[Buzz]

Hi Howzit -

hand #1 - As played, I fold to the double bet on the river.

I don't like folding, but it was an astute check-raise by BB and forces me out. I don't know if BB has anything or not. I rather doubt that he has the straight, but it's possible. And if I call two bets here, it could be two more before this betting round is over. Well played by your opponents!

But I think you made an earlier mistake.

I think you either have to (1) raise on the flop, tentatively planning to probably continuation bet the turn, or (2) fold to the flop bet.

hand #2 -

As played, I think your turn play was perfect.

We all know your starting hand is trash, but O.K., you take a flier. And then you catch an eight on the flop and even though you have one of your own outs, of course you're stuck.

And right there, in my humble opinion, you made the same mistake you made in hand #1. You should raise! Your object is to get more money into the pot and also hopefully knock out Button and gain position, one-on-one with SB.

Hard to say how that would affect the betting on the turn.

As played, I think your turn play was perfect.

You like a non-diamond five, a deuce, a trey, a four, or the case eight on the river, a total of 13 outs. It's 31 to 13, or about five to two (think in sixes to get there fast, about five sixes in 31 to about two sixes in 13)... about five to two that you'll miss, which is slightly greater than your fresh money odds (two to one with two opponents) for initiating money into the pot. So after having missed the raise on the turn, you're playing this strictly as a draw and the call is fine. It's only two to one fresh money odds to initiate a bet, but you have easily favorable odds to call a bet.

As it turns out, there is no bet on the turn and then you get lucky on the river. Fine.

To summarize, I think you missed two flop raises, one for each hand.

Buzz