55 flop play

[Allan]

This is a hand from one great 2-4 game I played in recently. The game is super loose and fairly passive. Flops feature nearly everyone usually seeing the flop and lots of chasing with just about anything.

I get dealt 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif5 /images/graemlins/heart.gif in late MP and limp after 4 limpers. a new player poster checks his option the button folds, sb calls and bb checks. 7 to the flop of:


2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif4 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

sb bets out, BB calls and 2 ep's call before me. Whats your play?



Allan

[AceHigh]

I would probably fold. There aren't a lot of draws for the SB to be betting, he might have a 4, you don't have odds to draw to your set and you probabaly can't knock out many opponents with a raise.

[Brian]

Hi Allan,

I agree with AceHigh. Situations like this come up all the time, namely when you have top pair with weak kicker. An important concept to realize is that whenever someone bets out into a large field on a pretty drawless board like this, they are either crazy or have a pretty good hand. Even if he is betting a hand like 53 or is betting 2x, and the callers are just calling with overcards (which is likely), and thus your hand is best, you are probably not anywhere near the favorite to win the hand, and it will be expensive to find out.

Heres another example of what I am talking about. Suppose you have J /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/spade.gif in the SB, and you complete after UTG, EP, MP, LP, and the Button limp. The Flop comes J /images/graemlins/heart.gif 7 /images/graemlins/club.gif 3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif. You and the BB check, and UTG bets. You should probably fold. There are quite a few examples of this in HPFAP. Also, check out TOP for reverse implied odds, which is what you have with 55 on the 442 board if your hand is actually the best.

-Brian