10/20 hand

Here's a hand that I was involved with last night that I think could have been played differently on all streets, and I still don't know which would decisions would be best.


5 handed, loose game. I'm on the button with Th7h. 2 limpers to me. I limp. Neither of the blinds here were very aggressive, so I figured that it was very likely that we'd take the flop 5 handed for 1 bet each. Sure enough, we did.


*** I think that it's close between calling and throwing this garbage into the muck, but the pots were large in this game and people were going too far with their hands, so I played. Hey, I have the button!


Flop is Td3d2d.


SB checks, BB bets, fold, call, I call.


*** I'm pretty sure that I'm in the lead here with top pair. However, my hand is very vulnerable to overcards, or any diamond. I didn't raise since I figured that everybody would just call. My plan was to raise the turn if a blank came. I suspect that the BB has a small pair possibly with a diamond, and the caller has another diamond.


Turn is a middling diamond (say a 6). BB checks, caller checks, I check (alarms are going off in my head!) I planned on releasing the hand if a 4th diamond came anyway.


River is a black 3. BB bets out. Caller folds. What do I do? Results later.

"What do I do?"


If you were going to call a river bet, then you should have bet the turn.

I think you should have folded pre flop. I also think you should have bet the turn if everyone folds you win. If you get raised then you muck. If you get called on the turn you will be able to showdown the river for free unless a 4th diamond hits.

I think you're beaten. So, raising and getting your oppnent to fold is your only hope of winning a decent sized pot.


While the pre-flop call is marginal, it's hardly a major mistake in an expected 5-way pot. But, the flop call is a disaster. You've got top pair/no kicker on a highly coordinated board with a bettor and a caller. Your hand can't possibly hold up.

I agree with your preflop comments. Really I think that it can go either way, but in this instance, I figure that it's an OK call since there was little worry of being raised.


On the flop, how am I going to get everybody to fold for one small bet? This will never happen. I think that the only way I could win this pot would be to hope for a blank on the turn then to raise. Remember, this was a 5-way pot b4 the flop, so the odds that somebody has something worth calling is very high. The way that I figure it, the combined odds of my being behind immediately and the draw out make it difficult for me to raise. While I didn't make much of a play at this pot, I think that I saved a bunch of money playing it as I did while allowing me to win if no other diamond came.


I think that betting the turn is fair, though, once it's checked around. If called, I'll check behind or fold to a bet on the river. If raised, obviously I'd fold. I'm getting 3.5:1 on a turn bet, and I think that's pretty comparable to the odds of winning on the turn, but I had a feeling that somebody was waiting to checkraise (probably the BB).


The river was an easy fold for me, and the more I think about it, the more I agree with it.

On the flop, how am I going to get everybody to fold for one small bet?


Reread my post. I didn't reccomend that you raise the flop. I reccomended that you fold on the flop. I think you threw away that small bet.


I'm only reccomending raising on the river because it's your only hope to salvage the hand since it is now heads-up against the big blind who showed weakness on the turn. You might be able to steal this pot with a raise.


But, I'm certainly not going to criticize the river fold. It should have been made two streets earlier.

Fair enough. I did consider raising the river, but I felt that I'd likely be called. He was a pretty weak player. I also see the merits of folding the flop, though it's damn tough for me to throw top pair away for one small bet, especially in a 5-handed game with no preflop raise.


I do think your comments were right on the mark, however.