I was recently at the casino and several times hit i.e. 10 X and flopped 10 10 X. I was having trouble finding calls when I raised either in or out of position, and if there was a straight or flush draw on the flop, it would come in on the turn. What factors should I consider when flopping trips, and how should I approach playing them?
1 Answer
It depends on which trips and what the pre-flop action was.
- If you were the pre-flop aggressor:
If the board pair is high (TT through AA, say), you should c-bet your entire range, trips or no trips. Whenever you c-bet your entire range, you should do so for a small size, e.g. 1/3 of the pot.
If the board pair is low, (22 through 99), you should check mostly check behind, trips or not trips. If you only check your bad to mediocre hands in this spot, an observant opponent will be able to take advantage by attacking on the turn, since she know you can't have trips. Conversely, if you c-bet every hand on a flop that favors your opponents range, they can punish you by check-raising you with impunity, since you won't have trips often enough to fight back.
- If you are the defender:
If the board pair is low and/or wet, you should mostly check-raise (or just bet or raise if you are in position) your trips. You should also do a lot of check raise bluffing with weak draws or hands that have backdoor draws.
If the board pair is high, you should be more inclined to just check-call (or just check or call if you are in position) to protect the weaker part of your range that just wants to call.
