Showing Trips

[eOXevious]

I was playing 7 card stud last week at the casino. $1 bring in and a $1-$5 limit. I had split 7s on the deal, on 4th street I paired the 7's I check raise with my trip 7's so 3 other people call the raise, so I would say the pot was around $45-$50, I don't remember exactly. Anyways, 5th street comes and I hit another 7. So I had four 7's, I bet $5 and everyone folds. Do you think I should have just checked the trips showing? I was playing with a few loose players, and a few good players. All three people were pretty loose and called my check raise, after the hand I showed them the four 7's and everyone said that the check raise when I had trips was pretty good.

[Andy B]

Check-raising on fourth may not have been your best move. It should tip your hand. Also, low-limit players aren't very aggressive, so it may well get checked around. If you bet out, it looks natural, and you should get action. And who knows, maybe someone will raise anyway.

Having check-raised fourth, the chance of you getting any further action when you make open trips is diminished. If you check, it should look very suspicious. I've had people call my open trips with straight draws, flush draws, two smaller pair, you name it. You can't know if they'll call unless you bet.

If there's a jackpot in this game, you might check it if you think someone has a reasonable chance at making a jackpot hand. Even there, people will generally call you with smaller trips anyway. The jackpot shouldn't really be much of a consideration 99+% of the time though. If your hand were (77)J77, I would definitely be betting.

[Alex/Mugaaz]

Ditto what Andy said. In low limit games vs avg people there is almost never a reason to give free cards. If they have any draw they'll call anyway, the hands that are going to fold are going to be something like one small pair no draw or just random card hands. Also you have an almost unbeatable hand, you want to bet in the hopes of someone has something like 8's or better full that goes to war with you.

[bholdr]

This might be a good situation to check in an attempt to induce a bluff, but even really small stakes players generally won't bet into exposed trips- maybe slowplay a bit and hope somebody makes eights full or something. there is no reason, IMO, not to give a free card here.

[IronDragon1]

Ditto what poker players infinitely better than I said about how the hand went down in and of itself.

On a similiar note-though it has been said several times before-check raising in such low-limit games probably isn't the best move as virtually all players are just there to "have fun". Check raising-and other things which give you away as a semi-aware player-will tend to kill the action which may well have the effect of killing your profits.