The cruise is over and I am home preparing for the seminar at Foxwoods on 11/12. If you have visited my website and are going to be at Foxwoods, please stop by and introduce yourself. I will be in Foxwoods from 11/9 (late) until 11/15 so I should have time to meet a few people if you are there.

I just played an interesting hand on line. In a six-handed game, I held As7s. I called a pre-flop raise and four of the six saw the flop. It came Ah Jc 8h. The raiser bet, I raised and a blind cold-called. The original raiser called as well. The turn card was the 10h. Both players checked to me, and I checked. I did not like my kicker (after two callers), the flush/straight possibilities or anything else. In fact, I was having a hard time thinking of hands I could beat. I know many people bet automatically in situations like this (free card may kill you, on line opponents may not have full values, short-handed table), but I more checking than most when I feel I can easily be behind. The river was Ad and both players checked again. Surely I should bet here, yes?

No, I checked again. I love betting the river, as most of you website readers know if you follow my other writings. But here I still had problems. I don’t usually worry all that much about what hands can call because opponents find amazing reasons to call, but here I could not think of a hand that might call and not chop or win. In the show-down, the original raiser had pocket eights, and had flopped a small set. He chose to play this by calling the flop raise and checking the turn and river. Granted most opponents in my position would have given him a chance to check-raise, but he never should have relied on that. As a general principle, you should play sets, and especially small sets, fast…reraise and bet. On line, where many players give excess action on mediocre holdings anyway, your raises will not have much credibility anyway. Thought of the week: 1 - Play small sets fast, 2 - sometimes checking can be the right play even if you are last with a decent hand. (Don’t overdo this, though).