[Fabian]

It's interesting because I was sweating a friend of mine earlier today and this situation came up. He had TT with the flush draw and I tried to explain the things you should consider here.

I can't remember the exact details of the hand, but the board was unpaired and a lot more scary than this board, so I said I thought a check was in order, because a checkraise would put him in a very tough spot on the river when the flush draw missed.

Later I was playing myself, with my friend sweating me, and again this came up, this time I had 88. Here's the hand.

Partypoker 5-handed, Hero is UTG with 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Hero raises, 3 folds, BB calls

Flop (4.5 SB) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

BB checks, Hero bets, BB calls

Turn (3.25 BB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

BB checks, Hero checks


This is almost identical with the first hand my friend played. You want to avoid getting check raised here, because if the river blanks you don't really want to call the river bet, but you get 8.25 to 1 and it's very possible you have the best hand.

The river was the 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], BB bet out and I called.

Your hand, however, is a lot stronger than mine was. Without having to make a difficult decision on the river, the check raise isn't nearly as troublesome. This is a bet.