Debatable on Every Street, 5-10 PLH

[Riverman]

Pot Limit Holdem, 5-10 blinds. I think its up to me and openraise in the CO with black queens. However, the pot has already been raised to 40 by an ep player, so my raise turns into a call. SB comes along, 3 to the flop. SB is aggresive with both made hands and draws, EP is solid.

Flop comes down Q 4 2 all in hearts. SB checks, raiser bets 75, I call, and SB smooth calls. For SB to smooth call, I am 90% certian that he holds the Ace of hearts. The turn card is the 4 of clubs, giving me top full house. SB checks, EP checks, and I check. River is a seven of spades. SB bets 250, EP thinks and folds, and I raise 300 more.

I took alot of heat for this one, especially checking the turn. I am interested to hear what people think of my play.

[bisonbison]

I think its up to me and openraise in the CO with black queens. However, the pot has already been raised to 40 by an ep player, so my raise turns into a call.

What does this mean in English? How about: EP open-raised to 40, I cold-called in CO with black Queens. Or do you really mean that you weren't paying attention and that you called when you thought you were raising?

Then we can wonder: if you're at the table with an aggressive player who is difficult to read, why would you give him a discount to enter the hand? Why not reraise with pocket queens?

[AJo Go All In]

i think it's very clear what he meant.
he goofed and wasn't paying attention.

also, i would bet the turn, in part because the ace of hearts will probably call a bet on the turn anyway but may give up if the river bricks.

[sam h]

Riverman,

You might as well make a small bet on the turn that prices the others in.

I think the bigger question is whether you should have raised the flop. How big were the stacks?

[Zag]

Except for the mistake preflop from not paying attention, I think you played it fine, though it might have been the minority percentage play. By this, I mean that the check-behind on the turn is something that you should do a certain percentage of the time, and, in this case, that percentage ranges from 10%-90%, and is heavily determined by my opponents' playing styles.

For weak passive opponents, I would bet out something like 90% of the time, just above half the pot. I expect them to call with Ah, but not to bet out on the river whether they make their flush or not.

If the SB (the SB especially, but the EP somewhat) is a bluffing machine, I would check behind, as you did, around 90% of the time. This is based more on the SB because I am hoping that EP, knowing SB bluffs a lot, might try to call him down (and then be very unhappy when I make a big raise behind him).

Note that, if SB is an aggressive bluffer, your play helps a lot on future hands, as well. Now he will be more afraid to bluff at you in cases where you would just like to get to a cheap showdown. Consider if you had held the Kh Kd -- you would probably have called the bet on the flop, checked behind on the turn, and been hard-pressed to call that final bet on the river.

With totally unknown players, I would check behind a little more than 50%. You are only vulnerable to AA, KK, 22, 4x, or a straight flush draw, and nobody has more than two outs, so you can probably afford to give a free card, here. For the far more likely hands that people might have, you would really like to see them improve (to something worse than yours).

I do think your raise on the river was a little low, but that is a style issue. Fundamentally, it should be the same as a bluff you would make in this situation if you found yourself here with the Ah Kc.

I hope that, as they were giving you grief, you pointed out to them that you couldn't hear their comments because the noise of you stacking the chips was drowning them out.

[tewall]

A bet on the turn has a good chance of looking like a steal and is likely to get action. If you hadn't hit the boat, would you have bet? If so, how much? You could bet the same amount you would have bet had you not made the boat.

[turnipmonster]

why didn't you raise the full pot on the river? I liked the turn check.

--turnipmonster

[Riverman]

I should have posted stack sizes. I had about 1100 and both opponents had me covered. I thought a check on the turn was best because a) it would enable me to get more showdowns in the future, and b) it would encourage someone to bluff or bet with an inferior hand that they may have folded on the turn.