[busted]

Thanks for your responses -- really appreciate it. I am interested in learning and plugging leaks in my game and developing a better understanding of basic poker principles.

I should admit my limitations. I got started with HE a couple years ago and used Jones (WLLHE) and Sklansky’s first book on HE (the book was about 25 years old but had some good stuff). When SSHE came out, that became my bible and my game improved a lot as I tried to follow Miller’s basic approach.

I guess I’ve known for a long time that I don’t have a deep understanding of many critical poker concepts. However, SSHE gave me a reliable, consistent, easy-to-understand approach that works fairly well, for me at least.

Also, I should mention that I focus first on table selection. I play 5/10 or lower and 90% of my hours are on Party on weekend nights. My winrate seems to be highest for tables that contain 2-3 low-to-moderately aggressive loose players, and the remainder of the table filled with loose, passive calling machines. This is followed by tables with mostly LP players, followed by LAG tables. I don’t do too well with TP players, and I leave tables quickly if it looks like it’s pretty TAG.

I guess that shows my level of confidence about playing with really good players. (But it helps my winrate a lot.)

Coming back to the hand being discussed in this thread, my overall perspective is as follows. First of all, I would have done exactly as hero for PF and flop betting – basically betting and raising until I’m called. There were 16 SB in the pot at the end of flop betting – which is a little over my personal criteria of 15 SB for identifying a VERY LARGE pot in the making.

With 3 opponents betting and 16 SB already in the pot, my mouth starts to water, especially if I’ve got a good hand. And I consider AdKs followed by QdJd4s to be a very strong hand – you’ve got a gutshot nut straight, the 2 highest overcards, and a backdoor flush draw.

At that point, I’m definitely pot committed. I’m going to be betting and raising until the showdown. When the 7d shows up on the turn, I’m estatic – man, now I’ve got a nut flush draw, in addition to the AK overcards and the nut gutshot draw.

That’s why I originally questioned just calling on the turn. I’d have been throwing money in that pot as fast as my opponents would allow me – right up to showdown.

However, my problem is that I don’t know or understand the theoretical poker reasons why I should be doing this. All I know is that this play is EV+ in the SSHE games I play. Sometimes I bust and am left with a hand with AKQJ high. Sometimes I hit the flush. Sometimes I hit the straight. And sometimes I hit one of the overcards that gives me TPTK and wins a fair proportion of these pots.

I think my approach is consistent with Miller’s approach. And it works well in the games I play. However, as is obvious from my previous posts, I don’t really understand the theory behind it. Maybe it is not correct from a theoretical poker perspective. Maybe it just works in the selective games I play and against the players that are at most of my tables.

Help – all comments and thoughts are welcome. I really want to plug any leaks in my game and work towards improving so I can be competitive at higher levels, where the competition is much tougher. FWIW, I’m extremely confident that at least 1 and probably 2 of my opponents would have folded before showdown (if I kept betting like a maniac). But this hand was from 15/30 which is way above my usual level, and all 3 of these opponents may have stuck until SD. I can’t really say because I don’t play at that level.

P.S. My gut feeling is that the approach I outlined works at low stakes because it’s related to “protecting your strong drawing hand” and “trying to drive out opponents by betting and raising” that is discussed at length in SSHE. But I truly don’t understand the theory behind it, or if I’m incorrectly applying the basic principles.