[elonkra]

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First Question: Is the preflop check weak or proper, in light of my poor position?

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depends. it's early, your out of position and if you don't know your opponents, then i'd say it's probably fine IF you have the discipline to play a tricky flop.

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Second Question: What is the proper move when the SB makes a pot-sized bet into you? For what it's worth, I min-raised to see where I was at, and he called.

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... and there's the tricky flop. what exactly does the min raise accomplish? if SB is semi-bluffing on a straight draw, he still has proper odds to call your min raise. funny that you don't mention the two other players that limped PF that are still left to act, because i would probably be more concerned about them than the SB in this scenario. they are the ones with position in this hand, and even though your min raise gave them 2:1 pot odds [t160 call into t320 pot], their implied odds with position is huge. I think that if you want to raise the SB, it should have been more, if only to price him out of a draw.

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Third Question: When the turn brings a 4 for a board of J974 (still no flush draw) and the SB makes another small bet into you ($80 again), what is the proper move? For what it's worth, I min-raised again, and he called.

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start of the turn the pot is t320. his t80 bet plus your t160 raise means he has to call t80 into a t560 pot to see the river. you priced him in again. if you're going to raise here, you really should have popped it hard.

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Final Question: When the river brings a Q for a board of J974Q and the SB checks it to you, what is the proper move? For what it's worth, I checked and took it down (he mucked, so I assume he had Jrag. No way I should've bet that river, right?

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i check behind here and hope that my min raises on the flop and turn didn't let him catch his draw and cost me the pot.

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Thanks for taking the time to give such a thorough response. It's becoming more and more obvious to me that I have no idea what I'm doing.