Daily Hand Quiz

Call, with an eye to getting more aggressive on the turn. Our hand is well disguised. We’ve got perfect position, and opponents who are almost certainly behind us are already getting frisky. Our arthritic image is just what we want.

If we don’t make any noise yet, we’ve got a chance to make a lot of money on the turn, where I’d dial up our aggression (raise any bettor unless there are 4 to a straight.)

I don’t want to kick out the blinds just yet. D has put plenty of pressure on them as is. If we raise now, we’re pretty much screaming SET! — and that makes it much easier for our opponents to play correctly.

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I’m pretty torn between raising to get rid of straight draws and calling to keep them in. With so many possible SDs out there I don’t like keeping 4 players around, but a raise all but kills any additional value we can get.

Would prefer to have raised p/f to try and get rid of the blinds.

I voted to call, but plan to play turn and river very cautiously if a 3,4,7 or 8 hit.

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Pirate21 Reply:
March 28th, 2011 at 4:15 am

Sorry – meant 2,3,7,8

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I would re-raise to $126. There might be someone hoping for a straight on the turn/river. By calling you are giving him the chance to do so. That’s why I would raise him big, so his ‘gamble’ would be an expensive one to take.

Worst case: Someone flopped a straight with a suited 37 or 78. That could imply that he would go all-in on my re-raise..

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It is a limped pot, so I’ll call. I believe the decision hinges upon how committed Hero is. Can we commit if there is a 4-bet? I don’t feel comfy with that, given that our 4-bet and image spell strength.

With a call, we can eval the turn and possibly get away cheaply if a danger card hits. The raiser has us covered, so I normally hate to commit stack in a limped pot.

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Major Dude Reply:
March 28th, 2011 at 8:48 am

A call also makes sense if we’re the drawing hand. That would be the case if we’re up against a straight and need a paired board to rocket us into the lead.

I think it’s much more likely that we’re ahead vs. multiple straight draws, pairs w/ kickers, overpairs or two pairs. But in the off chance (10%? 20?) that we need to improve, let’s take advantage of our excellent position and let the hand play out a bit more.

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Hmmm, would love to have some notes on my opponents here, but since we don’t, I think we have to call.

Reason is that there were no raises pre-flop, so a high PP is probably not out there. But a suited 7,8 is exactly the kind of hand that might limp pre-flop and now be charging us big-time to stay in. That’s why I’m leary to re-pop it, even if it does help the drawing hands out there. But of course folding is out of the question here.

Call and review on the turn. If a 2,3,7,8 scare card hits and heavy action follows, I’m done with this hand. If a blank hits and action follows, it will depend on the size of the bets and my read on the opponents. But hallelujah if the board pairs!

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Tough to decide without any info on our opponents… this is how I broke it down…

SB 100BB’s, probably a solid player.
BB 60BB’s, probably a loose/weak player.
D 120BB’s, probably a bomb.

SB isn’t betting 12 into 20 with the nut straight and no flush draw. Doubt he would limp with 2/3 or 7/3. I’m guessing he has two pair, or at MOST a set as well, making people pay to draw. However, if we do decide to 3bet D, and SB cold calls us, then he’s got top set and is putting us on a lower set or maybe even a straight and he calls to spike a card. A weak/tight player 3bet isn’t trying to gain value, they are protecting. Anyway, he isn’t calling our 3bet to 128 with two pair, and he didn’t limp with rags and flop a straight. Over pairs are out of the question. Top set I guess.

BB is going to fold no matter what.

I don’t believe D would raise that high if he had the nut straight already. Since I assign him as aggressive, I don’t believe he limps with cards that flop a straight here in late position. If SB does in fact cold call my 3bet, then D folds his bluff, and we are probably drawing to a 5.

A call or 3bet would both work here considering our image and situation: A tight/weak player (us) cold calling a raise or 4betting with a straighty-setty board both send sirens off to everyone. We know, that our opponents know, that we are almost always folding to a big raise with that flop, so a set or nut nut is absolute lowest end of our range, for we are never button-limping with anything less than 7h/8h so if we cold call a big raise or 4bet to about 128 everyone knows we are not drawing to a straight. Either way. That is why I believe a 3bet is best because:

A) We are preventing drawing hands from catching up on a dangerous board. Why call and risk being bluffed to a scare card? We would lose 54 instead of colleting 86 right now with a strong move if folded around. D isn’t raising like that for value with the nut straight, so we call his ass if he shoves, and blinds fold.
B) Typical weak/tight players would be terrified of a straight here, and would cold call D’s raise of 42, any scare cards forces us to check/fold.
C)Making a 3bet play in position shows our opponents we are capable of aggression without showing our cards and gives credit for a potential future big bluff.

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We improve to a boat LESS than 1 in 4 times. We need better pot odds to let the other 2 behind us in.
Collectively the V’s are ahead of us with their straight draws: 2 3 7 8, while we have 456 and a running pair. Better to find out who has the goods now. We may be able to bet out 23 before they bet us out!! Seriously, 27suited is an awesome shove here!
Yeah, 4 limpers means anything but the kitchen sink, but realistically we’re battling A7s,A3s,A6s,45s,46s,A5s, 67s,23s,from the bigblind alone. If 78 is out there, we should find out! If WE had 78 we’d call. But the only survival is to get heads up, because unless the turn card is 10 or higher and completes the rainbow, we won’t learn anything, in fact, those marginal hands out there will eat up our safe cards And may also get a flush draw after the turn. Gotta get heads up in no limit hold ‘em, no value in losing, vote raise pot!

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