[Sasnak]

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With the 2 hearts flopping there really is no way to protect my premium pair from the flush draw. According to SSHE it is correct to go for a check raise when a single bet won't do it.

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Rut roh. Misapplication of concepts off the starboard bow!

Yes, you can utilize the check/raise to protect your hand, however:

1) As you noted you are not going to protect your hand from flush draws. ANY flush draw will and should call (or raise) the flop facing 2 cold. Check/raising flush draws will not force them out of the pot.

2) You cannot check/raise when you do not know where the bet will come from. This is very important. There was no 3-bet preflop, therefore you cannot count on anyone else to be the aggressor in this hand. Going for a check/raise and giving a flush draw infinite odds is way worse than just betting yourself.

3) When you cannot protect your hand, as you cannot in this case because you are out of position and have no angle for a CR, you MUST BET FOR VALUE. SSH stresses this at every opportunity, but a lot of people only run through the protection part without realizing the situations in which you can successfully protect your hand are few at these limits, compared to the situations where you must bet for value.

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The river play was bad looking back. A check call was in order. Isn't the pot getting a bit big to be folding for one bet on a check/call. Leading was poor but I was pushing it.

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I highly disagree with this. Leading the river was the correct play.

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Sh*t!

Now that you've brought that up it hit me. I was thinking on one plane of protecting my hand - trying to implement that strategy. And completely never thought of the section on how to play a flush/straight draw. He specifically mentions not giving it up on the flop so there is no way I could protect it.

Thanks Kai.

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I hope YOU haven't been laying down flush draws to 2 bets cold, or you're definitely not making as much money as you probably could =/.

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No... I pump and call then miss. That's my line! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

But I'm working on protecting, raising to clean and get a free card if needed and the ever elusive river value bets.