how do you play this common situation...

[djhoneybear]

So I've begun playing lo-limit on-line. I notice that basically anyone with a decent draw (and sometimes bad draws) or even middle pair will play to the end when I have top pair top kicker. So although I often have the best odds of winning of any individual player, the rest of the tables' chances of improving and beating me are pretty good. My question is, when you look at the board and see alot of flush or draw options, there are lots of callers, and you are sitting there with TPTK, how should you bet?

How does reverse pot odds help make this decision? Does the size of the pot determine your action?

[Greg J]

Sometimes it is impossible to protect your hand. Other times you have to just call and wait until later streets to raise a friendly card. A lot of times this is just impossible though. This is something inherent within limit. Sometimes it does seem like a crap shoot. That is one reason so many people love NL -- if you flop a set you can raise enough to make the flush draws makes a HUGE mistake by calling. You can't usually do this in limit, esp in large pots. But that is okay with me, since I love flush draws [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Catt]

[ QUOTE ]
How does reverse pot odds help make this decision? Does the size of the pot determine your action?

[/ QUOTE ]

Pot size needs to be considered in virtually every single action you take.

There are some exceptions (reverse implied odds being one, certain protection situations another), but generally you should be betting and raising if you believe you have the best hand. Even though your bets might be +EV for certain players playing certain draws, that doesn't mean it is -EV for you.

You need to think about reverse implied odds when your TP is something that is destroyed by a ton of overcards (i.e., your top pair is an 8) -- if your TPTK is not so overcard-threatened it is a fairly rare circumstance that you need to be overly concerned about reverse implied odds situations