I have a full house and he comes over the top? NLHE

[Ulysses]

I watched this hand, so some details are a little off, but all relevant details are close enough.

Blinds are 5,10. Stacks range from 500-2500.

MP opens for 40 w/ JTs. (This may have been from as late as CO-1). Button calls 40. Everyone else folds.

MP has about $1200. Button has about $2000. Both are very aggressive, tricky players.

Flop AJ5r.

MP bets 50. Button calls.

Turn J(AJ5)

MP checks. Button checks.

River 5(JAJ5)

MP bets 50. Button raises to 300.

What should MP do now?

[lysis]

There is $295 in the pot, and it costs another $250 to call right?

I think it's a definite call, or failing that, a fold. I would never re-raise in this position.

Given how the button played the hand, I expect that the button has AJs (note that it's a hand worth calling the $40 pre-flop raise with). If the button does have a worse hand than the MP, I doubt it's a hand that could call even a minimum re-raise, putting a re-raise out of the question. A5s would be the only hand I could give the button that he would call a re-raise with and yet lose.

I think it's a call because a small amount of the time the players will chop it up, a small amount of the time the button will have a 5, and other times you win outright over a single Ace or a bluff. Besides, you can't be in the business of folding houses in NLHE without a damn good reason.

lysis

[lysis]

Sorry, there is $545 in the pot, and $250 to call... It would take an excellent read to fold, and an even better read to re-raise. Hence the call.

[MHoydilla]

Call, there should be no other option here unless you have a read that indicates your opponent has the nuts, or you've seen his cards. If you reraise you will not be called by any hand that does not atleast chop with you so there is no positive EV in that move and folding while getting that type of pot odds would be horrid. Just call and hope that he doesnt have AA or 55. If he had either of those holdings I think his raise here would have been bigger and I wouldn't be surprised here to put him on a bluff raise with absolutly nothing or just an Ace.

[Ulysses]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like both of you would have played this perfectly and wouldn't have had any trouble with the hand. Unfortunately, MP was playing in his first NL game and things weren't as clear. Button, however, is a longtime tournament and NL player.

So, on the river, after Button raises to $300, MP pushed all-in for about $1000. Button called and showed him AA for the bigger full house.

I spoke w/ both of them afterwards. Button said he was 100% certain MP had a Jack when he checked the turn. He said he was trying to represent a big Ace on the end and felt MP would re-raise him, then fold to an all-in bet. He said MP's all-in move was a pleasant surprise.

MP, on the other hand, said he put Button on AK based on his play. I didn't ask him what the point of his all-in raise was, as his thought process seemed to be simply "I have the best hand - let me raise all-in and hope he calls with a far inferior hand."

[MHoydilla]

Where was this game?

[Ulysses]

Artichoke Joe's (SF Bay Area).

[inkstain]

The few times I've played no-limit there, it was a $2-$3-$5 blind with $10 bring-in, not a $5-$10 blind game. Have they changed this recently?

[Ulysses]

I don't remember what the blinds were - I was just watching for a little while. All the important numbers were right in this post, though.

I'm pretty sure the game will happen this Sunday. I plan to be there and make my first foray into no-limit. Come on down and get your share of the easy money. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[inkstain]

Yeah, that game goes on usually on Sunday evenings around the weekly no-limit tournament (I've seen it go on some random weeknights as well, when there are enough players). However, I'd recommend perhaps playing at The Palace in Hayward (just across the San Mateo bridge), in the $1-$2-$2, $5 bring-in game and a lot of bad players, for first-time trials. Buy-in is just $100; the game is much bigger than the blinds imply. (The game at Artichoke's is $2-$3-$5, $10 bring-in, $300 buy-in and quite a few decent players.)