Comments/help with a stud 8 hand

[Andy B]

At this point, there is a certain amount of money in the pot. It is worth making a play to protect what is rightfully Iron's. Yes, it can be scary. That's what makes this game so much fun. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Assuming that seat 2 is paying attention, which is probably a stretch, look at it from his standpoint. Iron raised coming in and has been catching good cards and blasting the whole time. With that Eight in the door, there is a good chance that Iron started with an Ace and a wheel card in the hole, in which case the 2 seat is drawing slim or perhaps dead for half the pot. It isn't worth it for him to call two bets for half of that pot.

If you just call, seat 2 raises, and the other guy comes over the top, it's hard to know what to do. You have some chance to draw out, but seat 2 also has a re-draw, which may and may not be better than yours. You can avoid this situation by raising yourself. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

If seat 2 calls two cold and the high hand comes over the top, I'd just call and hope I hit. Seat 2 obviously isn't going anywhere in that case, and Iron is probably behind.

[jon_1van]

Does your play change if this were 20-40 ?
(ie you could assume a much more aware opponent)

Just Curious

[Iron]

Thanks for all the comments so far. I'm still rereading some of the posts and digesting the commentary, but it has been very helpful.

I'll save you a little grief over the raise on seat 2 by telling you this... my notes on this player are that he's in virtually every pot, generally playing high only or chasing a low after starting with hands one low and one high card in the pocket. I guess he ignores or doesn't look at the chat, because two players at the table were berating his play all night, so I had a little bit of doubt that he was playing a solid hand from the get go. Then again, as they say in NLHE "even terrible players get pocket aces sometimes" so I definitely was very glad when he folded.

[jon_1van]

then I say "good raise"

[Andy B]

My usual games these days are $30/60 and $40/80. The raise is even better in a higher-limit game, because players actually lay hands down at that level.