3 Handed Stars $20/180 man : How should I have played this?

[TDouble]

From a +cEV perspective I doubt this is the most optimal route, (calling and playing poker is) but raising the flop makes the hand easier to play. As you get more comfortable in your MTT skin I think calling makes a lot more sense, but defining your hand right here gives you piece of mind.

As played, it's time to raise the turn. The min bet on flop and turn is pure weakness.

River play is good.

[registrar]

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Blinds 1500/3000 antes 150
Hero Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

<font color="red">Hero raises to t9000</font>, SB calls t7500, <font color="gray">BB folds</font>

Flop: (t21450) K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
<font color="red">SB bets t3000</font>, Hero calls t3000

really weak bet from sb, I interpreted it as he doesn't want me to fold, should I put in a decent raise and define my hand?



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This is one interpretation but it is not correct nearly as many times as villain thinks you may fold if you don't have a king and he makes a pisswilly bet. Thus, don't raise to define your hand, raise if you think this is the best way to get chips into the pot. If villain doesn't have a king, he's probably not calling but, and I'm letting you into a dear secret here, donk bets almost always come in twos, so call the next.

Read Card Sharp Cooks anthology post. He talks about getting players to put chips into pots they had no intention of playing. Sometimes villain has flopped a set of kings here. Very much more often he hasn't but it occurs to him that you may not have a king. Then it occurs to him that you don't have a king or you'd have raised, but he's not sure. That's the turn. I might repop him here because I doubt he's betting the river if my read is correct and because I might get lucky and he might push with the flush draw he's turned. But generally I'll call. As he's three-bet me on the river, I probably call rather than push the rest of my chips in.

[mjm]

He had A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] for the nut flush, I'll be sure to watch out for those tiny flop bets with no FE, no draw, no part of the board in future!! It makes little sense to me but looks like all you guys have seen it a million times before!!! I think I can learn a lot from this forum.