Quote Originally Posted by rdqlus

Do you understand pot odds? If the above is the play you're advocating then you obviously don't. By checking the flop you gave infinite pot odds to an opponent drawing to a flush - that's stupid. Furthermore, there's not really such a thing as a turn "blank" when you don't bet the flop. The 3h may look nice but the guy with pocket 3's who checked behind on the flop now has you bent over a barrel.

This play is terrible on so many levels. What do you do on the river if it's the 4c and he pots it? What if he called with 5h6h? Do you snap off his bluff then? His bet size on the end was terrible but that's the only thing that saved you from your own bad play.

My point is that at the $25NL nearly everyone is terrible. Generally the best approach is to bet out to protect your good hands from draws and to fold to heavy aggression from anyone that you don't have noted down as a maniac.

Not to seem results oriented, but in this hand you would have got more value out of your aces by playing them in a straight forward manner since the flush draw guy would have called a bet on the flop and turn.

mj
I understand pot odds quite well. However I also understand something called implied odds. There are situations where you will have an edge statistically over an opponent (i.e. you will win the hand more times than he over the longer run). But it doesnt just matter who wins the hand, it also matters how much money they get off the other guy when they win as well. He has position on me, and if he hits you have to pay him off whereas if he misses you dont get money from him. So if he wins he gets more money than if I win, so the fact I win more frequently is negated. In these situations, you can actually have odds on someone and still not want to bet, and I believe this is one of those situations.

There are so many draws possible, and I have no idea whether he has hit or not. He could have a pair + flush draw, OESD + flush draw, pair + gutshot + gut shot + flush draw. He could also already have two pair or a set. My point is, betting here causes problems for me, and more likely than not, I'm giving him HUGE implied odds if he does have a better hand than me, and he can back down with little cost if feels his hand isnt good enough. Since top pair (a hand I know I will beat) and middle pair will bet here, I opted for the check-raise instead.