15-30 hand

7 handed live game. im in the cutoff with 33. weak player on my right open limps, i limp, button limp, sb calls, bb checks.


flop is 922 rainbow. everyone checks to me and i bet, button folds, sv calls, everyone else folds.


the turn is a 3, sb checks, i bet, he calls.


river is a 7. sb bets, i raise, he 3 bets, i call.


any comments?

Depends on how aggressive the sb is. I still like your hand even as I'm typing this. I'd go one more bet with many players. btw- I wouldn't limp in with 33 in most games under those circumstances.

mike,


Before the flop you should throw away a baby pair after one typical limper. A pair of threes isn't strong enough to make an isolation raise (maybe 77 would be against typical opponents) and you don't have enough opponents to get the right implied odds on flopping a set. When you don't flop a set (7.5 to 1 against) you will be faced with three opponents and three overcards on the flop. This isn't a good spot.


Given you saw the flop, the rest of your play seems about right except I would put in one more raise on the river. It is far more likely you are against deuces full than a bigger full given most small blinds call anything in this spot but might raise with 99 pre flop.


Regards,


Rick

Rick,


I agree with your thoughts preflop. But, "most small blinds call w/ anything in this spot?" Even my worst opponents will fold sb's with a duece (unless, of course it's soooooted) and they rarely raise w/ 9-9 in this spot, even 7-handed, with a few limpers(i.e. more than one). When playing my A game, I'm not one to miss very many bets, but I don't think I like makin' it four bets...of course I don't believe many of my usual opponents are going to make it three bets against ME with only dueces full, and since Chicago is not a "poker destination" I have a lot of "usual opponents." That said, I suppose that I would have to put in one more raise against an especially clueless opponent. I hope that I've contradicted myself enough here. /images/smile.gif


Mike

Preflop, I think you can make decent arguments for all of fold, call, or raise. It's probably not a big decision whatever you do, as long as you have a game plan for your raise which includes a lot of late position stealing.


Both the flop and turn bets seem routine.


On the river, I would have a hard time making it 4 bets also. It sure looks like SB must have been slowplaying 99 or spiked the river with 7's. I would only go for the 4th bet if he's frequently overaggressive or likely to have called preflop with junk like 92s or 23s.

looks like pocket 7's. Or maybe pocket 9's. It would have to be a very overly aggressive player to raise again. Alot of players will raise the turn if he had a deuce. More like he was calling you down with 7's and spiked it on the river.

This post is made from almost total ignorance of limit hold'em, but my question is: in 15-30, is the small blind 10? If so, I believe that Sklansky and Malmuth advocate calling in the SB for one more chip with ANY hand. I don't know if people really do so in real life, but if they do, isn't there a better chance that the small blind had a really appalling hand like 23 to make sense of his play? I'm not sure it makes much difference to what to do. Just curious.


Oh no!! Not again!

Mike,


In Los Angeles the small blind is $10 but I have heard of places where the small blind is $5. So here most players never throw away for one chip (although I will against a field with total trash).


I agree that raising with 99 is iffy since you usually end up with three opponents and one or two overcards on the flop. But the games are aggressive here and I would call it the default play by typical opponents.


Regards,


Rick

Ohno,


It normally is $10 but is $5 in some places. You are right that when it is $10 S&M advise tossing in the extra chip no matter what.


Anyway, I agree that deuce-anything is by far the most likely hand here. I would put in one more raise.


Regards,


Rick

yeah i was a little worried i had made an error on the river, that's why i posted this hand. this is a new feature of my playing, a big change for me: ive really slowed down with my raising on the river, i pretty much need the nuts or the near nuts to put in several bets on the river. im glad to see that some of you think just calling when he made it 3 bets was okay.


i sensed the guy had pocket 7's and had made his hand on the end. i was wrong, he just had A2o. i was a little surprised he didnt pop me on the turn. i figure he was waiting because it was just heads up at that point and he probably saw me as overaggressive, although he apparently thought id check behind on the river.

Rick,


My bad....Since I play so much 20-40, I completely blanked that this was a 15-30 game (evidently the title of the post was not enough to get my attention). Of course the sb could have any duece for one chip...as Gilda Radner's Emily Littella used to say: "never mind." I would still be uncomfortable putting in a fourth bet on the river against all but the most clueless players.


Mike