Poker Theory? Here?

Friday is a bad morning to go out and read blogs. I guess nobody posts in their blogs on Thursday, or maybe Thursday night is a bad night for poker in general. I know I got bounced out of my freeroll (I did make the money, but just barely) on a bad play.

Instead of rehashing that, I thought I'd post a comment from the forum at PokerSourceOnline.com. The original poster didn't really ask a question, but I thought I'd give him an answer anyway:

so i was playing partypoker tonight and i flop top pair or T's with my AT. Two spades out there so i bet 2 bucks, one dude raises me to 5 and i call. Next is an under card of spades, i bet 5 bucks, he goes all in with 2 more. Of course i call... he ended up having the flush. So i kind of bitched about the horrible play... reraising with a flush draw... i mean comeon he's a 3 to 1 dog at least.

Amazingly enough i get called an idiot for thinking so. Everyone was saying reraising is a good move.. does anyone else actually agree? My theory is if you're gonna call you want to put the least amount of money in the pot as possible before you make your hand. They were saying this way you have two possible ways to win, me folding and picking up the flush. I think they're just fish getting on my nerves.

Funny how everyone that makes a play you don't agree with is a "fish" isn't it? It doesn't occur to most people that they were actually making a legitimate play, and they're such a fish they don't see it.

Here's my response:

First of all, he raised you, he didn't re-raise. Re-raise is what you should have done.

Raising a flush draw is not as dumb a move as you might think. It's called "betting the come" and it's a legitimate play. It accomplishes a couple of things. It's a semi-bluff. If he has put you on a mediocre hand, he might take the pot down right there. Secondly, he is throwing you off the fact that he is on a flush draw. By disguising his play, he is increasing his expected pot odds if he hits his flush. Also, sometimes when you raise after the flop on a draw, you can get the river for free when the player checks the turn to you because you raised.

When you say "You should always just call on a flush draw" you should know your mistake right there. You can't "always" do something, or everyone will "always" know what you are doing.

The real question is, when he raised, if you felt like you had the best hand and he made a horrible play, why didn't you re-raise him back? Because you didn't have a great hand. He got this information from you by raising you.

To quote Scott Fischman in the most obvious "DUH" statement on the WSOP: "Maybe I still have something to learn about this game." You think?