[Punker]

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Hand 1: What are their holdings?
What should EP and button do?


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EP has a solid ace hand, such as AQ and should fold. The two cold callers of an EP raise are likely to have one of two class of hands: monster, or speculative drawing type hand. I suspect both are in the speculative drawing type situation. SB clearly has a very strong situation; I'm guessing some sort of made hand that flopped a big draw such as 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], and made it on the turn, or flopped a set of fives or sevens.

The button is hard to speculate; at this point he could either be made or not made. The pot is just over 18,000 and he has to call 7,000 more. His small turn raise doesn't really seem "milky" to me, but rather a thin value raise for a free showdown, of the sort I might make with a shaky top pair and the nut flush draw. I'm going to suppose something like A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]x [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], and that he should fold.

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Hand 2: What are their most holdings?
What should MP do?

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Very difficult. Given the addition to the post, I suspect MP has a medium to strong hand, but a lot depends on his knowledge. For example, if he has something like KQ, he should likely check behind on the river as EP is likely to either have nothing or a monster; he's not so likely to have a worse K that can pay off. Assuming MP knows this, he should have a flush in this spot that he is playing passively on the flop/turn because its very possible EP has a 4, and will raise him if he tries to make a move at the pot. His river bet supports this idea. I'm thinking something like Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]) - reraising is definitely possible, but I'd feel much more comfortable doing it if the trips on board were not so closely connected to other cards on the board (eg KT744, as that would prevent the full houses made by connectors that this player sounds capable of having).

As for EP, it sounds like he could have anything, but I suspect he's got a strong piece of this board but is mistakenly reading MP for a dry king and making a milking raise with what he expects to be the best hand.

That leaves MP in a difficult situation. I suspect MP has a very good hand, but that EP also has a very strong hand that he believes fully to be the best hand. The river checkraise especially is a brutally painful move to make in this spot.

In MP's spot, he should definitely fold any top pair (but I doubt sincerely that he has such a hand). Its a really cagey raise by EP, but I think it will have to be called. He'll beat a lower flush often enough to make it worth it.