A basic KJo hand

[MRBAA]

A definite raise on the button with three blinds behind, to me.

And yeah, I bet the turn, call a raise and call the river. Sure he'll probably show me A4s or AK he didn't raise, but I only have to win about one in 4.5 times to make it worthwhile.

[Luke]

Just to clarify - I'm not sure how or why but the converter misread my hand. There was no poster at all (outside the blinds) and there were 6, not 7, players to the flop. So that made 3 limpers to me on the button with KJo.

2 of those limpers were on the tighter side which led me to just limp but I can certainly understand some posters' desires to raise in this spot.

Luke

[PotatoStew]

[ QUOTE ]
And if you think it is unlikely that you will knock them out with a raise, then you should be less likely to raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but as this hand is presented, what makes you think a raise is unlikely to knock them out? Additionally, if they have a hand that they *should* be folding to a raise, but they don't, isn't that also good to make them pay extra to stay in with a crappy hand out of position?

[MRBAA]

Your hand plays well against two limpers from the button. If these guys are decent, they'd be raising KQ and AK. If they are being tricky with AA/KK, so be it. It's not likely. So you're likely up against hands like 66 or JTs from the limpers, not hands that dominate yours.

Raising can knockout the blinds or make them defend out of position. It's always possible one of them has a big hand, but odds are they don't.

Once you do raise, you can bet the flop if checked to on almost any board -- and you may win on an Ace high flop if no one has an ace.

You can often take a free card on the turn. And you can get away from your hand cheaply on all streets if you miss and there's action.

KJ is a good limp in EP/MP in passive games. But here it's a much better raise, IMHO.

[PotatoStew]

Well said.

[Luke]

Villain folded to my turn bet.

I considered checking behind on the turn, not so much to dodge a CR from a 4 as there's little reason to believe he has one, but to avoid folding weak hands that are drawing slim against me and might improve on the river or decide to take a stab at the pot on the river.

I felt that Villain's range here could be pretty wide when he bet the flop, including worse kings, pocket pairs, a four, and random crap like QTo.

Given that a range, I believed a check was at least worth consideration and wondered what the forum thought - thanks.

Luke

[MRBAA]

unless it's short-handed and hyper aggro, I don't usually get tricky with just top pair.