Stupid, Stupid, Stupid (flop, turn, river)

[soda]

Ok, this hand really bothered me because I played it incredibly poorly. I'm interested to see how others would go about playing this hand.

The game is .25 .50 blinds, $50 buyin No Limit Hold 'em on Paradise Poker. Seat 2 is a very tricky player (VTP) with the table lead - $220, I've got $125 in seat 4. Two hands earlier, VTP called two pot sized bets of mine with bottom pair to hit a one card, bottom end runner, runner gut shot straight with the 3 of his 36o. He bet about $35 into what was a $15 pot and then showed his hand. Anyway, my read on him is that he likes to be tricky more than win money. I don't think he's an expert, but he may very well be (Doyle Brunson school maybe). I haven't seen a hand from seat 6 yet as he's a New Player (NP) and has a stack of $50.

I'm in the cutoff with KsKh. VTP calls .50, I decide to raise big here because I know VTP will call just about any reasonably sized raise. I'm not sure how high I can go, but give $6 a try. To my surprise, the SB A.K.A NP calls. VTP calls. 3 ways - The flop is:

3c 7c Tc

Checked to me and I check behind. My thinking was that against a very tricky opponent - I wanted to keep the pot small with this flop. Any club, I'm done with the hand. Any large bet, I'm done with the hand too (should stick with my plans better).

The turn is 2d.

NP bets $3.50, VTP raises $3.50 to make it $7 to go - I call, NP folds. 9h on river.

3c 7c Tc 2d 9h

VTP bets the pot - $35

After much internal debate, most of it reasonably arguing that I should fold, of course I need to fold, I call.

VTP shows Q6c.

OK - any and all comments appreciated.

Thanks,

soda

ps - I did get this money back a few hands later from VTP. He tried to run me over when I had two pair Aces and Tens. He showed 8 high.

[Guy McSucker]

Your play doesn't seem all that stupid to me, except perhaps the river.

I like your thinking with the oversize preflop raise. Why not make him pay for the privilege of getting tricky with you?

Checking the flop is a little timid perhaps, and might induce a bluff later, but on PP people will often call with one club in hand here, so you might as well try to take off a safe card.

Calling 4th street is routine since you may have induced a bluff, which it turns out you did when the bettor folded to a minimum raise from your nemesis.

However, the tricky player now knows you have something. What does he put you on? It could be a single big club, or a made hand of some kind. If he puts you on a single club, he'll expect you to fold to any bet on the river, so he wouldn't need to bet big to take it down. He'd most likely check to get a bluff out of you. So I reckon he puts you on a made hand of some kind, and his big bet is expecting a call, so you should pass.

But you knew that, as you said, on the flop!

Guy.

I think that you should bet more than six. Granted there is nothing in the pot (what is it 3 bucks?) but you should bet like 3-5 times the pot. I'm pretty sure that will weed out crap like q6s, and if it doesn't, then you can at least be happy you got good EV on that bet. River call was obviously bad but flop and turn seem fine. You might actually even consider mucking for those 7 bucks on the turn (or was it flop?)