Avoid The River Bomb
Playing the river is one of the most important skills involved in playing texas holdem poker. It is important to how much money you make in a ring game and also how far you advance in a tournament. Your ability to sense weakness, a big hand or the nature of your opponent helps you define what you need to do with your hand.
For a beginner player, the mistakes that are often made include betting too big on the river that signals a strong hand and also not betting enough when they have a big hand, which leads to extracting too little. A consistent bet size on the river will help disguise the type of hand that you are actually representing.
Always try to read what your opponent had by analysing their action on each street of play. It is easier if you have position on your opponent since you ultimately get to have the last decision after you see what they are doing. If in position, and your opponent has been check calling all the way, you will have to think that they are either on a drawing hand or are trapping with a two pair, set or big over pair hand. Unless you have a well defined hand, it is best to not to fire on the river with absolutely nothing, a bad habit that many aggressive players seems to develop when they start experimenting with playing in position.
Further to this, if you have been calling your opponent with a drawing hand or less than top pair, and they bet big on the river, it is probably time to give up you hand, knowing that you are behind. However, if your opponent has shut down their betting on the river, it is possible that they were semi bluffing all the way and have missed their hand, so a good pot sized bet can see the chips shipped your way.
Different situations call for different types of actions on the river, practice analysing the hand and look to improve your showdown rate.
