Paul Kammen's book

[Paul77]

Ok, just a few more comments...

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.


A third-street scenario: low card brings it in for $1, three players call and two fold. You have (JJ)4. The guy behind you has a Ten in the door, and there is only the bring-in after him. The limpers have two Queens and a King. Kammen has you raise here, saying that you want to get the guys behind you out. I consider myself to be a pretty aggressive player, especially when playing $2/4 while quaffing bloody maries. I think that calling in this spot is far superior to raising.

I disagree. Yeah, most of the time they will just call the extra buck. But it's worth a shot. If you bet again on fourth, they'll remember you raised on third and put you on a big pocket pair.

He recommends that if you have a medium pair on third street and haven’t been paying attention, so that you don’t know what the folded cards are, you just fold. I think in that situation you just have to treat the unseen cards as unseen cards. Then again, I don’t watch TV while the cards are being dealt. The cocktail waitresses are another matter.

Rock on. I guess if I was distracted and just had a middle pair, not seeing any of the upcards, I wouldn't want to risk it.

The other is more general. I think low-limit stud players usually leave money on the table by slow-playing rolled-up trips. The main reason to slow-play anything is to encourage action where you would not otherwise have gotten any. Think of the times in a low-limit game where you folded for half-an-hour, raised with an Ace in the door, and got six callers. Is there any reason to slow-play in a game like that?

I actually agree with your criticism here, and tend to play even big rolled up trips aggressively; with the loose nature of most low stakes games, you will get the callers. The book was written 3 years ago, and I'd change that if I were writing it again.