PREFLOP
why are you limping from MP1 with this hand? it's not really horrible, but i don't like playing these kinds of hands OOP without being the aggressor. if the pot gets raised behind you you're playing a relatively weak hand out of position in a potentially big pot. that's usually a recipe for disaster. that said, it's not so bad if the table is passive pre-flop, plus you have some implied odds, and you have good position relative to the raiser. still, i prefer raising pre-flop (for deception/controlling the betting) or folding to just limping. paul phillips has a motto on his blog: "loose limps sink chips." there's often a lot of truth to that.
I'll normally limp with this type of hand with 2 other limpers. In this case I was feeling a little frisky (so limped with only one other limper). Once everybody else called the raise, I was getting good odds so I called the raise. Had nobody else (or only 1 other person) called the raise, I'd have folded preflop.
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FLOP
why bet into the raiser here, especially when the ace hit and he, or someone else, probably hit their hand? you really don't want to get reraised in this spot, as that would bloat the pot and knock all the other players who might overcall out, yet that's a real possibiltiy if someone has AK, AJ, or a set. what exactly is this bet here meant to accomplish? semibluffs derive their value from the combination of pot equity + fold equity, but you have zero fold equity here. no ace is folding for a bet of less than half the pot. i would advise waiting until you have position to semibluff. but if you are going to semibluff, you need to bet more. or you could check-raise. but this bet doesn't knock anyone out who has a better hand, doesn't define anyone else's hand so you can get a read (some players might even peel with a jack or KQ here, or someone could be slowplaying a big hand ... you have no idea), doesnt clean up outs (by knocking out other club draws), doesn't win you position for the rest of the hand, and will get reraised a decent percentage of the time. that's all bad.
Seems the flop bet is unpopular. I was attempting to do two things at once. First was a bit of a blocking bet -- I wanted to name my price for the draw. Two, I actually wanted to get some money in the pot in case I hit the flush. I figure most hands that raise here won't be able to beat my flush. So, depending on the size of the raise, I can choose to either fold or call and hope to catch. I figure any other flush draws are happy to get the cheap price to call. The fact that I didn't get raised here indicates there are other flush draws out there (given the board, I doubt there are any straight draws), which is why I think my river (and probably turn) plays are bad.
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TURN
as played so far, the turn has to be c/r all-in. you made your hand but there are probably redraws against you, so you need to get value now before the river comes and either puts you behind or kills your action. if someone has a higher flush, you'll have to live with it. plus, any raise you make leaves you pot-committed, so you might as well get it all in the middle now while your hand is probably good.
At these levels I really think the size of raise I put in pushes out anything other than a made flush and a set. Given that there were no raises on the flop, I think there is a decent chance others were on the flush draw, and given how low my flush is, a c/r all-in just puts all my money in with the worst of it. I'd rather get re-raised and have to make the decision. Other small flushes will probably only call my raise instead of re-raising (for fear of the bigger flush). I'd generally expect the nut flush to re-raise here.
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RIVER
you're probably beat, but getting about 6.5:1 you have to call.
I think I'm only getting 4.5:1. In any case, I was absolutely certain I was beat at this point based on the play on previous streets (not to mention the board paired just in case the set called the check/raise). I'm willing to concede the other streets could have been played smarter, but I still think the river call (given the way the hand played out) is the worst mistake here.
I hate the turn. A check/raise just gets more money in when you're beat, and knocks players out of the hand when you're behind. At this level, I'd say just leading it is probably the best play with a c/c being a close second.
The check/raise seemed like a good idea at the time. However, in hindsight, I think I like the check/call line better, particularly since I'll be last to act after the pre-flop raiser.
QUOTE
Oh yeah, the flop bet sucks too. You're really telegraphing your hand by betting less than half the pot. If you want to try to take the pot down, make a real bet, and if you want to get a cheap turn, then just check.
Addressed this part in a response to coremiller. Short version -- I was trying to make a blocking bot while also getting a little extra money in the pot if the flush came in.
Do you dislike leading at your draws in all circumstances, or do you just like the fact that the bet is so weak?
0
, 7 
, 2 
(3 players)
