Draw poker hand from the SB

[SoCalPat]

I'm in the SB in a five-handed 1/2 game at Paradise. All limp to me, and I've got a pair of 8s with four to a flush.

This is an obvious complete here, but do I try to improve on my pair or do I go for the flush? What about raising? What if I held a slightly better pair, such as jacks or queens? Is there a dividing line when determining which direction I go with my hand?

FWIW, I went with the pair and won unimproved.

[crabbypatty]

IMO against 4 players i would rather go for the flush(how high?) most times you cannot expect a pair of 8's to hold up against 4 opponents. the other problem is what do you do if you happen to catch another pair? now say you have 8855. are you happy with your hand if someone bets? will you call? ck-raising in this spot will do you absolutely no good. you will get called. remember, many players at the paradise 1/2 game will limp with a large pair and probably about half of them were on draws and at least one of those should have been a str8 draw. so it would be nice to make a big flush here and take 4 bb against someone that completes their str8. (yes they will go 4 bets with their country str8) happy to hear this one worked out for you but, as long as you were getting very good odds to go for the big hand, why not?

yes i would rather have a bigger pair if i was going to draw to the pair but, that is just me. we shall see what others think. probably best to still go for the flush considering 9:1 odds the pot is laying you for the 4:1 shot.

[fnord_too]

Caveat: my draw poker experience is next to nil, this is just speculation based on my general poker knowledge.

I think you have to go for the flush here. You are getting insanely good odds to draw to your flush. (I take it from the results this is not Jacks or better to open. /images/graemlins/smile.gif ) Moreover, post draw is very easy to play if you go for the flush, but can be quite tricky if you end up with something like two small pair the other way. I think with aces definitely, and maybe kings, slight possibility queens raising and playing the pair is better, but this is where a real draw expert should chime in. With all those people in the pot, it just does not sound like a pair will take it down, and two pair is a pretty marginal holding, too IMO.

The game you describe sounds great btw. It sounds like a lot of cheap plays from the small blind, free plays from the BB, and people comeing along when you have a big hand. Makes me want to take up draw!