Online Poker Forum at Full Tilt Poker

leighs · Four of a Kind Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 301

I always find these decisions to be tough in the early stages.

FullTiltPoker Game #217999111: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (1385284), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:48:54 ET - 2005/09/14
Seat 2: Hairdo77 (2,955)
Seat 3: leighs (1,955)
Seat 4: xxxx (940)
Seat 5: Southwoo (1,565)
Seat 6: Breen421 (2,300)
Seat 8: skalpard (1,515)
Seat 9: bigdogchs (2,270)
skalpard posts the small blind of 25
bigdogchs posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to leighs [Qd As]
Hairdo77 folds
leighs calls 50
Southwoo is sitting out
xxxx calls 50
Southwoo folds
Breen421 folds
skalpard folds
bigdogchs checks
*** FLOP *** [8h 7c Qs]
bigdogchs checks
leighs bets 150
xxxx raises to 625
bigdogchs folds

I'm leaving out what I did and what happened.

My thoughts were as follows:

What do I think he has? I've played him before a few times and have noticed that he's quite loose preflop. Since I open limped and it wasn't raised, he could be playing low connectors including 87, 65, or T9. A set of 8's or 7's is an obvious possibility. Other likely hands are KQ, QJ, or QT.

What does he think I have? I've won a couple of small pots without showing and have played pretty tight. I didn't raise so he probably doesn't put me on AQ or even KQ.

He is pot committed with his raise so he thinks he has the best hand or he is semi-bluffing an open ended straight or he thinks he can get me to fold top pair with a kicker less than a K.

What will happen to my stack? If I fold, my stack is 1,755 which is fine. If I put him all in and win, my stack will be 2,970 which would give me an excellent chance of being ITM. If I put him all in and lose, my stack will be 1,015 which is still 20x the BB.

How would others play this? If the raiser had a larger stack, would it make a difference?

torgeauxSA · Flush Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 137

Given the description of his play, he could literally have anything. His bet suggests a set, or maybe two pair, or even top pair, ok kicker. Q8 isn't that uncommon a limp hand among very loose players, so if he had Q8 soooted, he could have played it this way also.

I see this as more likely made hand than drawing, but who knows.

You should have raised pre-flop, you'd know a lot more now.

Given how little you have invested, I'd be inclined to tighten up a bit, since you have very very little info. Losing doesn't cripple you, but it hurts. Winning doesn't make you, but it helps, folding leaves you ok. Top pair, top kicker isn't good enough to call an all in, as a general rule.

dano2769 · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:47 am Post subject:

I'd actually tend to put him on a straight draw. He flat called preflop, meaning he didn't have enough of a hand to raise a limper, but then he raises the flop when 2 connecting cards appear. I don't think a set is correct in this situation. Unless you have a particularly good read, I rarely see anyone limp with a pocket pair; they play them like wildfire even if it's obvious they are beat. I might just call the raise because we're out of position and see what the turn brings.

As for preflop, you definately should've raised. It's possible he wouldn't even be in this flop if you had.

Jaconda78 · Message Board Junkie Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 4177

I think it's very likely he had either a draw or something like top pair, ok kicker. He plays fairly loose, you said, so of course two pair is also a possibility, but more likely he has something worse than you.

leighs · Four of a Kind Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 301

I decided to put him all in and he had QT.

I think I would have folded if he had more chips but I felt that having 20x the BB if I lost would give me a reasonable chance to recover.

I expected the comments about not raising preflop with AQ. At loose tables I prefer to limp AQ from early or middle position in the early stages because often two or more people will call a 3x BB raise. If I miss the flop, I often have to check fold. If the table is tighter, I will usually raise to try for a heads up pot. If I miss the flop, I can still win by making a continuation bet.

	Full Tilt Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. © Copyright 2004 - 2005 FullTiltPoker.com., All Rights Reserved