Ok, Just Tell Me “Don't Fold” and I'll Move On

[shipitfish]

Here's another one of these. I am only even considering I made a mistake because the player in question was extremely tight.

In a $1/$2 NL HE $200 Max online, 10 players, the hijack seat limps, cutoff raises all-in for $8.50. I reraise to $25-to-go (having started the hand with $250) from the SB with K K. An Ultra-Tight player in the BB (who has me covered) smooth-calls and the limper folds. I have Ultra-Tight on QQ or AA, maybe AKs, but he probably folds even the latter 90% of the time in that spot.

The flop is A K Q. I check with the intention of raising, since I know he probably flopped a set. He bets $20, I raise to $100, and he goes all in and I call immediately, expecting to either see a set of queens or of aces. It's aces.

I should never, ever consider just betting out and being done with the hand if he stays in the pot, right? I should try to get the money in, right?

Man, playing poker this many hours yields set-over-set too often. :)

Comments

Re: yeah...

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

I'm coming to that conclusion as well. I see people check-raise only when they flop sets all the time and get no action because it's obvious they have a big hand. The fundamental thing is that people just don't give much action in NL HE unless they have at least a strong top pair, so you might as well bet into them with something bigger to entice them to play such a holding too hard, rather than get that one little continuation bet out of them when they miss the flop and fold to your check-raise.

It contrasts so much with limit HE, where you check-raise all the time to kill the pot odds behind you and get heads up with the bettor. Indeed, you often do this in limit when you know you are beat to increase your pot equity by forcing hands like middle pair and an overcard to fold. I am still intrigued so often that limit HE and NL HE look so much alike but actually have almost nothing to do with each other.

Re: yeah...

[swolfe.livejournal.com]

i should point out that i'm primarily talking about on the flop. i check-raise the turn in NL all the time, but that's a different situation and still most of the time more value is gotten by betting than check-raising.

Re: yeah...

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was talking about the flop also. Usually, when I check-raise the turn in NL HE, it's because I got raised on the flop and I expect my opponent to bet enough that he'll be pot committed to call when I check-raise.