Quote:
Originally Posted by Deurdy
If he's donking with air, I'm happy to let him spew 2 more streets, I don't see the benefit of folding out hands we beat here.
To me it seems as if reasing is almost turning our hand into a bluff, which does not seem necessary to me.
As Arjun says, raising gives a very awkward pot size and basically commits us to the hand once we make another bet.
You make good points, but I don't I see the flop raise as a bluff; it's more of a thin value raise because we're most likely ahead, but given flop texture and villain's stats and tendencies, any weak to moderate king is still well within his range, and because of this, calling 3 streets becomes a daunting proposition anytime villain makes a decent-sized bet on the turn.
By raising we continue our representation of strength from preflop, and I think it's possible villain may actually fold the weakest of his kings to a flop raise, as well as alot of hands we beat, but it also gets value from loose calls with things like straight and flush draws and weaker queens, all well within his range here. Moreover, raising makes it significantly less likely that we get pushed out of the hand by a good-sized villain bet on the turn, which happens quite often.