Help with Open Ended Str8 Draw

[Jbrochu]

Is this a terrible line? The BB blind had several times during the game called raises then fired at the pot from EP after the flop. He slowed down if called. My intention (before making top pair) was to push the turn if he checked it. Should I have just pushed the flop, or would you fold to his bet on the flop...?

My table image was tight aggressive.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (4 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

saw flop|<font color="#C00000">saw showdown</font>

UTG (t4260)
<font color="#C00000">Hero (t3361)</font>
SB (t995)
<font color="#C00000">BB (t4884)</font>

Preflop: Hero is Button with J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t500</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, BB calls t300.

Flop: (t1100) 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets t800</font>, Hero calls t800.

Turn: (t2700) J/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">BB bets t1000</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t2061</font>, BB calls t1061.

River: (t6822) 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t6822

[Jbrochu]

Bump

[sahala]

What's the buy-in?

[Jbrochu]

I can't remember for sure but I believe a $33, possibly a $22 though. Sorry, I don't have access to my records at the moment or I would look it up.

[sahala]

Smells like he had a pocket pair. He doesn't need to be in this pot with SB trailing. I would have played this for a cheap showdown. I don't think I want to be all-in on this hand, but that could be weak-tight.

Preflop I think I would have raised more or just pushed just to steal the blinds. SB is hanging on with &lt;5 BB.

[Jbrochu]

No overpair - just a flush draw which he hit on the river. Regarding the 2.5x preflop raise not being enough: I would agree normally but that was the standard raise that was taking down the blinds in this round.

I probably should not have called his flop bet with improper odds. Because of the read I had on him, my intention was to push the turn if I missed the Str8 draw and he checked. It's probably not the right time to try a move like that though.

In any case, once I made top pair with the str8 draw and he led into me I had to push or fold. I feel ok with my decision to push even though it turns out he had the correct odds for the draw.

[tshort]

I would push it on the flop.

[handsome]

I really do not like this line at all. First, you say the BB is defending his blinds a lot. In the future you should think twice about stealing with a marginal hand like QJo, especially if he has a bigger stack than you ON THE BUBBLE. This steal attempt does not really make sense to me, as you'd still be the 3rd largest stack if successful. It is not HORRIBLE, though.

The flop call, on the other hand, is horrible. At the flop, you're risking 1/3 of your remaining stack with only 6 outs to the nuts. Your other outs (K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif, overcard outs) may bust you. Pretty bad. Pooshing is alright if Villain knows how to fold a hand, but most opponents who defend their blinds excessively will pounce on the chance to eliminate you with any piece of the flop, to which you're a significant underdog. Risky. Folding leaves you with 2600, which is 13x the big blind. Not bad when SB has 5 bb's.

[gildwulf]

[ QUOTE ]
Preflop: Hero is Button with J, Q.
1 fold, Hero raises to t500, 1 fold, BB calls t300.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a big error. Stealing is fine, but if you are trying to steal, why are you giving him +2:1 odds to call?

[lastchance]

What are you going to do? Push?

t500 to t600 is fine and standard here. 2:1 OOP is not as good as you think it is.

[gildwulf]

I feel like we are the two guys from Grumpy Old Men or something:P

This is practically a minraise..

[Jbrochu]

I do agree that it's a small raise. I'm not sure I agree it's a big error.

When the blinds start to get larger, but before stack sizes dictate pushing, I like to bet the smallest raise that's been consistently taking down the blinds in any particular round. In this case it was $500. Sometimes it's $400 and most of the time it's $600. [edit: when BB is $200]

[Jbrochu]

I agree with you that it was either fold or push on the flop, and the call was terrible. Thanks for confirming.

BB wasn't overly defensive of his blinds, he just had a move (which he did 3 times) where if he was out-of-position, but the flop looked harmless, he would take the lead and fire out at it. Since I had shown down mostly big cards, I thought he was making this move again and I could steal on the turn even if I missed my draw.

Had I not hit the top pair, I would have folded when he bet the turn.

All-in-all, a poorly played bubble hand. Just not the time to try and make a fancy move.