I guess this post is sort of reached a natural conclusion, but forgive me, I haven't chatted about poker for ages (or played it seriously for a while) so would like to wrap up my thoughts on the hand also (as mostly my previous response was to suggest that one of the previous posters was somewhat too assertive in putting across a point that many would classify as factually dubious).
I guess should explain that I would call myself an experienced player (with promotions and stuff have made over a £100k profit from the game), although part-time and over ten years so not exactly a high-roller.
The turn, in my opinion, is the only questionable part and even that I can go along with. The answer to every poker question is "it all depends".
So turn, I guess a little worried about the flush draw, as well as just in general wanting to build to pot. But with a set even if villain hits flush a couple of the flush cards are great for you (who doesn’t like quads / full-houses 😊), even min raise is alright here I reckon.
One of the mods answers:
Originally posted by SDK1987
Pre-flop seems fine to call for set value. Post-flop is pretty standard. Of course if I would raise the turn it would be a shove. Min raising looks really strong, but now you walked into a cooler.
SDK1987
And can see that too, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying “of course”. You can raise turn in part because double-barrelling is fairly rare at small limits (indeed bet flop / slow-down if meet resistance is often the way to go), but triple-barrelling is considerably rarer. In the normal situation where you are ahead, even if villain does double-barrel with bluff, or marginal hand they may not be so keen by river. Now that min raise may have got it to stage where your river bet is a normal size and once called villain is going to think “can’t let all this money go now, when I only have to win sometimes, perhaps this is the time”.
And whilst min raise does look strong really, I’m not entirely sure that is always applicable at micros. Perhaps they feel all-in is strong and don’t really want to go bust, but just can’t fold a 54BB pot for an extra 16BB? Then they can’t fold the rest, but could have on turn.
I don’t know, it does all depend and is all a matter of opinion. Turn I can see check / small raise / big raise all as viable, then again it is one of those hands where you can’t really go wrong as long as you don’t fold.
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Preflop it really does all depend. 3-betting likely would be optimal if your opponent is really strong, or dependant on some of their post-flop tendencies, but their 4BB raise makes that less of an option (unless that’s standard and they do so then fold to 3bs a-lot, in which case would be super 😊, as of course you very happy any-time you get the money preflop, or not).
However in general (and backed up empirically as I have researched this in my database before now) I really would advise just a call. I’m not folding (22/33 tend to drop of a cliff and have to be wary over playing those), but 55 basically always playing. And for myself I show a significantly higher win-rate calling than 3-betting that spot (other people's mileage may vary).
But again it really does all depend. It’s not just about charts (although no doubt those help and can be a useful tool).
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Final Edit: Thinking about it I disagree with SDK, I don't really see the benefit of shove raising turn (well would be because some villains won't fold turn, but I reckon that may defeat the purpose and actually succeed in getting them to fold sometimes). Personally I reckon the ideal play would be a raise just a little bigger than min, maybe around 20BB-22BB so that they can still call in hope and still find themselves committed by river, but just to absolutely deny them value and make sure they really must be committed on river.
