I never do this

[lil']

Online game, lots of call anything players, several players who have been quiet. I open raise from the cutoff with Q /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 10 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . One player who I thought knew better cold-calls me from the button. One of the calling station calls from the blinds.

Flop: Q /forums/images/icons/club.gif 2 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif 7 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif
Good enough for me. Blind checks, I bet, button raises. Blind folds. The raise really caught me off guard. I really didn't think that this player had a queen, as I couldn't see him cold calling me with Q-Q, A-Q, and if he had a set or two pair he would raise later. K-Qs was a possibility, but also seemed unlikely to me. There was no draw there, so it seemed like slowplayed aces or an attempt to drive me off my hand. Of course, it was possible this person was playing out of character as well. I called.

Turn was a brick, I check-called.
River was a brick, checked through.

I hardly ever do that. What do people think?

[Jeffage]

What don't u ever do? Seems pretty reasonable to me, though another (occassional) option would be to 3-bet and then lead the turn, folding to a raise there. I think your play is the better default though.

Jeff

[lil']

I meant I hardly ever call someone down, flop, turn & river. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I just wanted to see if it was a proper thing to do here. I considered tossing in a raise but decided not to.

Thanks for the response...

[Jeffage]

I was joshing a little with the response =), but what I meant was it is not necessary to be aggressive all the time. I think this is a textbook example of when being passive (or "playing it like a little girl" as Jim Brier would say) is the best way to play it. Always being aggressive will cause you to bleed chips...sometimes when u are not sure whether u are ahead or behind, check calling is the best play (either u get ur opponent to stop betting a worse hand or u lose the max if they have a very strong holding).

Jeff

[Ed Miller]

I meant I hardly ever call someone down, flop, turn & river.

Once you are headsup, it isn't as important to play aggressively as it is in a multihanded pot, especially if you have a hand as strong as top pair (i.e. a hand strong enough that it would be nearly impossible to make your opponent lay down a better hand).