[MoDOH]

Now please come on now...

I am not saying that I played this hand optimally, but every decision I made was done so with a purpose.
First of all let´s just make it clear that if there had been a flush draw or even the possibility of an OESD (56 I don´t think is very likely) I would have been the first one to go ballistic on the flop onwards.

That being said,take a look at the action preflop and on the flop,and the cards out there on the flop. I think it´s pretty safe to say that I am holding close to a monster hand. Sure the pot is big and winning it would be nice but I think it´s safe to say that I have a HUGE pot equity here (unless CO holds AA...) and the only draw that is out there is a gutshot draw holding a unlikely 2 or a 5....

Now CO was the aggressor preflop, but UTG bets out on a pretty ragged flop. now to me that looks either like a weak ace or perhaps some kind of two pair hand.
Now CO could have A with a good kicker but he could also be raising with any other kind of hand, like KK-99 or any two big broadway cards.

Now raising this particular flop I don´t even consider to be an option. Better to just call giving CO reason to stay with his non A hands and raising with his A hands.

On the Turn I choose to call again for much the same reasons as on the flop,had there been just one more opponent in the pot I think I would have raised. If CO is slowplaying a big A I will get some really juicy action but if he doesn´t he will most likely fold.
Now any one hand holding a single pair is now drawing dead to my set. And the BD flush and the gutshots (same as on the flop plus the unlikely JQ) out there are unlikely in my opinion.

On the river I couldn´t have had a worse card, any other card than specifically the 2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and 5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] I would have raised. But the combined possibility of both the straight and the FD made me go for the overcalls on the river,this might seem inconsistent with the reasoning on the Turn but both draws on the river made me hesitate...

Now I don´t think I played this perfectly,far from it. But it´s a line I think is reasonable. On the flop I don´t even think it´s close. Turn can definitely be argued to raise. And also the river.
But to assume that raising is always the preferred choice I think is wrong. don´t take me wrong I have a very high aggression factor. But sometimes being passive can give you even more action than being aggressive would have.

And about the overcards post. I never said anywhere in that post that my raise was because I wanted to "protect my hand", I frankly don´t know where you got that from. On the contrary if you read my original post you can see that I Imply that my raise was made partly because of the possibility of getting a free card...