navigating the river...

short-handed game, i limp(planning to re-raise) UTG with AhKh,


next to act is cutoff, he calls, button calls, sb calls, bb checks..


FLOP:


Qh-4h-5s


sb: bet bb: call me: call (debated a raise here) cutoff: raise button: fold sb: call bb: call me: call


TURN:


Qh-4h-9s--2c


checked around! here i figure the cutoff for hearts and a free card play...


RIVER:


Qh-4h-9s--2c--7h


sb: bet bb: fold me: call (i figure if cutoff has flush he'll raise for me, or he wouldn't call 2 cold anyway with a "made" hand he'd check the turn with,if BB had called then i'd go ahead and raise) cutoff: raise sb: fold me: re-raise cutoff: call


feel free to critique my play, but my main question is about the river "call/re-raise" is this a good idea, i thought i had a decent read on the cutoff and i thought maybe i could trap sb for two more bets.

River call-reraise was the best play you made, although it should be pretty automatic (i.e. "go for the overcall") for the sound reasons you gave.


Your hand was worth a lot more action than you gave. While perhaps 2-betting would be correct for the flop, once you call you should 3-bet your nut flush draw 2-over cards against 3 opponents.


- Louie

While perhaps 2-betting would be correct for the flop, once you call you should 3-bet your nut flush draw 2-over cards against 3 opponents.


ah, thanks. one of those +EV/fair share raises...


thats something i need to work on, jamming with draws!


if i 3-bet the flop should i also bet the turn???

I think you navigated the river just fine, however you should have gone full steam ahead after the flop

"..one of those +EV/fair share raises.." Well, that's the normal bread-and-butter kind of raise. I have to admit I'm surprised there is so much resistance to that notion. While your hand (2 over card flush draw) is surely "a" favorite its probably "the" favorite. If you don't feel comfortable raising with the hand most likely to win ...


The reason the "probably best hand" raise is "good" is because the "probable best hand" is usually going to win more than fair share. But consider this contrived example: You [2h2d] Opponent [7c6c] board [5c4c4s]. With which hand would you prefer to raise, the "best" hand (22) or the monster draw? Or in Omahaha, how do you like 7643 flop 985 2-flush? You've got the "nuts", but can only sometimes make a crying call.


- Louie