Raise with a 4 flush?

[numeri]

Pre-flop, I'd want another caller before cold-calling. It isn't horrible, but you can easily be dominated - particularly by an UTG raiser.

On the flop, you absolutely need to raise. You have TP with a decent kicker and a FD. You may have the best hand, so you'd like to drive out random overcards and small pairs. If you do get callers, you're not terribly concerned because you have the flush draw.

[deception5]

[ QUOTE ]
IMO the flop call is terrible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. You must raise this.

[BatsShadow]

I'm not looking at protecting here, I'm looking at equity. If you flopped this flush draw, you'd be trying to make the pot as big as possible, but now you have a flush draw and top pair, making even more safe cards for you.

I suppose a flaw in my thinking (and something I missed) is that the pot is already big and so you should try to protect it.

The more I look at this, the more I think raising is better, because they might call anyway.

[afk]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not looking at protecting here, I'm looking at equity. If you flopped this flush draw, you'd be trying to make the pot as big as possible, but now you have a flush draw and top pair, making even more safe cards for you.

I suppose a flaw in my thinking (and something I missed) is that the pot is already big and so you should try to protect it.

The more I look at this, the more I think raising is better, because they might call anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since hero got to the flop he absolutely has to raise it. Don't worry about equity, this is .25/.50 - you'll still get called on your flop raise as well.

I'd usally fold this preflop. If you think UTG is too loose, then the call is OK, I guess.

This flop is about as good as it can get for you. If you don't like it, why are you in the hand? I'd raise this every time.

The rest is fine.

[Hoss1193]

Preflop cold-call questionable, unless you have a read on UTG as unusually loose and/or position-ignorant.

Raise on the flop is crystal-clear. Top pair and good flush draw, the pot is already large, no need to build it. The only thing you're worried about is UTG holding AA, KK, AQ, or KQ. Granted, he DID raise UTG, so these are real possibilities. As the hand played out, only AA or KK would have wound up beating you...even bad players probably wouldn't have cold-called with a 3, unless they held 33 or maybe A3s...

Just out of curiosity, how did this hand end up? Given that neither SB or UTG raised on river, I assume that neither of them had the 3....was there an overpair to your Q?

[BatsShadow]

One of the hardest concepts for me to consistently remember is that protecting doesn't mean make people fold. It means making it unprofitable for them no matter what. If they fold to your protection raise they forfeit their chance of winning, if they call they are losing money because the odds do not allow them to call. All in all, you'd probably rather have them call in the long run.

Sorry for my bad advice. Even after two posts my thoughts on this kept changing and I realized that despite my advice, I would have raised this [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I'm glad that we have this forum where we can learn from each other and from each other's mistakes.

[Mr. Zero]

[ QUOTE ]
First, I'd fold this pre-flop.

Second, I'd raise it up on the flop. You want to give your queens the best chance of holding up if the flush doesn't come in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep.