Re-opening action in family pots (1/2 NLHE)
Wonder what people's thoughts are on this. Not sure if I've cracked the Da Vinci code or if I'm just an idiot:
Assume fairly standard weekday live table (loose and passive preflop, weaktight postflop).
Hero has the table covered. Three limps to us. One has 50bbs, one has 90bbs, and the other 120bbs.
Hero limps in the CO with J8ss. Button limps (100bbs), SB completes, BB checks.
Flop ($12 post-rake) comes 996 rainbow (1 spade). Checks to Hero fairly quickly.
Hero bets $3.
MY THOUGHTS: It is super standard for villains in EP to check 9x here trying to trap players in late position. I don't like it when passive players accidentally balance their range by checking the nuts.
Meanwhile, this is a glorious board to run some bluffs on and I have a decent hand to setup some multi-street bluffs with. If I check to give them another chance to lead the turn, then 1) The players in super early position might be ballsy enough to check again, and 2) all deception kind of goes out the window and it just looks like I'm stabbing at an orphan pot with an obvious draw (assuming my hand improves).
If I reopen the action for cheap, I assume 9x is much more likely to out themselves by the time it's my turn to act again because surely they won't check the flop, call a microscopic bet with a ton of people in the pot AND check the turn when nobody else is looking all that likely to start bombing the pot for them. They probably still will sometimes obviously, but it drastically reduces the odds.
My hand also looks a lot more like either low pair / total air or a nutted hand trying to induce, so I don't run into the same problem with players putting me on an obvious flush/straight on the river when it hits (I realize my straight will be obvious regardless), and when it misses, having villain able to put me on an obvious bluffing hand.
Your thoughts? Does this make no sense at all? If so, why not? Do you like it, but there are a lot of spots where you would caution against thinking this way?
