Loose Show Down OTB vs UNK 3-bet.

I would fold. He looks passive and I don't see him 3barreling 77-99 on this board. You were beating AK and AJ which now got there.

I would fold and be quite happy about it. In fact, I would fold every K, A and J river.

and what about raising the flop immediately for protection?

I think it's not for protection but for information instead. We can't really protect here, villain won't fold his AK, AJ, and we're not equity favorites to aim for protection. When we raise on the flop we may get 3bet and thus we play according to odds & outs - and we can't fold the hand on the turn because the pot is that big. So we pay more in the situation where we're not favorites.

If we're not willing to go to SD no matter what (in case villain 3rd barrels, for example, or bad cards appear) it's better just to stay passive.

Originally posted by nemiren
and what about raising the flop immediately for protection?

Raising the flop could even be for value. Against many players who 3-bet preflop vs a BTN raise we have greater than 50% equity. However, hands we're ahead of may just fold and the majority of his better hands will 3-bet us. In this scenario we can sometimes make more money by calling and representing a weaker hand range.

Its also true that we cannot protect our 2nd pair against his hand range. Unless he has less than 4 outs to improve then he's correct in calling our raise. When he has less than 4 outs then he's drawing pretty thin and maybe we should let him hold on to these weak hands.

Raising for information also does little for us. The pot gets bigger and as a result we don't contribute any less money than when we call. We may be more inclined to think he has a strong hand when he 3-bets us, but I can't fold vs his 3-bet when I usually have 5 outs.

On the turn I'll get 7.2:1 where its also tough to fold. He could have just a decent-strong draw and so our hand has some SD value. If all of the draws bust on the river then I'll have a tough time justifying a fold getting 9:1 odds against an unknown.

Calling can also get us really valuable information on late streets. If we're checked to on blank river cards then we're ahead often and can make a profitable bet.

When I wrote about information I meant that, erm, would you call his 3rd barrel on blank in case of just calling flop & turn? I mean if we have something like made hand we can fold in this situation it's profitable for him to make this bluff bet. So in case of calling flop & turn I can't be sure we're behind on the river in case he 3rd barrels.

And in case we raise flop I don't think he would be so aggressive without a made hand so we can fold on the river paying the same like in case of calldown but probably with a better degree of certainty. Does it make sense, what do you think?

I'm a bit tired so I'm afraid your question hasn't sunk in. I might be missing something but I think on this river card we should tend to fold especially if he's re-stealing with a tight hand range.

If the river were a blank we might tend to call if he's re-stealing with quite a few hands. We beat all his busted draws that have no SD value like 98sooted. Its possible he's barreling with 99- which occasionally players will do out of position. These players don't seem to find the check button even though they usually don't have a reason to bluff and aren't likely to have a value bet on such a river.