A post for Tommy Angelo.

[SpaceAce]

Tommy used a lot of words to get to the central point which is: you should have bet the flop. I have limited experience at the $10-$20 level but I think your reasoning was faulty on the flop. You believe the person to your immediate left has a big pair so you decide to go for the check-raise. Now, it would nice to trap the other two players for a bet each but why risk whiffing the check-raise and giving a free card to two limpers/cold-callers when you can bet and possibly get to make it three bets heads-up with the other big pair after he raises and knocks everyone else out? I think check-raising is a great play but something about the dynamics of this particular situation makes it seem like a shaky idea to me.

One very important thing that I think swings the flop decision away from check-raising and toward betting is that you put in the last raise pre-flop. Given the circumstances, I prefer to bet out and hope to get raised.

Edit: By the way, I agree with the informational aspect of betting here but Tommy already covered that so I left it out.

SpaceAce