K8o

Hi!

If you assume BU will mostly be cbetting only the better hands then plan to check this flop is bad since you will give away too many freecards and basically be forced to calldown whenever he calls and thus loosing most of the time. If you expect him not to cbet then donking flop is by far the best play here....it actually is the standard play when in multiway pot.

Such assumption is clearly wrong though... decent looking TAGy/LAGy(which he seems) will 3bet relativelly wide BU vs CO. There are super many pockets,broadways,Ax and even some bluffs. Out of this range Im expecting him to cbet quite a bit on this flop,except maybe some Ahighs,maybe pockets. He for sure is cbetting Kx,+Jx,QQ and prolly even other pocket,AQ,AT and most bluffs(like T9). So if you check then you have to make a c/r. Some observational knowledge about your oponent is very usefull here but c/r is a valid option...you really dont want him to dictate the hand(like he did) since you will most of the time just be paying off when behind or will giver freeSD/freeCards at some point.

My default would actually be to donk here. As a rule of thumb,as long as Im not able to create some image of his cbetting range (or better as long as I dont prove things stated above) I preffer to stick to safe lines which are never really bad in multiway pots and giving a freecard on this flop is not really the best thing you can do.

That preflop raise is a bit on the loose side, but I guess you knew that.

(Long time no see Avataren. How's it hanging?)

One objective on the flop is to get the passengers (the blinds) out. Neither of them check-raised, so you have them beat for sure (or they have monsters). Given that you checked, a check-raise is probably ok here. The blinds would know that the hand will be expensive to call down, and they should fold more easily on the turn if they don't fold already on the flop. It is no disaster if the button re-raises because then the blinds will surely fold (or pay dearly) and you will have up to five outs in a big pot.

But I agree with Dawnfall. A donk is best, and again it is no disaster to get raised by the button for the above mentioned reasons. The button would be perfectly correct to raise with a number of hands that you beat. Lets say the button sits on AJ. If I was on the button, I'd never call with AJ there, I'd raise - even if I'd put you on a likely king - to bring it heads-up. (Then I might check behind on the turn if I really feared a king.)

/Johan =