I steal, I hit the flop - kinda - now WHAT?

McMelchior · #1 03-09-2005, 12:23 AM

PStars 7:45 PM $10 buy-in, one of the last hands before the second break, average stack is around t9,100.

I have played solid poker and only showed down strong hands - say for one open-raise from LP that I folded to BB's (not the same player as now) all-in offering me 2:1 pot odds. I had 74 and saw the fold less damaging to my table image than exposing that!

But now to the current hand:
The BB has been at the table for a little more than an orbit and hasn't done anything insane, which in this tournament pretty much is the mark of a pro.

With blinds of t200/t400 and t25 ante there's t800 in the pot when the action reaches me, and I decide to take a shot at it. The tendency at the table has been that SB and BB calls 2-3 x BB raises from LP, so I decide to raise 3.5 x BB to see if that should make a difference.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (8 handed) converter

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t12917)
UTG+1 (t15265)
MP1 (t15300)
Hero (t8754)
CO (t5795)
Button (t2650)
SB (t13835)
BB (t11556)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
3 folds, Hero raises to t1400, 3 folds, BB calls t1000.

Flop: (t3200) J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets t1200,

So ... I have TPWK, and he's betting t1,200 into the t3,200 pot. I pretty much put him on an attempt to take it down by betting, but there is a possible str8 draw out there, and the flop could have hit him right between the eyes.

I consider raising to define the hand, but I don't believe less than 1/2 pot raise - to t4,000 - is going to make him go away, and that would mean committing more than half of my remaining stack. If I'm committing more than half of my stack on a raise, then I'm probably better off pushing ... but I just don't love my 8 kicker that much!

Eh ... and on the other hand, I'm just not folding Top Pair when the pot is offering me 4:1 ... so:

Hero calls t1200.

Turn: (t5600) 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)

That was one of the cards I'm less happy to see. Basically I'd prefer to see a turn of Q or 8 or anything lower. 9, T, J, K and Ace all sucks. Well, the BB makes it easy for me:

BB bets t8931 (All-In), Hero folds.

I don't think there's anyway I could call that all-in - right? Maybe I'm paranoid, but to me it looked like a KT trying to make me call off all of my chips with 'reverse psychology'... but I guess JT for an overly aggressively played openended str8 draw just could be imagined. The latter being the only likely hand I can think of I can beat at that point.

So my real concern is not really the fold I made on the turn, but the call on the flop. Does anybody fold on the flop, does anybody move in?

All comments are appreciated - thank you.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)