Seems like a fine place to ramble about postflop stuff to me.
Protection is out and equity realization is in. Sure, once in a while you're way out of position and have a top pair middle kicker on the T82r flop that wants to play heads up against a late position flop bettor. You're usually going to be in a blind when this happens because of the usual preflop action where it limps to you in the small blind or big blind. In other situations, like facing a large field after you've raised preflop and got a bunch of callers, you might be tempted to think "oh I should check raise here to protect my hand better." when you should be thinking this:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...cement-355397/
Other times to check raise would be when you've coldcalled in one of the blinds. Someone raises preflop and gets a few callers. You're in the small blind with JTs and call. The flop is JT4r. Sweet, should you bet or check raise? This will depend on the betting frequencies of the other players. With a hand this strong, you're going to win money on this hand in the long run no matter which way you play it. There have been long threads about spots like this one. In the end it always comes down to your opponents' betting frequencies for a few reasons. There's the danger of a free card which argues for a bet. The more often they bet the flop, the better a check raise becomes. Also, while most of your opponents may be bad at poker, the good ones are aggressive. If you choose to bet strong hands on the flop with a good player in the hand, you need to be wary when you check because of the weakness of your range. Remember all those strong hands you bet? You can't hold them when you check in this spot and a good player will notice.
That's why I check 100% in lots of spots, particularly when someone else has raised preflop and I'm out of position to that preflop raiser. I still use the donk bet now and then to get value on dynamic boards that hit my range hard, but I don't think checking on all flops would be a bad place to start after calling a raise out of position no matter how many players are in the hand.
Like I said, protection is out and equity realization is in. So how do we know how much equity we can realize with certain hands? We don't. Multiway limit holdem is far from solved at the moment, so the best we can do is estimate a realizable fraction of the pot that we own at any given time in a hand.
Some hands realize more equity than pokerstove would show. These are the monsters under your opponent's bed.
Other hands realize less equity than pokerstove would show. These are typically bluffcatchers.
Then there are junk hands, which must be folded or checked. The exception to this rule occurs when you hold a busted draw heads up on the river. Here's a fun one from a while ago:
five limpers and the small blind calls, I check the 42o in the big blind.
35Tr
I check, guy bets, few calls, I call.
To
I check, guy bets, folds to me and I call.
K
I check he checks, I show and declare, he shows 42s that he limped in middle position. We chopped it up.
Even though it was a 4/8 game, I think the river is a must bet in his shoes because he holds the worst possible hand.
Other than river situations, I highly recommend that you abstain from pure bluffing when you have three or more opponents. Multiway bluffs should typically be semibluffs that have a decent shot at improving. The reason is that your opponents' folding frequencies multiply together to the point that pure bluffing is futile. I think I've made one 3+ way pure bluff at 4/8 on the flop or turn in my life. It's a rarity that you don't need to concern yourself with yet. As of now, you should be focusing on value betting, check raising for value, and making high expectation bets or check raises with strong draws. Typically, the fewer people that are in the hand, the less outs you need to make a flop or turn bet with a draw. I like to think of this as making pull bets and check raises that trap opponents for multiple bets when I have a strong draw. With fewer opponents, you can start making some lower equity bluffs, particularly when you hold a strong range against one or two opponents. This usually happens when you raise preflop and only the blinds call.
Ok I'll stop rambling now.