[elysium]

hi knock

it seems as though the turn check-raise is good. it is not. before check-raising semi-bluffing, you must have a very clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish. a check-raise semi is always a drive-out raise. so driving out must be the main reason for making the raise. of course, before driving out your opponents, you need to be very sure that that is what you want to do. while you don't necessarily need to have a stronger hand fold to make the raise correct, the fewer credible opponents remaining in the hand, the less likely you want a weaker hand to fold. if you were facing just 2 opponents rather than 3, the raise loses a little integrity. you now don't mind A7 of suit taking a swing at you, and if AQ wants to mix it up, that's fine too. you bet. 'i'm betting!', bang, down onto the table a handful of chips. ' and i'm not driving you out.', your chips say. they call that bet; they call.

in this hand, you have 3 opponents. driving out gains credibility. however, you must now, among all the other considerations, understand that every opponent with a made hand will be betting that draw infested board. if you are therefore given an opportunity to make a drive-out check-raise semi-bluff, and that's what they all are, drive-out raises; but if you can drive-out or driveout, little websters doesn't cover this particular word; anyway, if you can, you can't. the reason you can't is because if you could, the action would have had to necessarily been check, check, check, bet, and then back to you, indicating that the MP's are on some type of draw, and one or the other might have a 7 with an outstanding kicker. as you say, overs are also possible. and if you peer deeper still into this tangled mess, you would see yourself picking up a single bet and the pot those times everyone folds, or getting reraised and possibly drawing dead just as often as those times you win the pot. so you lose 2 more bets when reraised by the boat, and lose 2 or more bets those times you are leading, when you win the pot. these figures are not etched in stone and can be jostled into a more palatable configuration. a driveout raise has its good points. when you must violate the general tenet of reserving the check-raise semi-bluff for clear-cut situations that either give your hand the best chance of standing up or folding out a stronger hand that your opponent might reasonably be expected to laydown, you avoid the the tangled web of -ev that isn't at once apparent. in this spot, check-calling is very reasonable. you need to be careful even here though. a check-call can often result in allowing a miracle to slide off that might cost you the whole pot. on this draw infested board, you can expect the river to kill you. and now you enter into the known universe again. and you must betout. 'if he's going to put six in you on the river, you want to put one in him on the turn.'. marlon brando; one-eyed jacks; little dvd.