Who calls?

[hockey1]

Party $50+5 SNG. 8 left. One big stack ("BS") (T3700). The rest of us are all around 1000. Blinds 15/30.

Hero's dealt 55 UTG and limps. BS limps as do both blinds. Flop 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif6 /images/graemlins/heart.gif7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif. BB bets 30. Hero raises to 200. BS re-raises to 900.

Who calls? (And what do you think of the 200 flop raise?)

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

If you're behind to a made straight, you're about a 2-1 dog to fill and you're getting just shy of 9-5 odds from the pot, assuming the blinds fold.

If you're behind a bigger set, you're dead to one out.

The real question is, how likely is BS to make this play with something like A /images/graemlins/heart.gif 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif?

what do you think of the 200 flop raise?

Since you're asking the first question about whether or not to call, I don't like the 200 raise. You've flopped bottom set against limpers and random hands on a very scary board (draws and made str8s). You'd rather have raised all-in unless you're absolutely sure you fold to the all-in reraise once you've raised to 200.

I think you need to believe you're ahead here almost half the time to call.

[hockey1]

[ QUOTE ]
Since you're asking the first question about whether or not to call, I don't like the 200 raise. You've flopped bottom set against limpers and random hands on a very scary board (draws and made str8s). You'd rather have raised all-in unless you're absolutely sure you fold to the all-in reraise once you've raised to 200.

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmmm. I gotta disagree with you here. Raising all-in seems silly. What hands will call you that you're not already beaten by? Not many, which makes an all-in raise a "win a little or lose a lot" situation. If anything, I'd be better off checking the flop and then going all-in on the turn if an innocuous card hit. That said, my reasoning was that 200 seems like enough to knock out most draws while not putting all of my stack at risk. And yes, I can get away from this hand. But the huge re-raise behind me I read to indicate weakness, not strength. If I were BS, and I had a straight ,I'd try to milk this a little more, since even in these Party $50 SNGs not many players would call with just something like TPTK. The overbet smelled like a draw or TPTK to me.

RESULTS: I called. He showed a weirdly misplayed QQ and I took the pot.

[Losing all]

I think I call here (seeing what hands he doubled up on, and how he played them would be some good info though) He could be just flat out bullying, flush draw, 8, overpair. I'd be more worried about having the under set than the str8.

[Losing all]

Very nice. The party animals sure do love to slowplay a big PP, but they love em so much they just can't let go. Even though he probably didn't care for the flop, I bet he convinced himself that he had the best hand. "queens are good"

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Party $50+5 SNG. 8 left. One big stack ("BS") (T3700). The rest of us are all around 1000. Blinds 15/30.

Hero's dealt 55 UTG and limps. BS limps as do both blinds. Flop 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif6 /images/graemlins/heart.gif7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif. BB bets 30. Hero raises to 200. BS re-raises to 900.

[/ QUOTE ]
I assume the big blind then folded? In any event I call this. There's just too much of a chance you are currently ahead, plus you have outs if BS flopped a straight. If BS has a bigger set, well, I think you'll just have to go broke on this hand.

Overall I think you played this fine; I would have played it the same way. However, there is something to be said for your idea of just calling the big blind's small flop bet and then moving all-in on the turn if an innocuous card hits. If the SNG were close to the bubble, that would certainly be the best way to play. But with eight players left, I like the way you played it.

[BradleyT]

What were you hoping to flop with your 55?

Now you got it and you're wondering if you should call or not?

[LetsRock]

I had a similar hand last night. I limped on the button with 77 with one very aggressive MP and the blinds.

The flop comes 678 two-tone. Blinds check. Because the board was medium cards, I was most worried this flop would hit them. MP bet about half the pot (he has me covered by 2x.) Despite his big stack, he's been busted trying to buy a couple of pots (incudling a PFR with 72s - he sucked out his flush against a flopped set all-in so we got to see the horror) so his bet wasn't all that meaningful.

I shoved 'em in, blinds fold and he calls with AA! He almost sucked me out (a third suited card fell on the turn adn he had the A), but I took it down.

ANother player commented "that's wht he gets for slow playing aces". He claimed he had AA the previous hand and didn't get squat from his PFR, so he felt the need to slowplay.

(I still can't beleive he called - he obviously hadn't been paying attention to my tight play and that board was pretty scary.)

I had position and it worked out. I'd do the same again.

Like I said, my biggest fear was one of the blinds calling (I had them both barely covered), but you can't be too afraid if you're gonna do well in SnGs.

[LetsRock]

Well, with all due respect, it's one thing to flop your set on a K53r board and there's whole other issue when you flop it on this board. A set is pretty hard to improve on vs. made straight or a potential flush.

If it's limit, it's not such a big deal to get aggressive and lose - it's only a couple of bets. In NL (especially) a tourney, it could be the end of the game.

It's not that simple of a decision, but in most cases, it's correct to shove 'em.