In response to Clark's KJ post...

[scooby]

I feel like this is a pretty common occurance. Someone raises your big blind, and you call with a decent hand like KJ, and hit your top pair ok-kicker. What do people think the best way to play is against a normal 15/30 party player?

A few concerns:
1) You don't want them to fold an underpair
2) You want to go to showdown, but don't want to go crazy against a better hand
3) You want to maximize your profits.

I'm experimenting with a new line when I hit top pair that's an ace or king, and no draw is apparent (I think that's key...it's very different if there's a draw, since the opponent might [correctly] put you on an aggressively played draw:
my line:
check-call the flop and turn, checkraise the river. Playing so passively generally induces someone to think I have some extremely marginal holding and keep betting their holding to get me to fold, and a checkraise on the river is generally only going to be 3bet by a much stronger hand...it's hard for even AK to 3bet a river checkraise. It's also something that people feel like they almost have to call, unless they're an excellent player. Comments? Other lines?

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
my line:
check-call the flop and turn, checkraise the river. Playing so passively generally induces someone to think I have some extremely marginal holding and keep betting their holding to get me to fold, and a checkraise on the river is generally only going to be 3bet by a much stronger hand..

[/ QUOTE ]

Remember the type of opponent we're dealing with here. He isn't going to just mindlessly bet when checked to. Some players will, Im not sure clark will.

It will be rare if you face someone like Clark in your game. Should you, you have to put yourself in their shoes and see what they're seeing. If you just call his flop raise on this board, what is he putting you on that you're calling a pretty drawless board? What does he think of your play? He very likely won't bet a lesser hand on the turn. He'd gladly take the free card. Unless he sees you as a weak chaser.

Betting out on the turn puts him in kind of a spot. You could be doing this with many possible hands (player depending)

Most average players, by the river, will be wondering what you've just check-called with all the way to the river on this board. Many will check this river behind you, imo.

b