I've now moved from FR to SH NLHE. I'm currently clearing a bonus on HoldemPoker (150% up to $150). Enough background... onto the hand. Actually... one more bit. I've been at the table for about 20 minutes, playing a good amount of hands since it was 5-max, and often raising PF. I often would take down pots with simple c/bs. The hand prior to this one, I raised from the CO with KJs. Only the BB calls. He's new to the table, so no reads yet. The flop came 842 rainbow and BB leads into me with a little more than half pot bet. I decide to give this one up. Next hand...

UTG I raise TT. Only BB calls (was SB last hand).

Flop:
BB leads with a 1/4 pot bet, a standard weak lead bet that I often would raise with nearly any two cards. This time, I think BB has decided "he gives up hands easy when you take a shot on the flop", and proceeded accordingly. I only called with my top set.

Turn:
Bad card. He bets about half pot. I call. I'm not going anywhere.

River:
Once again he fires, but this time about quarter pot. I still call.

He turns over KJo and my set takes down the pot. If I raised on any street, he would have been done with the hand and I would have lost out on his weak bets. Against reasonable players, not weak bet to river with crap players, I should have played this hand differently. I should have AT LEAST raised on the river. I couldn't argue against raising the flop or turn either. I'm still playing a little scared because of my run with FR NLHE lately. At least I'm not folding my set here!

I'm not used to 5-max NLHE, but I did have a brief stint with 6-max LHE, so I have a good idea of what hands to raise in what positions at least. I also know that other players will be making moves more often, and I'll be involved in more marginal situations where I have to call down with worse holdings.

I usually would raise with top set on a board like that. He could be drawing to straights, overcards, flushes, who knows. And this is 5-max, and I've been extremely aggressive at this table, so he knows my raise could mean much more than "big hand".

I don't like how I played the hand, but it felt great knowing I likely made the most money possible in this specific case. Can't be results oriented though... I still have to shape up and forget about all the silly beats and bad situations.

Be careful cause a lot of times when they weak bet into you like that, they're trying to price themselves in for draws, which hit on the turn...

Yeah, I hated the turn because of that. But it's 5-max and we're headsup, so there's a good chance he's not drawing at that flush.

Like I mentioned, I don't generally play my big hands like this. If I raise pre-flop and hit a monster on the flop, I'm still betting and raising except for a few very rare circumstances (like I posted the other day). Like when I raised pre-flop with AK after a couple limps. The pot ended up 4-way. Flop comes AK4 with two clubs. I bet full pot still and get a short-stack caller all-in.