[CurryLover]

I have no experience playing limit padooki. We only play PL padooki in the UK, and have a slightly different set of rules for hand rankings. So please take that into consideration when reading my opinion.

I think most experienced padooki players in England would say that an 8 padooki is the worst padooki than you can feel relatively confident with. That does not mean that you are not passing 7s or 6s at times, and sometimes you may be raising with 9s, Ts or even Js - it is situational of course. However, an 8 is the 'benchmark', or starting point, for making decisions based on general considerations.

I would definitely choose to stand pat in the hand you mentioned if I had made an 8 padooki rather than a Q. And I would be re-raising with a 7 or better. I'd also probably stand pat on a 9, but might well break a T. It is all read dependent of course, but I'm just talking about what my instinct tells me based on general considerations - and probably having a lot more experience of padooki (albeit in a slightly different format) than most US players.

There is of course the possibility that you can re-raise him with your Q to try to make him break a J or T padooki, but you've already mentioned that you don't think you can persuade him to do that.

I have no mathematical or statistical reason for thinking this, it is just experience, but I get that slight 'out of line' feeling whenever I'm playing a 9 padooki, and feel that I'm usually on solid ground with a 7. I can't put it into words any better than that, but if you're looking for a 'breaking point' then start with an 8 and adjust up or down according to the situation. In this case you have been betting throughout but still taking a card. The BB has no reason to be sure that you have even made a 4 card padooki yet. For this reason, he may very well go for a check raise with a 9, T or even a J. So I'd adjust the line upward and would stand pat on a 9 but seriously consider breaking a T.

I've just re-read my post and it's not very coherent. I've only just got out of bed and my head is fuzzy, so I'm not at my most succinct. So, to summarise my point, a good rule of thumb is to think of an 8 padooki as the 'break even' hand based on general considerations. Then you adjust up or down depending on all the relevant factors in that specific hand. It would be a 'good judgement call' to break or pass an 8 in the games I play in, but it would also be a good judgement call to stand pat on a T.