[DcifrThs]

james,

what happened to hand reading? did it just fall by the wayside b/c you decided to take a shot? imagine you're in a 10/20 game and the same thing happens...do you check the turn and give this mand a freebee to make his flush or open ended draw?

i think this flop play by the sb is directly out of SKP's hand reading essay. preflop raiser is directly to the left of man-with-draw he checks hoping to build a pot to support his draw by c-r'ing. you thwart him by 3betting exactly as SKP says you should.

but then you switch your read on him to him having a 9 when it pairs on the turn? if you're really looking for those monsters under the bed i think you just found them. you must bet this turn as he likely has a straight or a flush draw and there are a TON of them out there and he played it EXACTLY as if he had what you thought (on the flop at least) that he had. just to go a little further: if he had a nine why would he c-r? hed bet INTO you hoping you'd raise and knock out the other guys right?

in any case bet the turn.

when the river falls a spade after you checked the turn you've basically said, " i have no intnetion of betting this river". if he had the flush he wouldn't try for a checkraise so you should value bet. BUT, for the life of me, i can't think of a draw that has a pair here that will call.

if you think he'll call you down with ace high then do it but it seems unlikely so the river bet is real thin. paper thin. nano-fiber paper thin b/c what would he call with?

so in sum the turn is the only spot in the hand in which i think a bet is 100% required. all the others are raises.

-Barron