Couple things:

1. Not wild at all about the pre-flop call. Should be 3-bet or fold, usually fold, IMO. This hand is a good illustration of why. Even when you make the nuts, which of course will happen very rarely, you still have trouble winning a big pot. You really can't afford to play this “slot machine” style of poker where you just call-call-call trying to make hands and then hoping to get paid on them.

2. Would you ever actually bluff here on the river? If yes, with what? If no, it's awfully optimistic to assume that a shove will “look bluffy” since it would never actually be a bluff.

3. I like just calling the turn. The only reason not to would be if there were a lot of money behind and you needed to build a pot.

madpenguin12 said:

Thanks.

 

1) I rarely play A3 type suited hands unless I am on the button or cutoff like this case and see if I can make the nuts.  The 188 cost which is about 2.5x in position seemed like a small price for a raise, but I suppose in most cases I'm just calling with a decent amount of my chips and missing a flush and not flopping 2 spades often.  With about 110 bb preflop isnt it worth taking this risk to continue to chip up? I guess this is something I see the big dog do early in tournaments especially in position.

2) Good points here.  Not sure what I could be bluffing with unless I'm a terrible player.

3) In this spot, I raised in an effort to build a pot.  Where you would you draw a line between raising and just calling in this particular scenario (e.g. how many chips behind would each of us have to have in order to raise vs. just call).  I suppose a call on turn may have increased the likelihood of him betting the river.  If he was on a high spade draw (Q of spade in this case) he would still call a small raise and give up on the river unless he bluffed.  If he has K or KQ he's not folding to a small raise here either.  

 

Thanks again for the help, 

MP

1. You shouldn't be calling just hoping to make the nuts/any strong hand unless it's a set. Poker isn't about making strong hands. It simply doesn't happen often enough, and when it does, you aren't likely to win a big pot anyway. Unlike a set, a flush is not at all concealed, so unless you get REALLY lucky and go flush and over flush, your implied odds really aren't huge. If you're going to play the hand at all, better to play it aggressively and let making the nuts be the back-up plan.
3. You said you called the turn…. Anyway, to answer your question, I'd consider raising if stacks were deep enough that it were necessary to get stacks in. Here, there's only one PSB left in stacks after you call, so you don't really need to worry about building the pot.