Rate my play

[Mike Cuneo]

I'm a brand new poster so please excuse any errors I might make. Anyway, the hand in question occured last week in a NL cash game, blinds $2.50 and $5, buy in $100-300. I started with $100 and slowly dwindled down and had to go all in with AT suited, lost to KJ, so I came in for another $100 and doubled up to get me a little over $210. In the BB I look down at 68s, there was a raise to $25 with 3 callers, including SB. I decide to toss in 4 chips for a call. The flop hits me in a big way, coming down 6 8 2 with 2 clubs. SB goes all in for $45 and I waste no time and reraise all in. Next to act thinks and calls, while the original raiser folds his AK. SB has 22 for a set, MP player shows down Q9 suited for flush draw. Turn card hits his flush, but since I had him covered I still had $115. I ended up losing my last $45 with AK, going all in over the top of someone who had JJ preflop. I think I played the hand well, simply because I would have folded anything worse than 2 pair or a big draw (pair/open end straight, or straight AND flush draw) given any heat. Any advice?

[Joshssj4]

Prevent this madness from happening by folding preflop.
Considering theres a big raise w/ 3 cold-callers I'd throw this to the muck for 1/8th my stack.

[Mike Cuneo]

$25 is not at all a "big" raise. Standard raise is to $20 or 25 preflop, and given the fact that the raiser is on the button and that there was only one limper I think it's an alright call. Like I said, I am folding anything short of 2 pair or a big draw with 10+ outs for the $45 postflop. I would say the average chip stack at this point is around $250 or so, and the $20 more I called was 1/10 of my $220, not 1/8. I considered folding because of my weak positon but am not disappointed with the play, just the way it turned out (which I really can't control given that flop).

[Bukem_]

You have bad position and that is way too much of raise to be calling preflop with those stack sizes. In a game like that where you don't have much bluffing equity you need to be playing cards that have high showdown value.

And I almost never recommend folding a hand like 68s but it's just not playable here.

[Malachii]

On the first hand, I don't really have any opinion on the matter. With that many callers, I don't really mind taking a flop with a bust'em hand. Standard poker wisdom is to never risk more than 10% of your stack at the absolute max on a suited connector (and usually not more than 5%). But you can always fold and buy in for more cash if the flop doesn't hit you.

I think, given your stack size, going all in with the Ace King is fine. I prefer to just call and see a flop with AK generally speaking, since most of the time when you're called you're either a small dog or big dog, both of which are -EV in cash games. However, given your small stack, you can't really call and then get away from it on the flop since I'm assuming he open raised to 25$.

[Mike Cuneo]

I'm not really concerned with my play on the AK hand. Yes, there was a raise to $25 and I was all in preflop. I'm comfortable calling a raise with AK as well as reraising, but I agree that automatically going all in is a bad play (especially if my stack is deeper.) But since I was low I decided to go for it, and lost the coin flip. Usually I will open raise to $20 with the AK and if it's checked to me lead out on the flop, however the game is very loose and I might be willing to gamble as much as $100 with AKs preflop, depending of course on the player I'm against. As an example, when I first played in this game I folded AKs when it was reraised and put me all in for about $150 more. However, a few hands later I called an all in with AKs and ended up tripling up, getting very lucky vs KK and TT. But like I said, I feel I can play the big hands well, I just need help on the suited connectors/small pairs, beyond the simple "get in as cheaply as possible, only with good implied odds, etc." For example, I folded QJ suited to a $40 raise in the same game, even after 4 people cold called. Two of them showed AT at the end for a split pot, while my top two pair would have taken a rather large pot. However, investing 20% of my chips or so isn't a good idea with QJ suited. I like to play lots of hands and see flops, I think postflop I know the odds and situations well enough to get off a hand such as top pair with T9s, because it is very weak/vulnerable.

[mason55]

jesus, with a $5 big blind you need to buy in more than $100 if you want to play hands like 68s.

If you're buying in with 20BB, just wait until you get a big pair and push as hard as you can. And if you lose a little bit, buy back to $100 at least. You're not going to be able to pay poker with 10 or 20 big blinds, as any standard raise should be to 4BB preflop. You call that/get called and all you have left is a pot sized bet on the flop.

So, #1 fold preflop with these stack sizes. #2 given that you didn't fold preflop you played fine.

[shabamgoddam]

fold 68s pf. to ANY raise. these hands only get you into trouble post flop. definate -ev.

[Bukem_]

No.