[Jason Strasser (strassa2)]

Man.

I really think this could've been better.

Preflop is pretty boring. It has a huge effect on the hand, but there are obviously many different effective ways of not folding your hand, and no one would disagree. I frankly dont care about preflop except maybe what soss was having in terms of visual reads.

The flop is a very very interesting street. I think more interesting than the turn or the river. This hand was analyzed street by street, but the problem is that this hand is most interesting when you consider the entire picture of the hand, and not some street-by-street commentary. I really think with stacks like this I bet that flop more than I check it.

[ QUOTE ]
Looking back and reading the comments, I think that I still check behind there following the rule of not cont betting when in position multihanded.

[/ QUOTE ]

To me this is something that separates the good ones from the poor ones, especially in a deep multi like this one. Here is why you bet the flop:

1) Because they will fold better hands.

2) Because people will call with hands like QT KT AT JT Q9 whatever.

3) Because people rarely bluff raise in multi-handed pots. Im willing to back down on this, but from what I know about Miami john he's not the type to CR here with pure air if you bet the flop.

So why would I list 2 as a reason to bet? Well, its because if you improve your hand you can extract a lot of value, and if you dont improve your hand you can just exit stage left. Its a perfect spot to look for in poker. Your opponent (if he holds QT or something on the flop) will probably willing to go check check check check to showdown, and he will also probably be willing to go check-call pot bet, check-call pot bet. You want your opponents to be in this defensive spot. You hit a jack or maybe even an ace, you can definitely extract some value but also dont have too big a hand where you can probably make a read and fold if you are behind.

Also, something never conisdered in this hand was the flop/turn combination. Damn right I'm suspicious. So you check behind on the flop and then make a nice raise on the turn. I feel like even selling KJ with that line is unbelievable because you are going to bet that flop more than you will check with KJ. I think selling a pair of queens is also unbelievable because you'd probably just call or raise smaller if you thought your opponent was drawing to a jack. The 'raise the turn' to get to showdown play borrowed from limit.

It's clearly the biggest problem with this hand. Once you check behind on the flop and then raise the turn, you are really going to have a hard time selling any good hand. And in those big buy in fields, people are generally not scared to go with their read and call you down. Your villain played very well. There are probably other ways you could've played this hand to get a different result.

-Jason