A finger short?

[MRBAA]

2-4 Empire. On the button. One limper to me, he's playing 80% of his hands, calls down with any piece of the flop but doesn't bet into me unless he has a hand (I've pounded him fairly severely in previous encounters).

I raise with JTo -- blinds are tight and fold. Loose goose calls. Flop comes A74
rainbow. He checks, I bet, he calls. We check down two blanks and he shows J4s for bottom pair and the winnah. While my position was ideal to isolate a very weak player, I probably should have at least QJ or QTs or 55 to make this play, I think.

[easypete]

eh... you're about 50/50 vs a player that is calling just about anything. When the blinds are tight, I would do this too. It's about the lowest I'll do that with (unsuited or suited connectors).

[IndieMatty]

FWIW, I still like the play.

[27offsooot]

j10o is a good isolation raising hand. I do this often too.

[MRBAA]

I'm thinking it doesn't have quite enough high card value, even against a player who will go with almost any two.

[Rubeskies]

[ QUOTE ]
calls down with any piece of the flop

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why JTo might be not good enough. How he plays postflop is important. You want to be able to take it down on the flop or turn a vast majority of the time. If you know he can't lay down bottom pair when it seems obvious he's beat then JTo loses some of it's value. Obviously you want to be able to represent an A on an A-high flop against this guy and obviously you couldn't. Against a player who can let bottom pair go somewhere, JTo is great for this.

[mtdoak]

Against calling stations like this, your best defense is a good hand. Your not going to be able to drive him out of pots, so don't even worry about deception, bet your hand and bet it again. I often include calling stations like this 2 BBs on the turn and river when figuring pot odds on close calls on the flop.