A hand with a low three of a kind that has been raised before the draw and has not raised back (and usually, low threes should not raise back) will do best to draw two cards, look at his draw, and bet. This is especially true if the raiser drew one card. The raiser may call on two high pairs, and he may figure the opener to have drawn to a pair and an ace kicker. Three of a kind from jacks to aces are worth a reraise before the draw. Having reraised, the hand almost must draw two cards, for maximum chance of improvement. However, the action here is affected by position and the draw. If you are last to draw and speak with high threes, and if you are up against two two-card draws or one two-card and one one-card draw, you might do worse than to draw one card and check on the grounds that you might as readily have raised back with aces up. You might then get a bet against you on any threes. If, having raised, you draw two cards and check, no one is going to bet into you (unless he can beat you); if you bet, low threes probably will not call. With high threes (at least queens, preferably kings or aces) it may pay merely to call against two opponents or only one. You draw one card. The raiser will probably bet into you. However, in a "pass and back in" game, any three of a kind make a good pass as first or second player after the dealer. Usually, nothing is lost except the antes if nobody opens. Your position after the draw is bound to be best, because you will be the last player from the opener to speak. You have an automatic raise if two or three players come in. You can choose instead to have an excellent positional advantage if there are more than three players in: You refuse to raise, draw one card, and can be figured by every other player for a possible straight or flush draw (because there was so much money in the pot before you came in). This will give you a big pot when you hit a full and one or two players before you improved; it will often get you a call when you bet as last man, since your bet might be on a busted straight or flush draw; and you retain freedom to get out without further cost if there is much action before the betting reaches you. With three of a kind it is most important not to find yourself in the middle when the opener is on your right and there are one or more one-card draws on your left. Much of the money lost on three of a kind can be attributed to betting in such a case. In bad position, you can only check three of a kind. A bet is futile because the one-card draws have either busted and will drop, or have filled and will call or raise and win; or will bluff and put you in a most uncomfortable position. There is a further reason why it pays to check, rather than bet, when you hold threes in a bad position (with active players both to your left and to your right). If you check in that position, there will often be a showdown and you will turn up with three of a kind that obviously you had all along. Your opponents will remember this and you will save yourself some problems when you have two pairs and wouldn't know whether or not to call a speculative bet. 4. "Don't bet into a one-card draw." This is the most useful and yet the most costly of all poker precepts. If you never bet into a one-card draw, you are unlikely to be a winner in a tight poker game. Yet betting into a one-card draw is the most dangerous thing you can do in poker. The decision has to be a matter of discrimination and reconstruction of the opponent's probable hand. Before deciding whether to bet or check (if permitted), consider the hand the opponent is most likely to hold. This must necessarily depend upon your appraisal of the opponent, but your appraisal can be a rough one—he is known to be a wild and gambling player, or he is known to be a conservative player. Strangely enough, you are safer betting into the conservative player than into the gambling player, if you have two high pairs or better. Against the conservative player, aces up and three of a kind are often equivalent; he didn't stay on less than two pairs, and either of your possible hands will beat him if he calls. Against the gambling player, aces up and three of a kind are still equivalent. He may have drawn to a straight or flush, and if he hit he can beat you and if he didn't he will throw his hand away. The moral is nevertheless apparent. Against the conservative player, you can make money by betting because you may get a call on a fair hand. Against the gambling player, you can't make money by betting because he won't call if he missed, and he will raise if he hit. Therefore, a bet into a one-card draw is probably justified against one or two opponents who probably stayed on sound hands; it is not justified against a player who is wild and might have stayed on anything, or against a player who stayed when there was already five or six times as much in the pot as he had to put in and who might therefore have gone in on a straight or flush possibility.
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