advice about PLHE hand at Hustler

First some background about me:


I've been playing NLHE tourneys for years. I came in first place in a PLHE tourney at the Bike's MSOP ($100 buy-in). I also read "all" the books and wrote the WSOP documentary for The Discovery Channel in 2000.


The SCENARIO:


It's the third time I'm playing live PLHE at Hustler Casino. Melissa Hayden and Amir Vahedi have recently left the game.


On a previous hand it went down like this:

Blinds 5 & 10

Late position and Button limp.

I have pocket 8s in small blind. I call.

Big Blind raises to 50. Late folds. Button calls. I call. $160 in the pot.

Flop comes 876 rainbow.

I bet $75. Big blind calls. Button calls. $385 in the pot.

Turn is 6c making a two flush and giving me the biggest full house.

I check. BB bets the pot. Button calls. I raise all-in $600. They both call. And I win. YAY!

Big blind had 5d4d!!! Flopped the straight and put all his money in when he was drawing dead.

Button mucked without showing.


After observing many more hands and moving seats, I infer that BB, Mohammed, is hyper maniac who can be tricky and bluff with nothing but also check the nuts to induce a sucker bluff.


THE HAND I NEED ADVICE ON:

Mid position limper. I’m one off the button with 3d3h. I think I gotta flop trips or I’m done.

The button calls. Small blind calls. BB is Mohammed (the same BB guy who had 5d4d last time). He raises to $50. Mid position calls. I call. Button calls. SB folds. $210 in the pot


Flop comes: 3d6c7h


BB, Mohammed, first to act bets the pot. Mid position folds. I fake thinking about it and then say. “Dang you raised last time from the big blind with 54. You got another straight?” Mohammed smirks. I smooth call. He says “Pocket tens?”. I don’t respond. Button thinks for 30 seconds and then calls. Pot is now $840.


Turn is 4c. Mohammed stares me down then bets $800. I’m a bit worried he has set over set but I think it is much more likely that he has two pair or an overpair and trying to bully. I reraise all-in for $1540. Button thinks for 10 seconds and then folds. BB checks his cards and then calls. He has pocket 5s so the turn made his inside straight. The board doesn’t pair or play and I am busted. I stumble out of the casino cursing myself for putting in so much money on the turn instead of reraising on the flop.


What do you think?


Thanks in advance.

-Dan

Well - this is not a good time to raise, that's for sure.


When you make a big raise in this situation, you should be bluffing, or you should have a hand that is going to beat a caller. Your 1500 raise can only be lost. He'll never call it without a straight.


You've got the "conversation" wrong.


He is representing a straight.


If you call you say - "I don't believe you" and then on the end the conversation is repeated.

You must give him room to bluff, if you decide to play this hand.


From what you say the decision about whether to play this hand is a poker one. But call or fold.

This is not a great flop for you. There is no way you are going to muck on this flop without a LOT of $$$ in front of you (ie MANY raises).


There is almost no turn card you want to see. If it is a K you will scare out jj or tt. If you dont scare them out it is because you are beat, either by the turn card, by a straight, or by a bigger set.


Because of this you need to give the guy with the 5 a chance to make a bad call on the flop--yes that means raise.


Someone with an overpair, MAY reraise once, then fold (others may just fold). Still I dont want to give coordinated board a free shot when I have bottom set.


With top set, your call is still a mistake, but not as big, because you will get paid of by a smaller set if a J or the like come off on the turn.


Once yo did call the flop, it is hard to give advice about the turn. There a a couple of reasons for this. He will not call your raise unless you are beat, and if you are ahead you may induce a river bluff.

Did you consider the button's presence on the turn? Not only do you need to be worried about him having flopped or turned the straight, but his presence means Mohammed is that much less likely to be bluffing the turn.


Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

If this guy is as you described and has a lot of checks he might call or re-raise you anyway with a pair and a gut-shot with no 4 flush out there. That being said, I never slow-play bottom set with a coordianated board against a tricky opponent. If I know he has an overpair as a lot of players would when they pop it out of the BB then I approach the situation differently. That's just my humble opinion.


Russ

I agree that you need to raise the flop, and barring that, you should have called the turn.


One more counterintuitive reason to raise on the flop is that you may be losing, and if that's the case, you want all your money in early while you still have a good chance of catching up. If he or the button flopped the straight, it doesn't really hurt you if you end up all-in here, because you've got 7 outs on the turn and 10 on the river. (As marginal as it sounds, even in a setoverset case where you're (barring a killer read) resigned to lose your stack , you'd rather be drawing to your one out twice rather than once.)


The only way you can just call on the flop is if you are certain it will induce a big bluff or a strong move by a worse hand on the turn, or if you have a killer read on your opponent. (i.e., if you knew which overpair he was holding, or knew he had the straight and had proper implied odds to draw to the full).


Lastly, if there was an ace or a king on board, this would all be a different story, since not only is a pair of aces virtually dead (unless you're phil ivey), but very likely to keep playing strong. In your scenario, there is almost no possibility that your opp. has just top pair.


just my opinion,


ben