Daily Hand Quiz

I like a limp here, for several reasons.

If we decide to raise, I think it’s still pretty likely we’ll be playing multiway postflop out of position. The UTG limper has a big stack, and even if we make a bloated raise, it’s still pretty likely he’ll stay involved… which will then, in turn, give other players an attractive price to see a flop.

So essentially, we’d be setmining anyway. If I’m going to setmine, I want to get into the pot as cheap as possible, and I want lots of players in the pot. Therefore this spot is perfect… complete for 15, then we can safely check/fold if we miss, and have fun if we nail an 8. The other option is to play a bloated pot out of position with a medium pair… not my cup of tea.

The table image is also a concern, because it opens the possibility that one of the early limpers is getting tricky with a monster. I’d hate to pop it to 180 only to get limp/raised by UTG and have to fold, having spewed nearly a tenth of my stack without even seeing a flop.

Then there is the lack of fold equity. Player E obviously has to call his last 20, so even if we get everyone to fold except for him, we’ll still probably only be racing for the 200 in the middle. This also means that th
e other players will see our hand and obtain information on our play.

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Waste_Of_Paint Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 1:35 am

Damn phone… posted the comment before I’d finished.

88 is a nice hand but in this spot I’m treating it like a small pair, because it plays like one whatever we do. Limp, hope to spike the set, and if we miss then move on. If we do hit a set and an over, it’s likely that we’ll be able to build a big pot postflop anyway. No need to do it now when our hand is marginal.

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Call.
There’s a good chance someone is trying to limp-raise AA/KK, in which case our implied setmine odds are huge.
If we miss we should start looking for a fold.
But that’s better than raising here and either getting re-raised on the spot, or having to play a marginal hand OOP for value.

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Major Dude Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 10:46 am

Agreed — and in fact it’s not just the AA/KK limpers that might make us rich.

Many of the other limpers are likely to be playing either smaller pairs . . . or some suited/connected cards.

We should be able to stack anyone with a smaller set, a flush draw, an OESD, or two pair. It’s hard to imagine a better climate for set-mining.

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Having been playing this for under 30 minutes so far, it’s pretty safe to say you have “no image” yet. So the fact that you “have yet to play any big pots” is pretty meaningless.

With this many people in the hand, anything other than a big over raise isn’t going to clear out the field. You’re pretty much not going to be comfortable with any flop other than one w/an 8 or possibly S-Draw. No reason to pay extra to see it when you can get in cheap now. Let the BB decide if he wants to “clear the field” and proceed from there.

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I don’t want to raise here for reasons already given, it will take a huge raise to thin the field and people may still call, plus there’s the possiblity of a monster being there.

Also if we hit we’re likely to get paid judging by everyone being so LAG-gy.

Actually I’d never raise in a spot like this as I’d like to get in for cheap and if I hit I’m likely to get a customer as so many people are in the pot.

I’d like to hear why someone would raise… it seems to be getting a lot of votes despite what everyone is posting.

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I’m with the reasoning behind the previous posters. The key factors in calling: greater implied odds; unlikelihood of slicing the field to <3 opponents; odds of an over-card hitting the flop while hero is oop. Toss-in the slow-playing possibility, which will force hero fold on a 3-bet.

I am speculating that the raise voters are levering on the re-buy. Raising to say $320 and getting one caller (besides Player E) would like commit another c-bet in the $500 range. Re-buy or not, bloating the pot w/88 does not seem like a solid play. If table play was on the passive side, perhaps.

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Pirate21 Reply:
February 17th, 2011 at 8:56 am

Good point on the rebuy – I hadn’t noticed that initially.
In my mind, that probably improves our setmining implied odds even more as you tend to see a lot more loose/questionable calls in rebuy tourneys.

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Call to setmine. I haven’t read previous posts yet, but I assume most are taking this line because:
a) we don’t want to build a big pot early and have to play post flop OOP
b) our hand is very well disguised
c) playing 6 or 7 handed provides excellent setmining odds – especially early when we’re more likely to find a fish to pay us off.
d) if we keep the pot small, it’s easy to get away from a scary board.

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