rolled up cowboys

Seat 1 is the bring-in, seat 2 completes with Ad, I'm seat 3 with 3 kings. I got so excited I hit the raise button. I should have just called, right?

Probably, unless you're playing with people who are not thinking players, or seat 2 is LAG.

[MRBAA]

Yes, this is a great spot to just call. Your hand is so strong that you want lots of opponents. Even against four or five, you'll win unimproved frequently. And you've got a strong chance of making a big full house and getting action if someone else has the misfortune to make a str8 , flush or smaller full.

[preiserone]

You should not always just call when you have a hand like KKK, I think you should throw in a raise every once in a while when you have a huge hand unless you have a real good reason to think everyone is going to fold to it.

Worse case scenario the ace was on a steal and you take down the antes, most of the time the ace will call or reraise anyway, paired or not which will still get you a good sized pot.

But, yeah, just calling usually will give you the best shot at building a big pot, but the raise isn't the end of the world.

[frappeboy]

With small trips, fast playing like this is fine. With rolled kings you want to slowplay in this particular spot.

The time you don't slowplay big roll ups is when you are in late position and already have 3 or 4 players limping or calling a raise in front of you, then you should raise since they are all likely to call. Also, you dont slowplay big trips if you are in early position, the table is very loose, and no one has raised yet.

[Andy B]

I will frequently raise here with two Kings, and people call anyway, so why not raise with three Kings. Flat-calling is my default play, but raising is fine.

An excellent reply. Mike Caro would agree with you also as he believes that it is better to raise rolled up trips with high cards becasue it seems like a natural raise and with the smaller trips it looks less natural.

[patrick dicaprio]

you dont say the limits but i think you almost always just call here and try to raise on fifth unless you know he will call your reraise on third and you can still get one in later. often this might be the case at lower limits.

Pat