Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

I never ever post hands for analysis here - but it's been 2 weeks since I played this pot, and I still wonder about it, so I thought I'd see what you boys thought. Please forgive any formatting errors, I'm trying the best I can.

10-handed 2/5 NL game, about midnight on a friday night. Nice and loose and passive preflop.

Hero ($1050) is on the button with 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
3 players limp, Hero raises to $15 (a common raise to get called in the last hour). Small blind calls. Villian ($750) in the big blind raises to $50.

Villian is a player I know well. Very agressive, strong, but not as strong as he thinks. An arrogant player who thinks he knows me and can see through my cards. He has me figured for a typical big cards playing type, who can become a beer drinking idiot as I was portraying this night. He plays a variety of hands strong and weak, but his good hands he usually plays well. Earlier in the night he's seen me raise with 6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] on the button and win, and I've seen him raise out of the big blind with A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and win.

Limpers fold, I call ($35 in a $95 pot), and the sb folds. Heads up to the flop, $125 out there.

4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Villian checks.

What do I do?

My thinking: He either has a huge hand, or very little. AJ TT 99 would bet here, but AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 44, A4 would all check, as well as AK, AQ, AT, KQ, or some other garbage if he was just trying to take the pot from me preflop. If I bet and he calls, he could still have almost any of the hands listed. If I check, I could get help, but I could still be drawing pratically dead and get stuck losing alot more. If he check-raises me, I have to give it up, but it's very unlikely he'd check-raise as a "move", so I'd know he was very strong.

I've read it's best to keep the audience in suspense, so I'll post more later... the turn is interesting too!

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Bet. I hope this gets more interesting becuase this is very standard.

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Obvious push

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

I don't know about push, but I think that if you want this one you have to bet, probably at least 3/4 of the pot. Don't forget that you showed some strength too pf. He will have to consider at least that you have a Jack or a pair.

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Is a raise to 15 really a standard for you after 3 limpers? Seems if you had a real hand that you would raise more and the BB has picked up on this. What does raising to 15 accomplish except further cementing your beer drinking idiot image?

Nothing else to comment on here, you should have included turn action as preflop is pretty dry. Against a good player i would expect that if you bet pot here you are getting checkraised with air and called with a strong holding.

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

1 - Don't raise like that preflop, what is the point? You generally expect that any limpers will call such a small raise, and the BB who, from your description, is looking for chances to get in hands where he can try to outplay you will call regardless of what he has.

2 - The villain checking before you on the flop puts you in a strange position, betting anything appears to be a continuation bet of some sort. Given that he is gonna play tricky on you I say check behind him and then try to re-steal it on the turn when he inevitably bets.

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Is there any way to move the live 2/5 NL to the small stakes forum? It seems like almost every post from this limit is a routine question or bad beat post even with deep stacks. After reading these posts there doesn't seem to be anything tricky or non standard about the questions. I think the foxwood 2/5 NL no cap qualifies as high stakes but the rest of these capped 2/5 or home games play in my experience play like a 100NL game on party.

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

you bet, just call the checkraise and stack him at your leisure

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Ok, guess this is an idiot post.

I check after him, and the turn is T [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], giving me an open ended straight flush draw with 1 card to come. Villian bets $100. Now what?

Re: Live 2/5 Hand very deep- Am I a genius or a donkey?
 

Call. If you miss, re-evaluate and see if you can steal it. If you hit you should get paid off unless he's got JJ/TT, in which case you're [censored] out of luck.

Kirk