[kurto]

I just can't agree with this. Even on-line, you should be able to read certain players.

Recent hand where I kicked myself for not listening to myself (as opposed to the people who say never fold a set):

I'm on the button with pocket 8s. A min raise in EP, a ROCK in midposition pushes it up to 8bb. Since we're both full stacked I call. The minraiser calls. Flop comes 8 J Q. Minraiser makes a wussy lead... ROCK checks (which I remember thinking didn't seem what I would expect considering his raise)... I put in a real raise, the minraiser calls it, and the ROCK now checkraises. I told myself, "I knew it... if he had an overpair he wouldn't play it this way." I KNEW he had a higher set and I knew he expected me to call.

Then you hear that oft repeated 2+2 voice.... "never fold a set"... and I grudgingly went against my every instinct AND what I thought was very obvious info being given out.... So I push, minraiser folds and the ROCK insta-calls. Of course he had the top set.

My point... with a rock; considering the raise pf, and the checkraise on the flop (after a bet and a raise)... this was ONLY a set.

For absolute beginners... I would say the 'never fold a set' advice (unless you have a set of 10s on a board of 10JQsuited...) is fine. But for those trying to develop their game, its bad.

The fact of the matter is a lot of people play sets in very predictable recognizeable manners. And a lot of people are very predictable. After playing for awhile, if you can't put certain players definitely on sets once in awhile, then you're not developing proper hand reading skills.