Mirage 20-40: 3-handed against two good players.

[Dynasty]

The Mirage 20-40 game I was playing in tonight fell apart as a couple players left the game, a couple were at dinner, and then a couple didn't want to play shorthanded. That left just 3 players at the table: myself, a young regular named Kevin, and another regular who I believe is a friend of Roy Cooke's (and Mason too, I think). This player's name is Ben and I believe he used to regularly play in the Bellagio 30-60 game.

It wasn't a very good 3-handed game to be in but I hoped that by keeping the game going it would fill up again shortly. Both my opponents know that they need to play more aggressively shorthanded (which is natural for Kevin) and call with much more marginal hands.

The hand:

I'm on the button and first to act with Jd8s. I limp in. If I thought raise would win the blinds, I'd do it immediately. However, I know both Kevin and Ben will be defending with a lot and testing me post-flop. Kevin folded in his small blind. It was the first time he had folded pre-flop since the game became 3-handed. Ben checked his option in the big blind.

The flop is: Jh,7c,3c

Ben checks and I check behind him planning on raising a bluff bet on the turn or getting a couple curiosity calls from any marginal hand he may have (Ace high, small pair).

The turn is: Jh,7c,3c,Ks

Ben bets out. Now, I'm not so happy with my flop check. However, Ben could certainly be betting hands other than a King. I call.

The river is: Jh,7c,3c,Ks,4d

Ben bets. I call.

[Ikke]

I would bet the flop, because it's a typical board to bluff at, and you're almost expected to bet when checked to. A check might even seem more suspicious than a bet (at least in my game).

Turn and river play are fine IMO.

Regards

[Clarkmeister]

You are going to bet with such a huge range of hands here, why not bet the flop? The pot is teeny tiny and he is likely to call with very little. Let him make a big mistake and chase if he is so inclined.

On the turn and river you played it fine once you checked the flop. I would suspect a good chance that you are in front.

[karlson]

Can someone explain to me why you should not raise the flop? Just because they will (correctly) defend with many hands does not mean that you don't get to charge them here with J8 from the button. They will call with some worse hands, the chances of stealing the blinds can't be zero, and at least it widens your own range of raising hands.

But then again, I virtually always raise or fold from the button here (even though I've read that part of hpfap where it talks about just calling against loose blinds with hands like Ax). I would have folded with the 56 hand from your later post. Perhaps I will try limping more in the future, as I seem to get in trouble more from overaggression SH than anything else (JV's post below is quite applicable).

Speaking of overaggressiveness, I would have bet the flop, and having checked the flop, I would have raised either the turn or the river (he will pay you off with many hands you can beat here, I think).

[Dynasty]

I called Ben's river bet and my hand was good. Ben didn't even have a pair but he did have a club flush draw with something like 8c2c.

My flop checked was to get Ben to bluff the turn with worse hands. However, I think I should have followed through and still raised the turn despite the King.

[Mikey]

usually all the time, when playing shorthanded and someone checks to me , it's almost natural to bet and pick the pot up right there. But I understand your logic in that you want to raise the turn with a bluff bet, but sometimes that bet won't come along because the person who checked may become suspicious of why you have checked, and he won't bet into you unless he has real improvement. I think you should have bet the flop. You have power and position.

The turn: Falls the King. Now you wished that you did bet the flop, this is not a nice card to fall for your hand, neither is a Queen or an Ace. But I like your play here where you call all the way down hoping that he'll bluff off all of his money.

But before the flop you should have raised, it'll give you a better idea of where you stand against your opponnent, because with 8c2c, he would not have called.

Let's say you did bet the flop here in that particular hand and were called all the way down, now you could show the hand down, and you can make him think that whenever you do bet a flop you do have a big hand, and he'll be more fearful of putting a move on you.

I don't really like the flop check, but it's good once in a while to mix up your game.