Fourth Street: Checking hands with outs...

I think I understand the general principle here.

However, I think there are some situations where this is tough to decide when it is appropriate to check.


For example:


I raise with Two Black Jacks UTG, and get three cold callers plus the big blind seeing the flop.


The Flop comes:


7h-6h-5s


BB checks, I bet, 2 middle players call, last player raises, BB folds, I re-raise, all call.


Turn:


7h-6h-5s--5h


Now do I bet to protect my vulnerable pocket jacks, or do I check with my 4 out full-house draw?


What about with two black Aces?


What if the turn card is a different heart, then thats bet and fold to a raise time, or possibly even check and fold time, correct?


Thanks.

JJ - bet.


Have to protect against overcards in addition to more legitimate draws.


AA- bet


While you have no overcards to worry about, you are still likely in the lead and you don't want to give free cards to anyone in the sense that you don't want to miss out on collecting bets that they will pay to try and hit. But betting here is not as important as in the JJ situation as there you are betting primarily to make them fold rather than trying to collect calls.


When the heart comes - bet and consider folding if raised. You have to play poker well here...no right or wrong answer. Even checkfold may be right in some circumstances but when you do that, you can rarely be sure that you did the right thing.

It seems to me you have a very good chance of being ahead. The guy to be most worried about would be BB, who could have anything, but he folded. If you think about what the other two guys could have, there's a lot more hands that wouldn't have you beat than would, don't you think? Someone could have suited connectors and have you beat with a flush, but they're not very likely to have a 5, 6, or 7. (They might have a pocket pair I suppose) It seems to me if you think about the likely hands they would have called you with, there's a lot more hands that would be inferior to yours than better than yours. So you should assume you're ahead until proved otherwise.