(February 16, 2015 at 2:07 pm)Heywood Wrote: Depends on the spot. Last night I was playing. On my immediate left is an off duty dealer who I would think is very familiar with my play. When ever I raised preflop, he would make it three bets. He has seen me fold quite a few times after raising and getting three bet. Of course with him I adjust by tightening up my raising range and open up my three bet calling range.
Depending on how often you open raise, and how often he three bets you, I'd be considering 4 betting him on occasion as well.
Or, perhaps finding a different table. :p
(February 16, 2015 at 2:07 pm)Heywood Wrote: He and I saw a lot of heads up flops. In virtually every one he would continuation bet. I know what he is doing, he is trying to take advantage of my propensity to fold to a continuation bet. Too counter that, I start check raising him with any draw and any made hand.
Yep, were I in his shoes, I would probably do the same thing (continuation bet a lot of hands when you check). (I'd also be coming over the top of your check raises more frequently than I ordinarily would.) Obviously, you don't want this guy, who has a fair read on your style, to manipulate your game - personally, I don't want someone like that on my left, ever - I want 'em on my right.
Consider mixing it up with 4-bets preflop and leading out on the flop yourself, occasionally at least - he'll catch on to your checkraises and start 3 betting you back. I would.
(February 16, 2015 at 2:07 pm)Heywood Wrote: Check raise is a useful play in poker, and like any other play in poker you want to have a purpose before implementing it. In the above example I am check raising for value with made hands and as a semi bluff on speculative hands. Some sessions I don't check raise at all.....but my sessions are only a 2-3 hours long.
I agree it's a useful play, particularly in fixed/spread limit. It has utility in PL/NL as well, just less so - as it's easier to just size bets accordingly to get the results you want, while still exercising pot control. Risking giving a free card in PL/NL is something I would rather avoid. Hell, playing out of position is something I avoid like the plague - that probably factors a *lot* into my c/r frequency.
In limit, It's a good play to make with, as you say, made hands (and I'd amend that to read *strong* made hands [strong being relative to your opponent's c-bet range]), as well as draws, and I'd throw in some complete air there as well for metagame - in other words, there should be some mix of strong hand, semi-bluff, and bluff, otherwise you're easier to read. I don't want to c/r hands that have modest showdown value - I think turning those hands into bluffs has far less utility than using them as bluff catchers (such as the hand from the OP, I'd probably never c/r there, certainly less often than I'd call down [which itself would not be often, except heads up against a very loose-aggressive player]).
