[monroe]

What do you think a limp by Villain means?

It could be reasonable to put him on a monster draw, with a jack or queen on top. He may have limped hoping the others would fear a pat monster and let him draw cheap. Then he could bust someone if they caught a hand, too. When you pushed, he decided to revise and stand pat, knowing that you were short enough that your range of hands would include a lot of draws.

It also could be reasonable to put him on junk. You say he is aggressive. He may have had something like QJT97. His plan may have been to drop it if someone played back at him pre-draw, but draw one if it got heads-up and then make a play no matter what. How many chips did the player in the BB have and how tight was he? What was the payout structure? Villain might have thought that the BB would be afraid to go bust with you being so short. When you pushed, Villain revised and decided to call quickly (to scare you) getting almost 2 to 1 and then stand pat and pray. Is Villain capable of making this play?

It is also reasonable to put him on a “normal” hand, with the limp being just a way to mix things up and scare people after being so aggressive before. I think in this case, though, he would do it with a decent draw, so if he caught his hand he could be aggressive after the draw. When he stands pat, that makes this line unlikely, unless he had a jack on top. And if he had a jack with a strong draw, you might be behind (J6 maybe, but I wouldn’t fear this).

Those are some possible scenarios explaining the limp. His reasons for calling your raise and standing pat can be one of the following: a) last ditch effort (see QJ scenario above), b) he has a very good hand, or c) he has a hand that is breakable but not smooth. He may figure if he breaks and catches, he could still lose if you have a strong pat hand. If he stands pat, however, he at least has a chance of making you break a better jack. Note that the shorter your stack is when you push, the less likely the villain is to break a jack, even if he has a strong draw and was going to do it against anyone else.

Knowing nothing else about Villain, I would just assume he would stand pat on any jack, taking his chances that you have to break (or will break because he stands pat). The good news is that J7432 is very close to the median job (jack or better) hands, which are J6532 and J6432. It’s a close decision from this perspective, but the final decision you make really needs to be based on Villain’s limp. Is it more likely to represent a monster or junk? If all you can say is that it means a job hand, then you might as well stand pat. If you think it represents strength, then you should obviously draw.