[soda]

Yes, I disagree with raising this flop. Although our hero wants to see the flop capped, he doesn't want to be the one to do it.

My first reason was because I did not want to knock anyone out, so I'll start here and add a few more.

1) It is three bets to our hero in the SB. He can smooth call or make it four. Making it four bets causes the BB to now call 4 cold instead of 3. UTG must now call 3 cold instead of 2. Also, an out of position re-reraise means much more and will get more respect than a reraise from late position.

2) Building on that last notion. Our hero's out of position 4 bet is likely to get a lot of respect. The betting *may* shut down now if a heart falls on the turn and our hero checkraises or bets. This is even more true if our hero is viewed as the tight player at the table.

3) Fourbetting here defines our hero's hand and keeps him from getting information from other players. After an out of position four bet, his hand can be put into two categories, big hand or big draw. Unless, of course, our hero is viewed as an idiot. Then, he should just go ahead and raise. I don't think this is the case.

4) This flop is very likely to be capped anyway, without help from our hero. In this instance it wasn't, but only because the set of fives made a strange play.

I suppose it really doesn't matter too much, but I'm always trying to maximize the money I can win. I think smoothcalling and then checkraising is the path I'd have chosen. Actually, I'd have likely bet the flop out of the gate too.

soda