Big hands with position...call call raise?

[frank_iii]

Lately I've been playing a lot of $2/$4 where I'm seeing a good deal more HU action than the micros. I've been fortunate to flop some monsters against early position aggressors and have followed the same line each time. For example:

I'm on the button with JTs, villain is UTG. BB checks.

Flop comes 7 8 9 rainbow. BB checks, UTG bets out, I call, BB folds.

Turn is a blank. He leads out, I call.

River is whatever. He leads out, I raise.

Or, totally heads up:

I'm on the button with 88, villain raises UTG. I'm the only caller.

Flop comes 8 3 K rainbow. UTG leads out, I call.

Turn is a blank. He leads out, I call.

River is whatever. He leads out, I raise.

Any alternatives here? Thanks!

[lostinthought]

Occasionally, I like to raise on the turn on these kinds of hands, as if the opponent has much of anything, they will pay to see one more. However, you seem to get less river calls popping on the turn.

Sometimes raising on the flop is effective, esp. against aggresive opponents, since the expect you to slow play monsters like these..

[kenberman]

This line is good, but playing shorthanded against thinking opponents, you'll need to vary your lines. Much more so than in full ring micro-games.

[djoyce003]

I usually raise the turn. Mainly because I don't feel like I can count on my opponent betting every street unless they are really predictable. A lot of guys quit firing bullets on the river, and will check/fold. My experience has been that they will almost always call the turn raise, which gets the extra bet in. Granted, they may now fold the river, but not if they have a piece of it....in your examples, if he's got any piece of that flop he most likely calls the river bet as well, sometimes just to see what you had.

[Bluffoon]

I rarely wait until the river to raise when I have flopped a made hand. If you are raising the flop as much as you should be your opponents should pretty much ignore your flop raises. If I am going to wait I will almost always pop the turn. Again if you are doing your share of semi-bluff and bluff raising on the turn you will still get plenty of action. When you wait till the river you lose calls from hands with outs and if someone else really likes their hand too its a little late to start the party.

[k_squared]

I agree with both the idea that you should vary your lines, rather than falling into a predictable pattern (being predictable, at least if people are paying attention is the biggest sin of a card player... because then they always know what you have). I also like the raise on the turn because you should be making this move as a semi-bluff as well... so if you only raise the turn as a bluff to buy a pot, then it is a meaningless raise. If you are willing to raise it when you have a monster, a good hand, or a bluff know people are left having to read the situatiun better and won't know the strength of your hand.

-k_squared