[jhasper]

My local casino has finally opened a poker room (after 10 years!). Four tables, all LHE - 2/4, 5/10 and 10/25 (I know, don't ask me why....although I actually quite like it).

The standard was horrible for the first couple of weeks with 7-8 people taking flops on the 10/25 table, but has now improved somewhat.

Playing last night I was card dead - not a single pocket pair, AK or AQ in two and a half hours. One hand I was BB and looked down on King Spade Jack Clubs .

The flop came Ace Spade Ten Spade Queen Diamonds .
I checked (out of position with the nuts I wanted to see what the action was), another player bet and was called by 3 players including me. With hindsight, I think I should have raised here, but the 10/25 limit structure meant I wanted to disguise my hand until people made larger bets on the turn, when I intended to check raise.
Turn is Queen Spade .
I checked again, and it checked around to the button who bet. I called and everyone else folded. I am happy with this call as I didn't put the button on a boat, and still had outs to the nut flush.

River was a blank, and button bet out. I wanted to fold, as my gut said he had the made flush, but I just couldn't bring myself to lay it down. Sure enough, the button had the flusg and I mucked.

Could I really have saved $50 by getting away from this on the turn, or even saved $25 by folding on the river?

[DeepBlue]

When the cards aren't going your way, you're much more eagar and can often try and make something with very little.

Observant players would see that you're having a few bad hands and may have looked to take advantage of this. Sure you may have gotten away from it earlier, but you wanted to see as much as you could for as little loss and it just didn't go your way.

Sounds like a pretty bad night eh? Or did you make a nice comeback later on?

[teddyfist]

Another thing to consider, is that when you flop a straight the other cards on the board are usually cards that hit your opponents, and you can simply bet and expect them to be able to pay you off. Whereas when you flop top set or a boat, you're hogging all the cards that someone would generally need to call, and it makes more sense to give them a card to catch up.

Flopped straight with a possible flush draw, I'm betting right out. But like Than said, it wouldn't have mattered. As far as the call on the river, you pretty much have to make it at that point.

[DeepBlue]

I may have been inclined to have raised higher after the flop - you wouldn't have maximised if you had had the best hand, but you might have got a reasonable pot without having to risk it going all the way.

Thats the kind of steals I'm looking for on a bad night, playing hands all the way to the river just aren't good when you've got the luck of the rabbit who's foot you carry in your back pocket.