We missed our straight draw and attempted a river bluff on a board that improved the defender's range more than our own.
Checking back is a fine alternative, but betting small is the preferred strategy to push our range advantage and deny equity to SB's high cards.
Note: Checking is acceptable, but betting small (around 30% pot) is the preferred way to leverage our range advantage on this dry texture.
After checking the flop, the Ten turn gives us an open-ended straight draw. Checking is the standard play here to realize our equity for free.
Note: Betting here is thin; checking back allows us to realize our equity with an open-ended draw without getting blown off the hand by a check-raise.
On the river, we have a pure bluff-catcher that loses to almost everything. While we can mix in bluffs, the second Queen is a better card for the SB's range than ours. **Ranges:** SB has many hands like AT, KT, or pocket pairs that are unlikely to fold to a single bet after calling the turn. Our range is air-heavy here, making it difficult to represent enough value to force folds. **Board:** The board pairing the Queen is significant because it reduces the number of trips we can realistically hold, while SB's turn-calling range is now heavily weighted toward pairs that have become two pair. **Blockers:** Our Jack blocks some of SB's straight draws that missed (like KJ or J9), which actually makes it a slightly worse bluffing candidate as we want SB to hold those misses. --- > **Takeaway:** When the river pairs the top card and you've missed your draw, be cautious about bluffing into a range that is already incentivized to call with middling pairs.