[MichaelD]

Interesting/Debatable 20-40 Play

I played this hand earlier this evening in a loose 20-40 game.

There are two limpers to me and I am on the button with the A [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] 10 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] . While this is a hand I will sometimes raise in this situation, I decided not too in this particular instance. In truth, both limpers were solid players, and I really did not want to build the pot so big as to make it correct for players to come at me if I happen to flop a dead ace or if I happen to hit a 10 for top pair.

My image was very tight at this table and I was hoping to take advantage of that after the flop rather than before the flop.

Both blinds call/check and we see the flop 5 handed. The flop come 8 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] . The small blind checks, the big blind bets, one limper calls, the other folds, I call, and the small blind calls.

The turn brings the J [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] giving me an additional 6 outs. The board now reads 8 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] J [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] . The small blind checks, the big blind bets, limper folds, I now raise as a semi-bluff hoping to win the pot right here. The small blind folds, the big blind calls.

The river brings the 7 [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] giving me the seconds nuts. The big blind bets into me and I naturally raise. He called and my hand was good. He did not show, but I am guessing he may have had a hand such as 10J and bet the flop on the open ended straight draw.

Anyway, I got a bit of a lecture on how bad I play, a few comments from others at the table about how lucky I am, and the very nice bonus of unlimited action from this player for the rest of the evening. He bad beat me on a later hand, and then proceeded to slow roll me on the hand, but basically he burned through 3 racks in 90 minutes after this particular hand.

While I raise this hand pre-flop many times, as I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate here to be able to use the semi-bluff raise on the turn as an effective tool to get an unwarranted amount of action over the session from a player who normally would not give such action. This is something I have been experimenting with lately and have found the results to be favorable. If the blinds are extremely tight or exceptionally skilled, I always raise a hand such as this on the button as I do not want to let tight/skilled players in the blinds see the flop for free or for half of a bet if I am going to play the hand. In this case, the blinds were both only average or a bit above average and I got a lot more value here by not raising.

Has anyone else found a strategy such as this to be more profitable than always raising a hand such as this on the button? I know it is a highly debatable play and am interested in hearing what others thoughts are relative to their experiences in similar situations.

All thoughts and comments welcome and appreciated.

Just some thoughts...

Michael D.