[Ainex]

I don't understand why he's catching so much flak for a flop c/3bet.

[ QUOTE ]
Although you decided to call then 3 bet the flop which makes no sense, if you want to pump it just raise right away. Because all you have done now is given everyone odds to call down with bottom pair or gutshots or other weird hands. NOT GOOD WITH JUST 1 PAIR.

[/ QUOTE ]

The play makes perfect sense give the fact that he is VERY confident that the guy is pushing his last 2 sbs in. You can debate this assertion if you want. Now he's not calling the flop with the intention of raising a safe turn as if he's behind...he knows he's ahead and he's trying to ram and jam as many bets as possible into the pot- IF he's sure the guy's going to raise his last 2 sbs into the pot it seems like a call 3 bet is a great way to get as much in as possible. If hero raises immediately and we are sure that button is pushing his last 2 sbs in whether we raise or not we are effectively offering 19:1 to MP and SB expecting 20:1 with no fear of hero 3 betting. If we call SB and MP are getting 18:1 immediate pot odds expecting 20:1 by the time MP and hero call - actually worse immediate pot odds than if we'd raised to begin with - but we get to 3 bet them forcing more money into the pot when we've got the best of it. My only real point is that NOT raising here then 3 betting does not somehow give SB and MP better odds on calling down they're getting worse odds because we are forcing them to pay more for their 4-5 outers.

If button does not push you do miss out on the raises value but it's not like raising is pushing out SB or MP anyways. They have both already put one sb into the pot and are not folding for 1 more back to them...you can NOT protect your hand here against those gut shots and 2 pair/trips draws.

Now IMO without a read on button we can't say 100% of the time he's putting his last 2 sbs in but I DO believe he is putting in the last 2 a large percentage of the time as he is likely to have some sort of draw/pair here so I like calling with the intention of 3 betting. We may even see sb 3 bet the all-in raise thinking his AK or KQ is good against 2 callers allowing us to cap with MP sandwiched between.