Short-handed craziness

[ShawnHoo]

40/80 at Commerce. The table's full of players, but for some reason a bunch of people decided to sit out all at once (as do I, while enjoying a banana split). A really bad, passive player posts his small blind. A young, tricky, very aggressive player notices this and says to him, "Let's play heads-up!" So they play for 20 minutes. The bad player winds up taking a rack off of the other guy. With my ice cream almost finished, I decide to jump in.

After a couple of relatively uneventful hands, I get the button and 88. I raise. The tricky guy 3-bets me out of the SB, the bad player calls out of the BB, I cap, both call.

Flop: J92 rainbow

Checked to me, I bet, SB raises, BB calls, I 3-bet, SB caps, BB folds, I call.

Turn: A

Checked to me, I bet, SB instantly slides in 2 bets. It happened so fast that the dealer didn't even notice it until I pointed it out to her. I call.

River: 6

SB bets, I call.

Comments on all streets appreciated, although I think the river is a must-call given the way I played the rest of it.

[Fianchetto]

Uh....I must be missing something because if I read your post correctly you have one pair of 8's.

Preflop looks fine, flop bet ok....after that you completely lost me. Why are you continuing to flood the pot with chips?

[flawless_victory]

ive heard the commerce 40 game is great, but jesus!
you maybe had too much coffee or something... if this guy turned up QT or something retarded, i wouldnt be too proud... this is not so great.
i agree that the river call is fine once you get there and PF is standard...
flop/turn is a little too much action homie.

[ShawnHoo]

On the flop, I figured I'm up against at least one overcard, maybe two, and getting the weak player to fold in what's becoming a big pot is probably a good thing. Is this way off?

Do we think SB c/r's the turn with an A? Should I be checking here even if I don't think he has one? Should the prospect of having to call 2 more big bets to get to showdown (if he c/r's) dissuade me from betting no matter what?

I don't play too much short-handed, so my apologies if this is all basic stuff.

[Fianchetto]

Just because it's three handed is not a license to go nuts with 3rd pair.

Your idea about getting the weak player to fold overcards is a good one, but I think its going to be hard to execute in this particular instance. You act after him, so you cannot confront him with two bets. Fact is he already called two cold on the flop, and most times will see the turn, if you do keep jamming you are just bloating the pot with what is probably the worst hand, or at best a very vulnerable hand.

After you get checkraised on the flop I'd be ready to slow WAY down and probably fold the turn unimproved for several reasons.

1) You are in a 3-way pot, the other two players like their hand, and you have very few ways to improve your hand.

2) You have bet/raised at every opportunity thus far, and they are still firing at you, plus the ace on the turn is a horrible card for you.

3) Your best case scenario is that nobody has a J or 9, BB has overcards AND the SB is jamming a draw like QT. Even QT has 14 outs against you and is probably a favorite to beat you by the river. This remote case still has you favored to lose, and the other reasonable hands for SB (AJ, or a set) all have you crushed.

If I somehow found myself in your position on the turn, yes, I probably would take one last stab at it, but that would be the last money I'm putting in the pot.

[BreakfastBurrito]

I think you should bet the turn only if you can fold to the check raise, otherwise check the turn and call any river. The flop I guess is ok, especially if this guy is tilting after losing a rack to the terrible player. There are a lot of AX or KQ type hands that he could still have at that point.

[ike]

[ QUOTE ]
Flop: J92 rainbow

Checked to me, I bet, SB raises, BB calls, I FOLD

[/ QUOTE ]
FYP /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Klepton]

i would check the turn and call any river

if he did this with QT, this is exactly why i check the turn...

i don't want to pay 3 BB to find out if i was right that the only hand i beat was this crazy semibluff

[Schneids]

Betting the turn is fine if you are going to fold to the checkraise. Soooo much money has went into the pot already that he cannot often possibly be checkraising the turn with QT or KQ more than once in a blue moon. I would suspect he has AJ a large percentage of the time and a set a lot of the other percentage.

[ggbman]

Yeah after that flop, if i was as determined to showdown as you were, i would want to do so as cheaply as possible. What possible reason could you have to bet the turn and call a raise?

[Schneids]

I said fold to the raise. I bet turn to try to convince QQ or KK to fold since the guy is apparently a "thinker" and sometimes those types do stupid things, plus, I bet because he could have similar but better pairs that'll fold to the turn bet when the scary ace falls.

[mike l.]

wow that's awful spewage. fold on the turn. dont cap the flop. you are beat. badly.

[ShawnHoo]

After thinking about this a little more, I definitely think I should have slowed down on the turn. I'll get to showdown having to only call one bet on the river, which isn't a bad deal given all the action that took place earlier in the hand. A bet really only makes sense if I'm able to fold to a check-raise, which I wasn't. The speed of his turn bet somehow seemed to indicate a weak hand, but perhaps this was just wishful conjecture on my part.

Anyway, SB had QT and my hand was good. How do you think he played the hand? He had to think his open-ended draw with 2 high cards put him ahead on the flop, yes?

[Klepton]

remember when i raised the turn on you...you should folded too /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

btw how old are you, cuz man you look young...do they card you everytime?

[oreogod]

The only problem I have with betting this turn, is the fact that you are against an aggressive, tricky player who will CR u here a good number of times. Im sure he thinks the A could be a scary card for u as well.

Even then, if OP calls him (which means no ace), he has plenty of outs.

[ShawnHoo]

I'm 27.

The "bad" player from this hand and I had been joking around quite a bit about my appearance.

Him: Where in the world did you get an ID that says you're 21?
Me: The DMV.

[oreogod]

[ QUOTE ]
remember when i raised the turn on you...you should folded too /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

btw how old are you, cuz man you look young...do they card you everytime?

[/ QUOTE ]

VN. I like the check raise. With that board he should have been hard pressed to continue.