Free Showdown

[The Goober]

Q,

I too, suck at applying the free showdown raise, although I often bet the turn hoping to take a free showdown.

In either case, these are the things that I look for:
-a passive enough opponent to let me get away with it
-some showdown value (obvious)
-some fold equity (not strictly necessary, but it's nice)
-a decent chance of improving on the river (so I have the choice of going 2/3 bets when I improve and 1/2 bets when I don't)

Usually this means something like middle pair with some sort of draw.

In this hand, you have very little fold equity (he'll almost never lay down a better hand), if you are behind you only have 3 dubious outs to improve, and you you could easily get him to lay down a worse hand that he would have fired with again on the river.

how about this line?

raise the flop, bet the turn and check the river. wouldnt' that accomplish the same thing with .5 bb less?

[Aces McGee]

[ QUOTE ]
He's not folding much of anything, and most things I don't even want to fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like a good reason to raise to me.

-McGee

[AL5AcE]

From my belief, the free showdown raise is used when you have a mediocre hand that you're going to call down anyway and have fold equity. Then you might be able to cause an opponent to improperly fold his hand on the turn while expending the same 2 BBs to see the showdown, making the turn raise the superior play.

Another benefit is that next time you have a strong hand with position, your opponent may be obligated to call your turn raise with something mediocre fearing that you may be going for the free showdown.

I wouldn't consider this hand a free showdown play since villan isn't folding much of anything and you have a better than average hand. In this case I will probably bet the river depending on what comes. I like raising the flop and betting the turn.

[Shillx]

You suck at free showdowns and I suck at retyping old posts.

Post 2


Post 1

Here are my thoughts. The one post doesn't read very well, but hopefully this makes sense.

So yeah I don't really like the raise in this spot unless you plan on betting the river UI. Just flat calling down works a lot better in this spot when none of the above are true.

[QTip]

Thx Shillx.

[brettbrettr]

I don't really like this much. The fsd is much better when you pick up a draw to go along with your hand. If you hit, you can bet again on the river. If you miss, you can check.

[DMBFan23]

Qtip,

personally, I use the free showdown in situations where a draw is a significant part of my opponent's range, so he's forced to call but can't really get too jiggy with me as far as 3 betting or stop and going. here, if he does have a worse draw like a gutshot, he may fold it to your raise when he may have bluffed the river, or he may take that same angle with a worse pair when he would have value bet. Having the chance to fold some better hands would help, but I don't see that here. all IMO of course.

EDIT: I would probably just call all the way

[QTip]

DMB:

I like calling all the way too.

However, what you're saying about the part where opponent has draw clashes with what another here has said about the play being about having folding equity. If you're opponenet can't fold, this doesn't apply.

[bobbyi]

Dude got a free flop from the BB and then checked the flop. The percentage of the time he has a legitimate piece of the board with a real hand like JT is pretty small.