what is up with this kind of play

[jaydoggie]

this keeps happening to me in the low limit sit&gos, i realize im playing with alot of newbies, and morons.

i raise 3-5x BB. and 2-3 call.

the flop comes down, hurting my hand, say QQ and the board A X X. EP will lead out with a minimum bet? WTF!?!

pot will be for instance 510. and they lead out for 30. do you just call down, raise, fold? im having a really hard time interpretting this.

[La Brujita]

I hear you loud and clear. I wonder myself. Recently at Party in a raised pot I had 99 with a flop of AQ4 multicolor the dude minimum bets and I reraise all in (because of pot size relative to stack size) hoping his bet was a sign of weakness. He flips over AQ and says "what an idiot, raising with overcards on the board".

I interpret the minimum bet as:

1. a sign a player has no clue and has a big hand

2. a bet where someone doesn't like the flop (ie holding kk on a flop of Axx)

3. a bluff.

Problem is it is often damn hard to figure out which it is.

[jaydoggie]

im guessing the best move is to call/call and hope to make a monster on him? if hes holding TPTK,TOP2,bottom set, the implied odds have to be tremendous that if you hit your 2 outter you will get paid off.

the unknown, and unfamiliar still frustrates me!

[McMelchior]

I generally think of these minimum bets as "Post Oak Bluffs" (Brunson's term), a meaningless small bluff bet into a missed flop. Unless I have reasons to suspect a strong holding, I'll raise between half and full pot, most often to see my opponent fold.

Technically, if the pot is 500, and some goof bets 30 into it, he might as well not have bet at all. No reason to be frustrated, just treat the mini-bet as a non-bet. Which of course could be first step of a check-raise.

Best, McMelchior (Johan)

[joker1976]

1. on a draw
2. have a good hand but afraid that you have a better hand
3. a monster

if you go aggressive on them, 1. will fold, 2. will call because they can't lay down a made hand, 3. definitely call.

I either call or make a small raise, but never go too aggressive. In low limit SnG, it's usually not a good play to go aggressive on mediocre hand unless the blind is huge.

[CrisBrown]

Hiya jay,

At the lower buy-ins, where people are likely to play any two cards and in almost any conceivable manner, it's very difficult to put a player on a hand, or on a thought. You really have to study a given player for awhile -- or use PokerTracker to pick through their play -- to see what bets mean what when they're in a hand.

In general, though, I agree with the advice of treating a minimum bet in a raised, multi-way pot as a check. In a heads-up pot, you have to be a wee bit more careful. But in a multi-way pot, often as not the player just has some piece of something, and is trying to thin the field, i.e.: to induce a fold from players who totally missed the flop.

How you handle it depends on what you have, of course. In the specific example you gave -- you have QQ and opened for 3xBB, three callers, A-x-x flop -- I'd tend to tread a bit lightly, simply because so many low-limit players will call into a raised pot with Ace-rag. I'd call the minimum bet, fold if there's a big raise behind you (in a multi-way pot, players are less likely to bluff-raise), and see how the hand develops. Oftentimes, your having called will get the other players to fold (unless they also have Aces), and the bettor will check down a weak Ace for fear of your having a bigger Ace. So that one call may buy you two free cards, and at worst it costs you one BB.

Cris

[jwvdcw]

With a good but vulnerable hand like q-q you want to limit the field to one other player imo that way you can lay it down if an ace or king comes up and he bets but you can still make a profit otherwise. Therefore, I would find the bet that is enough to get everyone but one person out. Obviously its needs to be a higher amount, as you are finding out, at the lower limits.

Overall, I wouldn't worry too much about this...q-q is a solid hand, and more often than not there will not be a k or ace on the flop and you can bet heavy then and make a nice profit.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
this keeps happening to me in the low limit sit&gos, i realize im playing with alot of newbies, and morons.

i raise 3-5x BB. and 2-3 call.

the flop comes down, hurting my hand, say QQ and the board A X X. EP will lead out with a minimum bet? WTF!?!

pot will be for instance 510. and they lead out for 30. do you just call down, raise, fold? im having a really hard time interpretting this.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can either be a teaser bet from a monster, or a "get everyone out who checked the check/fold button" bet, which is not a terrible thing to do, as many people do check those buttons. As to which it is more likely to be, only your notes and or prior observations from the guy can guide you.

eastbay

[bob2007]

I play 3 tables at once and doing well at 10/1 Party.

The most i've lost has been $200 over a period. Longest streaks' probably 10-14 a few times.