[sucka]

Bet the flop. You don't have an overcard so if indeed you are playing against someone who's got pocket 7's you are drawing dead - unless of course, you hit a 1 outer and a 5 pops up.

If indeed he is full on the flop he's not going to put too much pressure on you just yet - at least, not if he knows even a smidgen of how to play this game. If you get raised on the flop I'd definitely check-raise on the turn when your magic 4 appears.

Don't play so weak-tight and stick your lone loose-aggressive opponent on hands that beat you or have you dominated. He probably has a pocket pair bigger than 7's and is trying to figure out where he is in the hand - in addition to getting some $$ in the pot figuring he has the best of it here. He can be sure if he gets check-raised or raised on the turn that he's probably behind to a 5 and now if he indeed is holding an overpair he's looking at a 2 outer to win the hand.

The short of it is - this is not a hand to slowplay and give free cards away to your opponents. Take advantage of his aggressiveness and get more money into the pot.

It's probably marginal between re-raising the flop and just calling. You didn't make a bad decision to just call but given the fact that he calls you all the way down it makes you rethink your decision to not pop it for one more on the flop. Your call on the flop was fine - I probably wouldn't have re-raised either as I think a 3 bet here pretty much gives your hand away. I'd save it for a check raise on the turn. How could he think that that ugly 4 helped you? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

As for the second hand...

You don't really give enough information here as far as position goes so I'll just guess on a couple things...

I would bet the flop here. Against 6 you are guaranteed to get many callers - particular those playing hands like QJ or JT who are tied to their draws - you don't mention any flush draws but presumably someone may have middle pair with an Ace overcard and a runner flush chance or something. You are going to get people to peel one more off anyway on the cheap street - so you might as well get your bet in there early and hope that someoneone raises it up for you and gets you a few cold callers. Always be thinking about how to get money into the pot - NOT trying to disguise your hand all the time. An early bet by you doesn't throw a flag up that you have top 2 pair. Get the money in the pot while you have the best of it and hope you get someone to play back at you.

Now, without knowing position and such it seems like your check raise on the turn was a really bad move. Did your checkraise here limit the field on you? If so, why on earth would you do that? Why would you not want lessor hands to call in this situation. It's nearly impossible that anyone at the table has a better hand than you (only thing that beats you here is someone holding pocket Q's). Let them call - don't run them out of the pot.

Your closing thoughts show some very fuzzy thinking on your part.

"I didn't want to bet from the early position because I wanted to see if there was a set out there and I knew it wouldn't make it around the table without at least one bet."

What on earth does that mean? So, if you check and one person bets that means they have a set? Why do you always put someone else on a better hand before you even give them a chance to say anything about it. BET here - there is a very good chance you have the best hand in this spot. Even if you don't you still have outs to make a better hand so BET YOUR DAMN HAND AND HOPE THAT PEOPLE CALL OR RAISE. Not only does your bet do more to define your hand but it allows you to get a better read on what your other opponents might be playing. Simply check calling all the time will get you lost and you will have no idea where you stand.

I guess my mistake here, even though it worked out, was not blowing him and everyone else out early so that didn't draw out on me.

What???? Don't you realize that YOU have a pretty damn strong draw yourself here? Not to mention that there's a really good chance you have the best hand here? Your AQ friend is drawing to 3 outs to beat you while you have 4 to get even bigger.

Don't be so passive - get aggressive when you flop hands like this - they don't happen all that often. Bet, raise, define your hand, work on reading your opponents - and not just sticking them on one of 2 or 3 hands that beats you everytime.