A round after first sitting down, I pick up Jd6s in the big blind. The flop is free for me, 7-handed and looks like Qd Jc 6d. A few checks including mine, a somewhat overly aggressive player bets, button (whom I don’t know anything about) calls, I raise, both call. The turn is a 5d. I bet out, player in between calls, button makes it two bets. So I’m thinking at this point that if he has a flush and I call it’s going to cost me a bet here and another on the river (I think I’m ahead all-time on crying calls on the river in this game). On the other hand, I have a 4-out redraw. Maybe even more, if my Jd is bigger than his two flush cards (I have 3rd nut flush draw). Should I call? Should I call another bet on the river against an unknown opponent?
Answer 1:
You aren’t entirely sure where you are now and you aren’t entirely sure what your outs are. I think it’s a close decision. On the plus side, you could make a full house or a 4th diamond could fall. On the minus side, you should be worried about hands like QJ, AdQx, KdQx, AdTx, and KdTx. You could also already be drawing dead. Unless I have no respect for both players, I think I fold here.
Answer 2:
You have crap hand in the big blind. You have a very dangerous flop, maybe even the single most dangerous flop in Holdem: two of the smaller Broadway cards and a two flush. Your hand is just not very good but you check raise, apparently, for value. Bet, try and win it there. If not win it there, define the hand better. If you bet the flop instead of check raise, you should *know* what you are going to do when the turn card comes the 5 of the suit and you get raised! If you are going to adopt a line of play in the beginning, you should know what you are going to do when an easy and obvious next situation comes up — in this case, a baby flush card hits. Why check raise the flop if you are going to bet and meekly laydown for a raise on the turn when it comes an obvious, and only partially threatening card? As usual, a poorly conceived check raise gets a player with a marginal hand into trouble.
Answer 3:
Okay, I’ve thought about this hand all night, basically, so I’m going to give you my reasoning on why I think the check-raise is the best play and you can tell me why you think it is an invalid or unsound strategy. The first and most obvious reason for a check-raise is to make any draws in the hand pay. However, since a nut flush draw here is getting full value for his bets with 2 opponents, I’m not making any money off of him. However, if the button, which’s stuck in between has a gutshot draw or similar crap, he’s subsidizing both me (likely best hand) and the big flush draw. Secondly, I think it’s the best way to derive information. You say betting out in this circumstance “define[s] the hand better”. I don’t understand what you mean here. Let’s say I bet out, and am raised. Well, what do I put him on? He could realistically have anything from KQ/AQ to top set, since all of those are legitimate raising hands. I simply can’t re-raise here, because my hand isn’t strong enough to. Therefore I can’t know whether I’m ahead of the raiser or trailing him. However, if I check, he bets, and I raise, he’d be hard-pressed to 3-bet me with just AQ or KQ. He would certainly 3-bet me with QJ, Q6, 66, JJ or QQ though, since he’s got to be afraid of the flush/Broadway draw–slow playing is totally out of the question. Therefore, by check-raising, I think I can figure out with reasonably certainty whether he’s got a better hand than I do; if he re-raises, he has top two or better; if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. Now my only trouble is what to do with the guy calling on the button. Thirdly, as you say, I check-raise for value. You seem to be saying that because my hand is weak, I should not check-raise for value. But how weak is my hand, really? Assuming I’m not re-raised on my check-raise which would imply I’m in very deep trouble, the absolute worst case scenario is that I’m up against, say, KT of diamonds, which has 15 outs to beat me. It’s pretty much even money, right? But this is a worst case scenario. It’s much more likely that I’ve got someone with AQ or KQ in trouble, since he needs to pair his kicker or have the board pair in a way that doesn’t give me a full house, which IMO justifies the value raise. And like I say earlier, by checking and allowing the button to call one bet instead of two cold, I might have trapped him with say, second pair and an over card kicker/three to the nut straight. That sounds like positive EV to me.
Loose spread limits $2-$10 7Stud game – nine players. I have (live) trip nines onThird Street. Player to my left opens for $2. $8 in the pot when it gets to me. I don’t like to slow-play trips less than Jacks so I raise $10. Three fold to the woman across from me. She is showing a ten and two tens are showing on board. She raises $10. This is how she normally will play Aces or Kings - a slow-play then a raise. Two callers between us and I call. Should I have re-raised? She catches a Jack, I catch a (live) blank. She bets 10. Two callers. I decide to try to isolate her and raise $10. She re-raises. Other two players fold. $138 in the pot. I have $35 in front of me. Raise and she takes me all in. I show trip tens, she show trip jacks, nobody hits, she takes the pot. This was an extremely live game. Should I have been less aggressive and waited for a better opportunity? Should I have played her for trips when she caught the live jack despite the fact she will play a big pair and two pair the same way?
