[polarbear]

I was your opponent on hands 1 and 3.

Hand #1:

I noticed I was near break-even at 5-10 pokerstars, looked at my hand histories, and noticed I was losing lots of pots open-raising from blind-steal position with big cards after folding to a BB checkraise. I asked about this on 2+2, and the knowledgeable posters gave me the simple solution to check the turn with no pair. Now, I do this when I have position and I think the other player in the pot is capable of pulling such a play, perhaps too much.

In other words, I just about couldn't have AQ or AK. I thought you had something similar to what you had, maybe a pair and a flush draw, or a pair and a gutshot, or something like that, with the small possibility of a set. I don't remember what I had, except that it was something good that I considered it unlikely but possible you could have my hand beat.

From experience, I've learned correctly or not, reraising "to make the draw pay" in this situation is not the right play. Why? Let's look at the two cases, the draw hitting on the river, and the draw missing on the river.

If the draw misses, and I just call on the turn, I'll still collect the second bet on the river when the draw continues the bluff, and maybe a third bet if I raise the river. If I raise the turn, I'll collect two bets on the turn, but nothing on the river when the draw check-folds.

Now if the draw hits, I'll see it's possible, and I won't raise the river. I'll lose two bets if I call the turn and two, three, or four bets if I raise the turn.

So, there's nothing to be gained by raising the turn, and I just called. Of course, this all assumes the semi-bluff draw plays standard strategy, always betting the river regardless of what comes if just called, and not trying anything funny on the river when missing if raised on the turn. If you didn't play standard strategy, then I underestimated you.

Hand #3: I don't "always" raise when you limp in. However, there is a special situation I think you were refering to that I'm far more liberal in what I raise with. It's when you open-limped in late position, and I wanted to play my hand. I had a small pocket pair that didnt make a set that hand, 55 or 66 I remember. Knowing how to play those hands postflop when rags flop and they miss the set is a weakness in my game. To be honest I really didn't know what you had preflop, except that it wasn't a bad hand. Folding on the river, as well as calling the turn and flop, could have all been big mistakes.

Well done making a hand drawing nearly dead pay big.

Hand #2: Didn't the third club come on the turn and the board pair on the river? I remember it was likely that the weak-tight BB, who sometimes was tricky with good hands on the river, had a boat, but that the nut flush was possible. Considering that the BB could have the nut flush and not be bluffing, folding the smallest boat for 1 BB in a 14 BB pot would be a bad play.