Hand 2: I would definitely check-raise that turn. That's an OK card for you. He most likely had a set on the flop and your passive play has convinced him you don't have much. He hears from me on the flop or perhaps the turn with a check-raise here. Only 57 beats you, there's no flush draw possible, and no reason to believe he has 57 from the way it's gone; he would need something like 257x or 567x in hand, which would be an unusual holding. Look at it from his point of view - you've check-called one bet by the time the turn comes, he'll bet again with a wide variety of hands including a set and perhaps even less as you've shown no strength. Now would be a good time to raise it up, IMO. I would quite often raise on the flop instead, like you said, because there's no flush out, and then lead on the turn unless the board pairs. If it pairs at any point here I check-fold.
Hand 3: Played fine IMO. Some of your outs are likely in the opponent's hand but I'm thinking he will call a small bet if many of them hit so the implied odds give you ample reason to call.
Hand 4: You could raise the flop if no-one else has called and you figure BB is NOT a calling station, but I am very wary of making aggressive raises with such a weak holding; if he calls you're almost done with the hand unless an ace turns. Again, the turn is tricky; if you're supposing an ace or a king wins it for you then you've pretty much got outs to call, though his weak lead bets are suggesting to me he has some sort of draw; it's pretty much impossible to put him on a hand at this point though, and the only way you could do so seems to be to raise, which would be very swashbuckling. I would actually possibly think about raising that river for value and mucking if he raises you back, supposing he can only do so with the broadway, but that would be kind of opponent-specific; you wouldn't wish to if you think there's any chance this opponent would be aggressive enough to raise back with a low set or a bluff, but off the top of my head I can hardly think of ANYONE that aggressive!
Monk
xxxxxStatistics: Posted by Felonius_Monk — Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:47 pm
]]>