[GeeBeeQED]

You should have gone bust. It's hard to get away from a set here. You played it well. You win over the long run making the correct plays. You won when you made the correct play here......In a way, a real way long term.

Now, if your in mid to late pos with 44 and it goes raise, reraise, you call (questionable with a small pair excepting huge implied odds) and the flop comes AKQ or AKJ or KQJ, gets checked, the turn gives you a 4 for your set. Now the orginal raiser or reraiser makes a bet or moves in. Now you've got a quandry. I'm leaning towards calling here but I don't like it. I'd rather have been the pusher and lost than a caller here. I think most would agree this would not be a comfortable call.

If instead the action preflop was raise, reraise, reraise then you call, same flops and action as above I'd say it's pretty clear you fold your set of 4's on the turn if that stacks are large. It's a marginal call at best if you call.

A rock that you know only raises up front with AK,AA or KK raises, you call, the flop comes TJQ, check check you get the 4 on the turn. He raises big, reraises or moves in. Now you have a tough decision. What if you get any A or any K on the flop with this player and your 4? It's almost as bad. I'm essentially going to look at chip stacks here. If he moves in with a short stack, I'm calling, if it's a big stack, I might leave. (Think about the kinds of hands rocks move in with) If he's passive but calling, I'm keeping the pot under control and not turning into a pig. I figure probably about 60% of the time I'm drawing at a boat here. Maybe one of the pokerstove experts could work out the exact number. It would be interesting to be corrected here.

Another might be you get your set but the flop is all one suit. You should pot bet this. Checking here is industrial strength stupid. You get called, even in one place, next card off makes 4 of same suit on board. Do you see all the trouble your in? Do you pot it again? Do you check? From what pos? How do you respond to a reraise or big raise here? This is a sick hand nobody wants to face. How can you do anything but fold to a bet here, and then try to hold in the Helmuth tirade I'm feeling.

There are not too many situations where you lay down a set. I might do this one in 3-4 8 hour live NL sessions but I have done it. If you didn't lose alot with one most of the time it is because your a pathetic kitten and your seeing danger around every corner and you check to hide your head. You played it correctly barring any reads or other info not provided.

Dave