Firing the second barrel - a discussion

[sthief09]

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[MarkD]

Time to get back to this thread and at least post the results in case anyone wondered. First I want to thank everyone for providing their thoughts. It's interesting to see different perspectives on these common difficult situations.

Hand 1:
I checked the turn. River was A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and was checked through. My opponent won with 33.

Hand 2:
I checked the turn. River was A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and was checked through. My opponent split the pot with KQo.

Hand 3:
I bet the turn and my opponent check raised and I folded.

I think I played all three hands wrong. In the past my general line would have been to bet in all 3 spots but the day before these hands took place I had thought about this situation a little and decided that when I had a strong draw with some mediocre show down value I would check it through and use the results to help improve my thought process in this spot. I didn't get the as much benefit from this as I had hoped.

But, after reading this thread and pondering it more and more I think I should have bet in hands 1 and 2 and checked on hand 3 and then called a bet on the river. I don't know if this is right though. This thread hasn't really clarified how to play these general situations as I hoped that it had.

Part of the problem with these situations may be that I am playing online (as are most of you) and thus it is very hard to get feedback on how our opponents perceive us. We don't know who's paying attention and who isn't and we also don't have as good of read on our opponents as we would in a live situation. But, there must be something we can do to increase the frequency that we make the correct decision.

When I posted this initially I was kind of hoping that a few of the really strong respected players, or perhaps some of the respected midstakes posters, would have imparted some of their wisdom on us.