Fighting the Rake in 2-4 and 3-6 Stud-8

[Andy B]

[ QUOTE ]
Regarding betting when you are freerolling:
Say you have (45)738J
against (??)KQQ6
If the pot is just below the next rake step, then betting is wrong (-EV) here (you can always bet 7th if you catch a 6). This distorts the game by forcing the player who is freerolling to check.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, lessee, by betting you increase the rake by $.50. If the pot is going to be split, this costs you $.25 and the other guy $.25. You haven't told us about the other hands, so we'll ignore them. There are 42 unseen cards, three of which will probably give you a win for high. That's 13:1 against, but you should probably shade that upwards a little because occasionally the other guy will make a full house. If you connect, you stand to make another $4 or $6. Risking $.25 to win $4 is 16:1. You have a bet here. Note that if the rake increment were $1 or the big bet were only $3, you wouldn't have a bet, so it's close.

Thanks for bringing this up. I had always wondered where the line was, and now I know.

[bigredlemon]

There's also the chance that he might fold. Some people play very bad hands and would fold if they don't make their miracle draws on 6th or 7th. At most sites the rake goes up with the pot at 20/40/60/etc so it should be pretty easy to tell where a pot will increase the rake.

[ctj]

The rake increment in 2-4 and 3-6 is $1.00 at 20-40-60 (at least at Paradise and Pokerstars). Thus I believe in this situation a bet is -EV (at least against most opps, who simply won't fold in this situation). Note: I'm assuming the pot is 2-way here. If there are others in the pot, it obviously might well be correect to bet.