[Hair_of_the_Dog]

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Even if you were slightly above equity, the 3 bet would still be bad though, because you are forcing yourself to play badly after the flop and lose money.

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I don't really understand this statement. Just because an extra bet goes in pre-flop you are suddenly going to start playing "badly" after the flop? I understand that inflating the pot increases the odds that everyone is getting to call including ours, but why would you have to play "bad." Either a play is +EV or it isn't, and you can certainly still "play poker" in a big pot.

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I think a better way to say this is that you are allowing your opponents to play better, meaning the bigger pot gives them +EV to call. I can't remember the quote or what book it was from, but it basically says that when you give your opponents -EV to continue and they continue you win.

Hands like this become more difficult when you hit top pair with your 9 and now you want to try to protect your TP. With a weak kicker and a large pot it becomes very difficult to protect.

BTW: Nice flop [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]