This is a pretty boringish hand I just played, but I'm posting it because I think my actions could be questioned on almost every street. I'll post the hand, followed by my thoughts/reasoning on each street.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: TW is Button with , .
4 folds, MP2 calls, MP3 raises, CO calls, TW calls, 2 folds, MP2 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) , , (4 players)
MP2 checks, MP3 bets, CO calls, TW raises, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls.

Turn: (7.25 BB) (2 players)
CO checks, TW checks.

River: (7.25 BB) (2 players)
CO checks, TW bets, CO raises, TW calls.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results in white below:
CO has 8h 9h (three of a kind, eights).
TW has Ts Tc (two pair, tens and eights).
Outcome: CO wins 11.25 BB.

Right, preflop: I'll sometimes 3-bet with tens, but if I do, it's usually because I want to isolate the raiser. In this particular case, I thought it was better to just flat-call and wait till I see the flop to get too committed.

Flop : Pretty standard, I think...I raise the preflop raiser's bet to see how my overpair's looking, and obviously when he folds, I'm feeling good about my hand. Like I said, pretty standard stuff.

Turn : Perhaps my check here was a mistake, but the ol' top-card-pairing often makes me go into a shell, and I'm not sure whether the check here was appropriate or not. My plan was to get a cheap showdown, i.e. call a river-bet, or bet if he checks.

River : Considering my check on the turn, his river check has GOTTA mean he doesn't have the trips, right? Obviously, you've seen the results and know that he did in fact have trips, but I think 90% of the time, my tens are good here. But then, D'OH! He check-raises, screaming at the top of his lungs that he does, in fact, have a rather hideously-played (just my opinion) 8. Even though I was pretty sure I was beat, folding to this obvious display of strength was never really an option for me. Should it have been?

I'm trying to figure out a couple things from this hand, because situations come up like this fairly often, and I'm not sure whether I'm "leaking" or not. First off, the turn...is my check good, or should I bet (planning to fold to a raise)? And on the river...I definitely think my bet was good, though feel free to disagree...but how bout my call? Calling that check-raise if fairly routine to me, based on the ol' idea that folding a winner in a biggish pot is a big no-no...but should I at least consider a fold in these cases? I really don't think so, but if I'm wrong, enlighten me!

-TW

TW - not that I have the experience you or some of the others have. But I'll throw in my $0.02 anyway, and see whether or not *I'm* on target here.

First off - I think CO really stuck his neck out on a limb cold-calling a raise with his 89s. To me, suited connectors are great to play from position - but not if you have to call two bets cold when there aren't that many people in the pot. That being said, I know nothing about table texture here, so it's entirely possible he read the table as being a bit loose or something - who knows. His cold-call on the flop wasn't great, granted, but as far as he knew, he had top pair ... seems weak to me, but again, who knows what he was thinking.

Anyway - your preflop play ... to be honest, when I first looked at your post, I totally agreed with you - that extra raise just seems a bit too costly and unlikely to make anyone go away. But the more I thought about it, I couldn't find a good reason *not* to 3-bet it - if the other folks didn't go away, you'd know to probably make a quick exit on the flop, and would be safely done with it. From my understanding, TT is a hand that really needs to be protected, because of the great likelihood of someone else catching up or beating you, even if all they have are weak overcards. So you're best off trying to play isolated, heads-up, if you can get away with it. Problem is, in this situation, I'm not sure it would have made CO go away, but if he didn't, then hey - so what? You have got to fear the worst, and if he comes out strong on the flop, you should be ready to ditch it. Am I wrong here?

Flop - well, things are definitely looking good, since you've got an overpair. MP3 bets out, you've gotta raise, I think that's pretty much standard fare. FWIW, looking at his flop play, it smells like he had overcards, maybe a strong ace like AQ. It's *possible* he had a mid pair (maybe 77 thru 44), but that doesn't seem too justified by how he played preflop.

Turn - OK, you've made it this far, and the board pairs. I hate it when that happens! I dunno - I could see it both ways - bet out, and if he check-raises you, you've gotta think he's hit his set, and you can just ditch. Or, maybe you check, because you're scared the board paired, and then he can only make one bet, and then you can decide whether or not he hit his pair. The real pickle, here, is that he is almost certainly in a great position to slow-play you. If you check, he checks (which is exactly what he did) ... but then, if you'd bet? He would have probably just called your bet, leaving you in the same situation on the river. So I'm not sure there's much you could have done. I would have probably checked it here, just like you did.

River - Hrm ... so now you've got to decide whether to check behind him or lead out. I'd still be a bit scared by the paired 8, but I'd have to lead out here, thinking my TT is still good (he checked the river!). So I'm not sure I mind the bet. But the question is, do I call him down after the sorry sack check-raises me? You've basically got to be better than 91% sure that he's hit his 8's. I'm not sure what kind of read you'd had on him, but I'd only lay it down if you were all but absolutely sure that he was holding the third 8. You have to also consider that he had some kind of big cards, and he knew he wasn't going to hit them by the turn, so he figured he could sucker you into a check-raise on the river, if he still hadn't improved. To me, this seems like there's plenty of doubt, and if there was any kind of doubt at all as to his intentions, you played it correctly - losing one bet once in a while versus winning 10.25 is the question that comes to mind, and it seems like it'd be a much bigger leak, in the long run, to consistently lay down these situations, instead of only folding based on a solid read.

OK, so the only key point here - preflop, the 3-bet would have definitely been a good idea, because it would have represented greater strength, for sure. I've got a good feeling that if you'd done this, MP2 would have probably folded, MP3 would have reraised, and 3 bets (at least) to see a flop seems really quite pricey. To continue here would have not been correct. Of course, if he did, you'd probably end up losing the pot anyway, because either he'd call you down if the pot remained small (because that's what he was going to do anyway), or he'd have the odds to call you down if the pot was big. But it would have forced a bigger decision on him pre-flop, and it seems like that would have been a better move.

Well, that's my analysis - please pick it apart and find the zillion holes in my logic!