is now 20,750. River comes 8h. Should Hero bet for value or turn his hand into a bluff catcher? Hero elects to check. Hero checks behind.

Analysis: If Hero had bet small Villain could have called with worse than Q8 and only raised with a straight or better. I don’t think this tight/solid villain is raise bluffing ever here. I think Hero made a mistake by not betting the river because I think Hero could have gotten value from a wide range of hands more than getting value from missed draws. Missed draws are XdXd, A2, A3, and 7x9x. They all fold to my bet as well as probably Xx4x. Hands that call Xx8x, KxXx, Some, Xx5x. 6x7x, always calls and sometimes raises. XhXh almost always raises but at the very least calls. All boats raise.

Do you agree I should have raise/folded this hand, or do you like the river check? Do you think it would have been better to try and isolate the two short stacks preflop?