I've been thinking about a particular situation I've seen in the past and whether how I'm playing it is best...or is there a better way. I'm playing limit HE (right now at the .25/.5 level)

The situation I'm talking about is when you're in the blinds with a PP (We'll say 66 for this situation, subsitute middle pair at your wish). There is a raise PF from EP and one or two callers. I usually call in this situation to see the flop...I say usually, depends on the original raisers, and the callers.

Flop comes K62 rainbow. Flopped trips in a ragged flop, it's a monster. Now, in this situation I will usually set up a check/raise because I am almost certain that the raiser will do a continuation bet (and KK is the only hand that beats me). He bets and the other 2 fold, I raise and he calls...pretty standard play (is it?).

Heres my thoughts as of recently on it:

A) if the other 2 don't fold, I am calling and waiting to the turn to check/raise. The reason for this is because I'm hoping I can trap them all for the BB instead of a smaller bet.

B) Even if the others do fold, I'm still jst calling hoping I can trap the other guy for a bigger bet...It's a risk if he gets scared or doesn't hit anything because he could check the turn in which case what do I do on the river?

C) If he doesn't bet on the flop, should I bet on the turn? The times this has happened, everybody usually folds and the pot is fairly small. Sometimes I'll have a "monster" like this and check to the river, then bet on the river hopeing somebody hit second best hand or thinks I'm bluffing...

Please keep in mind that when I set this situation up, I'm taking into account the the flop is rags. If there's a reasonable str8 draw or a flush draw, then I'm betting to protect my cards...Same on the turn if that presents a draw that didn't exist...by reasonable, I'm meaning if the cards come high...I usually ignore smaller str8s because in a raised pots, most people don't play them (unless the Ax is needed to complete, in which case I get worried).

Are there things I'm not thinking? Is there a better way to extract money from these people? Every book I've read says that when you flop the trips, bet it out because they will call. But my math says different. Any thoughts?

I would bet out on the flop for 2 reasons

#1 it will give you a better idea of what your opponent has. If he raises you know he hit top pair if he calls he doesn't really like his hand, but this will entice the others probably drawing dead to call as well. This allows you to either set up a check-raise on the turn if he shows strength or to just keep betting into your opponent(s) if they just call.

#2 this is less important but it shows them they should be worried when you bet into them in the future.

I understand what you're saying steve, however, the reason I posted these thoughts was because I ran into a hand that won't leave my mind. I can't seem to find in my HH because it was a couple days ago and no idea how many hands ago it was. The flop was all low cards, checked to me and I bet with bottom trips from late position...flop was another low card and I bet out again (in a field of limpers) suits were rainbow, so the only thing I was really worried about was a low end str8. River was another low card (all cards were less then 10 and I believe my trips were 4's). I bet out again and only one person called...he showed a pocket jacks...why he didn't raise PF and not bet out/cap every round is beyound me...

I see people playing these "top pairs" like this quite frequently at the levels I've been playing (.05/10 and .25/.5), which is why I'm trying to adjust my early game to get more money from them. Obviouisly if I'm in late position, everything changes. I've noticed that the same guy will check in EP with top pair will bet out mid pair from late position if checked to him...

I play NL so i dont have a how lot of knowledge here but I in NL I usually always check raise as in your situation

I think in situation B you can still raise and everyone will most likely call for one more SB. So, you gain 1.5 more big bets instead of hoping the flop bettor bets out again on the turn, or even calls you if he checks.

PokerStars 0.25/0.50 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with , .
5 folds, Button calls, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (3 SB) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Button checks.

Turn: (1.50 BB) (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Button calls, Hero raises, BB calls, Button calls.

River: (7.50 BB) (3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, Button calls.

Final Pot: 10.50 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has 7h Ac (full house, aces full of sevens).
BB has 5s 9c (two pair, aces and nines).
Button has 5c Ad (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

BTW, I think I should say that the reason I completed in this is because the button was a calling station. I bet he saw at least 80% of flops. I'd specifically seen him play things like J2o. Not sure what kind of crap he had when he would fold.

In this situation, I felt had I bet on the flop nobody would have raised and I would have bet out on the turn and river...the pot would have been .75 less then it was (the extra money I won by doing the check raise on the river...)

Had it checked out on the turn, I would have bet on the river expecting everybody to fold...as it was, I feel by showing weakness on the flop, I won an extra BB.

Comments?