Re: Paul Kammen\'s book
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Kammen says never to raise with three to a flush. I won’t expound on why I disagree with this here, but I’m guessing that most of you are in my camp anyway.
On a draw, I'd rather keep players in, and also limp to see what fourth street brings rather than raise. I'd only raise if I thought I could steal the antes with a big card showing, or consider a raise if I had three big cards for my three-flush.
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I think an Ace or a couple of face cards is plenty, and perhaps not even necessary. Here is a scenario in Sklansky's tournament book, in circumstances where you would play similarly to a cash game: low card brings it in, a Queen makes it a full bet, and four players call. You have 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] with Nines and Sevens live and one spade gone. Sklansky has you raise for value. Now if this is the proper play on a tough tournament table where your secondary possibilities are a bit dubious (I wouldn't be overly excited about picking up a gut-shot myself), it's certainly a proper play in a loose low-limit game where the other players' calling standards aren't going to be nearly so high. If four people limp and you have (A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]) 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] with one heart gone and your big cards live, it is well worth a raise. Assuming the bring-in folds, you will be putting in 20% of the money, and your equity is very likely to be much higher than that. If you're risk-averse and don't like putting in a lot of money early, fine. Just realize that you're not playing optimally.
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