Re: results
Collectively, the field is hot on his tail; he needs to knock people out and/or punish their draws.
True. He does need to punish the drawing hands. How is this best accomplished? And how can he knock people out? Many players would wait until the turn to raise, assuming that after your check-raise you'd lead the turn. So if he smoothcalled the flop then he could raise the turn. Problem is the callers are between the two of you and his raise will not push anyone out, even on the turn. Also, by waiting until the turn, he's given away a card that might help someone make a hand. So a turn raise, instead of his raise coming before two cards, comes before one.
Also given his position, a preflop raise simply announces he has a hand, but really won't push many people out...certainly none of the callers will fold, and one of the blinds will probably stay in as well. But it would build a pot. Now by not raising preflop, who can put him on AA when he raises the flop? He's encouraging people to stay in the hand too long after the flop. This can be a good thing.
I think it was a good alternative to raising preflop. Now it will be harder to put him on a hand when he calls in the future too.
-Scott
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