A9s vs. turn screwplay

[Nick C]

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Anyways, I don't think there is bs involved here very often.

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One of the first notes I ever made for a player at 5/10 was, "Turn screwplay semibluff." I wasn't involved in the hand that inspired the note, but watching it got me thinking, "Well, I guess this isn't 3/6 anymore."

However, since then the sense I've been getting is that the screwplay usually indicates a strong made hand. Often it seems like sort of a delayed slowplay, along these lines: Villain raises (or 3-bets) preflop and flops top set. Villain bets flop to avoid a highly suspicious flop check and gets a caller or two. Encouraged by this result, Villain then goes for the checkraise on the turn. (I guess more frequently Villain will go for the turn checkraise after getting raised on the flop, but I've also been seeing the screwplay sequence I just described.)

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The problem with this is when the turn does get checked through. It has happened to me a few times and it's irritating when you miss the bets or get outdrawn. Heads up against certain super aggros this line works like a charm the first few times. Then they catch on and when you try it a few hours later your plans get foiled.

And I pretty much have a good, made hand all the time I take this line. But by default in this type of situatino with a hand I'm just threebetting the flop and leading the turn, I feel that it's not worth the risk of losing lots of BB just to possibly with 0.5BB more

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Versus a flop raise, it is disappointing to go for a checkraise only to discover that Villain was raising for a free card or cheap showdown.

Versus a call, there are times when the call means Villain doesn't like his hand a whole lot (or is drawing) and will check behind on the turn. Then there are those times when Villain is planning to pop the turn. We may or may not welcome this turn raise, depending on how strong our hand is, but there are times when a checkraise "works" but a bet/3-bet line would have worked even better.