I'm calling here too. If I thought a big raise might be coming maybe I could fold, but this raise size doesn't scream huge strength to me.

What an odd raise. It looks very strong, actually, like Cougar has a monster and doesnt want to lose any customers. But it will work. I have to call that puny raise. I'm not too worried about Hawk.

Maybe a $40 raise would make me consider folding, but I'm not sure that is enough. I can overcall when I hit trips, not matter how weak they look here. Certainly a $80 raise has me seriously thinking fold.

I like the slow pace of this thread, by the way. I don't get here so often these days. What's the hurry, anyway?

Funny how poker works and folks see things differently. I see the raise by Cougar as fairly weak. Like she has moderate pockets to go with that board and thinks she might be good with two pair but not real confident. The only reason I would not re raise for more value here is the fact that Dr Strange concentrated on the trappy nature of these folks. So that fact gives me pause and limits my aggressive bent somewhat. Pace of the thread is totally fine.

I hope we agree that the villain making the min-raise expects Hero to call.

That means villain believes he has the best hand, given that he anticipates that Hero is calling the tiny raise. What hand(s) does villain think Hero holds? What does villain think Hero is considering when reacting to villain putting in that small a raise.

I am not considering that either V holds JJ or this posting is just a cooler since H flopped trip 4s on a board that is not that threatening and the betting by Vs has been so passive. I am guessing that Cougar holds decent sized pockets and puts Hero on a bit smaller pockets at best, or even AK/ AQ maybe. Nobody seems to be playing for a BIG pot here. IDK but maybe V understands her image with Hero as a trapper , but IDK if she is that sophistcated and plays that many levels well.

Sorry about the gender mix up on The Cougar, but I just normally think female when " Cougar " is used. LOL

The size of the action has seemed small. Yet, the pot is 120bb before Hero acts.

On a totally unrelated thought - - - - I have three regulars who are women and only one of them has a nickname. We call her the "toll lady" because she always bets $1 to $3 no matter the size of the pot.

*** Results & comments ***

Hero calls. Hawk folds as expected. Cougar starts a monolog - " knew you would have to call. Your jack is no good". Big grin. Then he tables K K

Hero's trip fours take down the $135 pot.

The theme for this thread was mostly bet sizing.

Hero's objective was to sell the villains that he was on a top pair hand and keep getting calls from similar hands. What Hero wanted to avoid was getting to a bet size that folded out the weaker hands but sucked hero into spewing chips when he is behind. Judging by Cougar's play and commentary, I have to think he bought Hero's story.

I still wonder how much bigger the bets could have been and still get the villains to call down. I particularly suspect hero could have bet more on the flop and still gotten two calls.

I can't say much more about Cougar's min-raise on the river except that Hero didn't have any trouble calling it. That was exactly what the villain wanted, something I generally try to avoid doing. This sort of hand happens when you slow play big pairs preflop.

I was a bit taken by how big the pot grew given what I thought were small bets by Hero. Hero made $89 or 89bb on a garbage hand out of position. That pays for a lot of blinds where Hero just folds at the first opportunity.

Actually made 89bb on a garbage hand, limped around , that hit a very nice flop. Hero might have made more by betting bigger because Cougar was very proud of his KK , But the emphasis on the trapping nature gave me (hero) reason to try to win a smaller pot. So I actually think the spectre of JJ or a suck out late in the hand limited heros agression a bit. It certainly concerned me enough to limit bet sizes more than normal. If Cougar was so sure hero held a J , I wonder why the raise was so small? Nice hand Dr Strange.

I think we play it differently when we hit top pair, instead of trips. Not sure cougar has quite the read on us that he thinks, but that's a good thing.

That KK could have been JJ and I'm still just calling the river raise.

That raise looked strong because Villain thought he was ahead. His min-raise was polarizing in a way. Either Cougar has a boat or (less likely) a straight, or he thinks he is trapping with what is actually an inferior hand. With players who like to be tricky, this is the kind of situations they face. If he had raised preflop, he could have eliminated most cooler hands like hero's.

I wanted to raise but knew I did not want to face a big four bet. We missed some value here, but I think it was smart to call.

Villain was foolish to not consider a four in the blinds when it limped around preflop. But I suppose he also lost only slightly more than the minimum, considering the situation. Given his check preflop and the action afterward, I can't fault his play too much on later streets.

A very interesting hand.