Checking three pair

[lil']

Opponent is loose pre-flop, not as loose post-flop. My three pair on the turn was not inspiring me to bet.

Party Poker 15/30 Hold'em (4 handed)

Preflop: lil is UTG with K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, K/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="CC3333">lil raises</font>, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (8 SB) 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="CC3333">lil bets</font>, Button folds, SB calls, BB folds.

Turn: (5 BB) 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
SB checks, lil checks.

River: (5 BB) 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">SB bets</font>, lil calls.

Final Pot: 7 BB

[potato]

Looks good to me, especially in these 4-handed games where players love to checkraise you with an ace (or nothing) to "push you off of a split". You have to show down and you don't have any room to push the hand.

[Nightwish]

Way too timid. This is 4-handed, so SB could have a huge variety of hands that he'll call your turn bet with, and if he's aggressive, he might even check-raise you with a worse hand (such as Ax). I don't understand the point of giving him a free card. And if you do check the turn, you need to raise the river. You'll have the best hand here the vast majority of the time.

[Nate tha' Great]

[ QUOTE ]
Looks good to me, especially in these 4-handed games where players love to checkraise you with an ace (or nothing) to "push you off of a split".

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, that's a good reason to bet. He'll get checkraised by a worse hand here a *lot*.

[potato]

You want to get checkraised on the turn here? Then what?

[Nightwish]

Call, and call his river bet. You'll be shown a worse hand a very good percentage of the time. At least that's what I would do in a game with more players. I'm not an expert at short-handed, so perhaps in that game you might even want to 3-bet (others can answer this better). But a check is definitely wrong.

[lil']

He'll get checkraised by a worse hand here a *lot*.
OK, I'll admit it would be nice if a bare ace check-raised me on the turn. However, a player who would do this is a "special" type of player. I make notes on players like this. He wasn't one of them, as far as I know.

[potato]

I actually like a river raise more than I like a turn bet. The thing I hate about this situation is that when you get checkraised, you really don't know where you stand.

The marvel of shorthanded play is that in 3 more hands you are going to be able to play your T9s much more confidently.

[glen]

This is not a special player that will do this, a ton of people do this. . . plus ace high is going to call you and any pair is going to call. I like betting here. . .

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
He'll get checkraised by a worse hand here a *lot*.
OK, I'll admit it would be nice if a bare ace check-raised me on the turn. However, a player who would do this is a "special" type of player. I make notes on players like this. He wasn't one of them, as far as I know.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'll get checkraised a lot by hands like 44 as well. And it doesn't take a very special player to do it.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
I actually like a river raise more than I like a turn bet. The thing I hate about this situation is that when you get checkraised, you really don't know where you stand.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know you're ahead a lot of the time. What more do you really need to know?

[lil']

My opponent showed A-8s and took the pot.

Thanks for the responses. If I had posted this hand, I would have told me to bet the turn as well. I mainly play shorthanded, and this is an auto-turn bet for me, so I'm not sure why I checked here. I guess I just had some stupid feeling I was toast, but I usually don't put too much stock into feelings like that. I've been called in this spot with nothing but overcards (or worse) more times than I can count.

Sometimes I fall ass-backwards into the right choice, but it doesn't feel right. This was definitely one of those times.