55, flopped set

[nathanielt]

Playing live at casino arizona, loose passive table overall. I've won the last two hands in a row, and start a kill pot. 3/6 is 6/12 now. I have 55 on the kill and the button and one limps in before the guy to my right raises. I call and the flop comes A85, rainbow. EP checks to PF raiser who bets, I call, intending to raise him on the turn. he'd just raised my blinds the last two hands, so he wasn't getting much respect from me. not worried about AA, but pretty sure he has an A. so, I call, and EP calls. turn 8 (board A885, EP checks, bet to me.

Now, I had decided to raise, but failed to notice he only had $3 left in front of him. I raised, and EP folded AK (he told me after). the other guy was all in and my 5's full of 8's wins.

Now, I thought about this, and at first was mad I raised, thinking I could have sucked in the EP player, instead only getting another $3 from LP. I raised when the 8 hit, so it was an easy fold for him. But, the pot was pretty big, and I knew one of them had an A. Any 8 or A would have beat me. So, I think I was right to raise even if I had noticed he only had $3 in front of him.

Thoughts? if I knew someone had the A, should I have just called, hoping to suck in EP? Or raise to protect my hand when the pot is already so big?

[chesspain]

I think you played it fine. Why give the possible A a cheaper card so that he can suck you out on the river? Remember, when the pot is large you want to do what you can to win it right there, especially when your hand may be vulnerable.

[Ed Miller]

If you thought that someone had an ace, especially a hand like AK, you should have started a raising war on the flop. You can often get four bets on the flop and even sometimes two in on the turn before it occurs to mister AK that he doesn't in fact have the boss hand.

Notice that your opponent put you on a big hand immediately when you called the flop and raised the turn. This is very bad. You do not want it to be painfully obvious when you have a monster.

Given your thinking on this hand, I'm going to guess that you habitually wait for the turn when you flop a big hand. That is a bad habit, and you should break it soon. It makes you easy to read, and it often costs you money. A general rule of thumb is that if you think your opponent has a hand that he believes to be best, but you have a better hand, you should start a raising war immediately.

[JoeU]

"Given your thinking on this hand, I'm going to guess that you habitually wait for the turn when you flop a big hand. That is a bad habit, and you should break it soon. It makes you easy to read, and it often costs you money. A general rule of thumb is that if you think your opponent has a hand that he believes to be best, but you have a better hand, you should start a raising war immediately."

I thought this was a great piece if advice, and something I changed in my game recently. In low limit games, it seems many people will call you down when they catch any piece of the flop. Why not charge them the max? I love playing flopped sets as fast as I would play top pair because like majorkong stated, your opponent has an easier time putting you on a hand. Now this doesn't mean you play every monster fast, it means that you should look to play many monsters fast because at this level, they will pay you off. As far as the fact that the other guy only had $3 in front of him when you forced the other player out, remember, its better to win a small pot than lose a big one!


Joe