[MLG]

[ QUOTE ]
If villian is afraid of the flush or the boat (reasonably obvious given his check after leading the whole way) then I believe it is possible he will fold to our push. Otherwise, why check? Does he expect us to check the flush or the boat? If he's going to check-call, he might as well push.



[/ QUOTE ]

The idea that if you are going to call a bet you might as well bet is wrong. There are situations where this is true. Like on the flop when you have a draw and you would be forced to call a push due to the odds it is laying you. In that situation you want to make the bet so that you have folding equity added to the equity you have from the times you hit your draw.

However, the opposite is true when you arrive at the river with a mediocre hand. In that case if you bet you will only get called by hands that beat you, but if you check intending to call, then while you will still lose to better hands you will sometimes tempt worse hands (that would have folded if you had bet) into bluffing.

Moral of the story, dont abide by universal platitudes like if you're going to call a bet its better to bet yourself. In poker, context is everything.