20-40 hand

[elysium]

hi j.a.

i think you can let it go on the turn j.a. there just isn't enough in the pot to warrant a call hoping to spike. if you think your opponent has AQ, he doesn't. he will almost always have a weak K or have picked up 2 pair or better when they are bad and bet like this. you're beat here j.a. you won?! you won? o.k., o.k.

that's right j.a., of course you won. when is the last time you posted a loss that didn't have you mucking earlier than you should have. yes, you win here. the thing is j.a., as you know, you are, more often than pot odds, going to lose these to the bad player who wouldn't know to pull a move. obviously this is a bad aggressive or bad tricky who would make this kind of play on the turn.

he was bad/ tricky, right? i thought so j.a. i admit, i thought as much here.

[elysium]

hi j.a.

the check on the flop is fine. i hope you played solidly after this one j.a. no one will be messing with you for a while.

[Coilean]

I played a hand similar to this a few days ago, and I played it the same as you or Gabe, except the turn bettor had top set and 3-bet me, but paid off my river raise when I hit the gutshot [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]. Were you planning on taking a free showdown? (I was, but I had reason to suspect my opponent could have top pair or better before the 3-bet happened).

I agree with you RE: checking the flop. I would understand betting with 2, maybe 3, opponents, but 5 seems too many not to expect someone was going for a check raise against the maniac on your right a fairly high percentage of the time. It is much better to see the turn for free than for 2 bets, seeing as how you would often call a raise getting 15:1 or better (particularly if you would close, or nearly close, the flop action), unless it went 3 bets, shutting you out of the hand completely (which would be even worse).

Considering the 6 on the river just reduced the number of hands which beat you, would you have bet if he had checked to you on the river in this hand? I might change my mind about a free showdown here, had that been my plan on the turn. That decision probably comes down to a judgement call of how often you think he would check raise, and whether he might do so with a worse hand than yours often enough to necessitate a call of the check raise.

[J.A.Sucker]

I planned on taking the free showdown, and the 6 didn't really change things for me. In fact, when it hit, he bet out so confidently, I actually felt like he did have me beat the whole time, so paradoxically, it was a "bad" card, though it did induce a bluff from him, so I can't complain.