[naphand]

Good good, plenty of food for thought.

I actually believe, of course, that it is correct ot raise hands like this PF. I do not do it all the time, I suspect the reason I did not do so here was that I was running really horrible and was sick of missing Flops, catching bits and missing yadda-yadda-non-optimal etc. or winning small pots/losing big ones.

People's take on how the other players will react is different to mine. I have found players very likely to fold flops like this to a raise and I figured with BB going all-in I really wanted some extra callers to max the EV.

You are correct though when you say this would have been more easily achieved by a raise PF, the bigger pot would have made calls more likely. BB helped me out by raising so the situation is the same as it may otherwise have been. So PF is irrelevant for this hand - it was raised, so let's put that away now.

I have seen players in these games call single bets with as little as 1 overcard, bottom pair or backdoor draws but rarely 2 cold without a stronger hand. Raising this flop will probably shut out the two limpers and leave me with little extra $$ at SD; I have to believe a call is much more likely to win a bigger pot as the limpers will see BB's bet as a continuation bet or the last chuck of an all-in player. If I raise they have to think hard about whether to call and can fold correctly.

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Not raising the flop did not give you a chance to get your unknown players further tied to the pot in the event that they had a lone or pair hand that is essentially drawing dead.

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The question is, should i try to get two players to make a pretty big mistake or somewhere from 0-2 players to make a huge mistake/correctly fold. A key component is that BB is certain to call and may even 3-bet if I raise - but he may be 3-betting me only. Raising is great if BB 3-bets and they others overcall, but I do not see this happening very often. I want two players in drawing dead who can improve on the Turn/River and commit extra BB. Raising is likely to fail to achieve the extra BB you are suggesting, and looks greedy to me - any calls here are large mistakes already and very profitable for me.

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You're operating under the assumption that these guys are going to overcall you on the turn

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I was hoping they might improve on the Turn and call and/or feel more confident the flush was not out. A raise is probably too much to expect so I am pretty much controlling the shots, surely it is to my advantage for the limpers to see BB continuation betting, rather than me playing aggressively. I agree this starts to smack of slowplaying and there is no reason for this with the pot so big. But I really do not see these guys calling 2 bets each with this board.

I am glad people have expressed opinions that players at $5/$10 will make calls as bad as this, I have seen plenty of it but I cannot say so for flush boards.