One for Trix, Nate, Ace-high steal.

[krishanleong]

I've been thinking about this line and one thing I like about it is it make decisions easier. Here is a random hand, not totally similiar but I felt there was a good chance I was ahead because of the flop check.

Krishan

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, MP3 calls, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, Hero checks.

Flop: (2.33 SB) 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, MP3 checks.

Turn: (1.16 BB) T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 bets</font>, Hero calls.

River: (3.16 BB) 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 bets</font>, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 5.16 BB

[Joe Tall]

My opponent showed K8o and MIWG. Thanks for all your responses and replies.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[cartman]

If the BB would always call your preflop raise, I think you have to put him on random cards here (neglecting any assumptions about what he would have 3-bet with preflop). About 32.4% of the time he will have flopped at least one pair. Given that I have an Ace, I think the probability is about 11.8% that he has one also. Let's call it 8.1% that he has a better Ace than A5 (9/13 * 11.8%=8.1%). 5.9% of the time he will have a pocket pair. If we add up these three possibilities we get 32.4% + 8.1% + 5.9% = 46.4%.

That means you are in front 53.6% of the time on the flop. If we made some assumptions about his 3-betting criteria, then we are even more likely to be ahead on the flop. Even if he never ever folds to our bet on the flop, it sure seems like a value bet to me. If he will always raise this flop, so be it. My point is that you're usually ahead on the flop and so you would like to see us each put in 2 small bets instead of 1. Maybe check-raising him would be even better. Maybe betting then 3-betting his raise would be even better than that.

If his raise truly means nothing, then you should embrace it instead of going into check-call mode. I punish players like this relentlessly until they quit playing in this fashion. This is just my .02, and I may be way off base. Please correct me if my thinking is wrong.

Cartman