TT, rate my play.

[bobhalford]

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Then you decide on the flop to slowplay your strong, but vulnerable hand. You have little information about your opponents' likely holdings, which makes post-flop decisions more difficult.

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Hi Bob-

I think your right preflop, but on the flop I don't think so. Even though we know little of MP's hand range, we can narrow UTG fairly well, and the BB's likely hands also fit into a narrower range than random. Even had we raised preflop, we might be able to narrow the BB's and UTG's hands a little more but that information isn't that much of an improvement. Would we be able to narrow MP's hand with a preflop raise? Well if he folds then yes, but if he calls, or reraises? He still looks like an open book to me.

Good players entering the pot in full games UTG, says quite a bit.

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Hi slavic - You make a good point. UTG's bet is worrisome, but would be much more to worry about if paint had fallen on the flop. Sets like 99 and 88 are betworthy of course, but what else? All I can see is JT or JTs, or something like two big spade cards. Certainly he is not betting out with 77 and below. He is tight and passive (not sure if passive means preflop or postflop, but I'll assume postflop) so I don't see anything on this board that UTG beats on the flop other than the 3 available sets. Would not raising allow hero to charge his opponents for their draws and acquire more information (will UTG just call or 3-bet a raise? If he 3-bets, then hero figures that UTG is not on a draw since he is a passive player and would not be aggressive with a come hand...however, JT of spades might be a hand that he can be aggressive with since he has a zillions outs...anyway there aren't that many combinations of JT).

So maybe it's not a big deal either way. Waiting for the expensive street might be a good idea, since hero can raise when a blank falls and force his opponents into making a mistake by calling the raise. But what if a spade or A/K/Q hit? A flop raise might convince the others to check to him on the turn when a bad card comes. Then hero can check behind and avoid a possible checkraise. Then just call a river bet if he thinks he's good 1 in 10 times or whatever the odds are.

I'm interested in this hand because I'm the type of player that likes to get my money in when I think I have the best hand. I wonder how much I am giving up by not waiting until the turn. I wait for the turn when I have a set, but not TT on a board consisting of cards lower than a T.

[Bob T.]

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Now as for BobT's original decision preflop, I'm sure he was of the mind that "hey I have a nice hand, I should raise here, however UTG's range of hands really isn't something I like, MP isn't leaving, I'm not really comfortable with that raise now, but I darn sure can't fold. OK I'll compromise and call." That compromise play seems to almost always be wrong.

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On the flop. I was concerned that the tight passive players bet meant that I was behind, and even if I was ahead, I wasn't going to get the most equity by raising here, because noone was going to leave, except maybe the BB, who as a fairly tight player, would probably fold most hands for one bet that he would fold for two. I didn't think that I could increase my equity by raisng on the flop by as much as I could be raising the turn.

On the turn, things went wrong. My plan was to raise the likely bet by UTG and call by MP, but MP raised. Even though MP is a fairly loose player, he was rational, and he probably realized that UTG's bet on the flop and turn meant something, and MP's raise here in a three way pot, means that he can beat top pair. I'm only just better than top pair, and this seems like a good time to throw my overpair away, but I didn't. I followed through with my plan, and threebet the apparently safe card. (Well it was safe, it didn't improve either of the hands that were already ahead of me [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).

I think that MP really should have capped this turn, but he didn't.

The river plays itself, I think its interesting that MP bet out on the river after he called on the turn.

One side note, is that both of my opponents impressed me afterward, because they didn't comment on my play on this hand.

I think that if I raised either preflop, or on the flop, I probably could have gotten away from the hand correctly based on the likely turn action.