PL O/8 – Raising with low to …

[greenage]

I just start playing .25/.50 PL O/8.

There was a hand with a monotone flop and two low cards. EP bets (not sure how much, less than pot), I call in MP with A2xx and two call behind me.

Turn is the third low card giving me the nut low. EP bets again (less than pot ), I raise about half of what he bet, and the two behind me fold.

River is some blank, EP makes a modest bet, I call and we split the pot.

Even though I normally play passively when I have only the low, I decided to raise the Turn to pressure the players behind me to avoid being quartered or worst. The table had been playing fairly tight post-flop with most players unwilling to call anything more than a minimum bet.

Any comments on the Turn raise would be appreciated.

TIA,
greenage

[twistedbeats]

with the details you gave, this question boils down to "should i raise out players with just the nut low?" i think so, sometimes. but you'll be doing it not to protect from being quartered or whatever, but to set up a steal on the river. sorry to sound all sklanksy on you, but in order to this, you gotta have good control over your opponent. you have to know that nobody will go deep on you without the nut nut, and you have to suspect that you have some chance of stealing from the high if for instance the board pairs on the river.

[greenage]

Hi twistedbeats,

Yea, I think I see what you mean. Afterwards, I thought my plan wasn’t good because of the risk I was taking for a relatively small pot.

The board didn’t pair on the river but after downloading the hand history I saw that EP had the second nut flush (something I hadn’t noticed at the time). Well, that would explain why he wasn’t betting that hard.

If I’d been on top of things, I would have at least considered coming over the top of his modest river bet.

Given the monotone flop and no possibility of a str8 flush, I think I’d have heard from the nut flush on the flop.

As for control of my opponent, umm I’m pretty doubtful.

Thanks for the post,
greenage

[Smasharoo]

Didn't see it was PL. NT

[jomatty]

Trying to move someone off the nut low may be a viable option against sophisticated opponents but in lower limit games it is unlikely to work. If you raise it should be to as a bluff for the high side or to set up a bluff. Otherwise your better off leaving them in so you can possibly make a profit on the river bet. Even if you could push out another low the pot is fairly small so commiting a lot of chips with the goal of getting half is risky if you get 3/4'ed.
matty

[greenage]

Hi matty,

I agree with you even though I thought it was a good move at the time.

What twistedbeats and you have said about making the raise to bluff at the high makes more sense to me.

Unfortunately, not only did I not bet enough to make that play but I didn’t even consider it. /images/graemlins/blush.gif Next time I will!

Thanks for the post,
greenage