A tough no limit $50 hand.

[b33nz]

It is a full ring NL $50 game with blinds of .25/.50. I have $49.80 and the loose agressive player has $190.84. Under my notes, the player that I am facing is "loose-agressive" and "bluffs alot".

Preflop: K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]-Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
I am dealt K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]-Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] two away from the button. The first 3 people fold. The loose-agressive player in 4th position open raises to $1.50. The player between me and him fold. I decide to raise to $4.50 to try to win the pot here or at least isolate the LAG player and have position on him. The cut off folds, but the button cold calls $4.50 (uh oh). Both blinds fold. And the LAG player calls $3.

Pot size: $14.25 (not counting rake)
Postflop: Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]-10[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]-3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
The LAG player checks. Now my biggest concern is the cold caller who called $4.50 on the button. But I couldn't just check here because I needed to know where I stood at. So I bet $8. Thankfully, the button folds. But the LAG player check raises me the minimum, to $16.

So now the pot is $38.25 and I have $37.30 of my stack left. I am getting 4.78-to-1 odds on my call. So my hand has to be good only 17.30% in order for this to be a break even call. I have top pair with the second best kicker, an overcard, a backdoor nut straight draw, and a backdoor queen high flush draw. I should have about 6 outs at best that will give me the best hand if I don't already have it. So I'm wondering what would you guys do in this situation? Would you fold, call, re-raise the minimum, or go all in?

_______________

Let's assume I call that $8 bet to see the next card. So:

Pot size: $46.25 (not counting rake)
Turn: 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
Now the LAG player puts me all in for my last $29.30. Now I have 5 outs at best if my hand is still not best here. There are also two flush draws out there... which might entice him to go all in with a pair and a diamond draw here. Or he could simply be trying to defend his strong but vulnerable hand by not letting me draw. And there's always the possibility that he has absolutley nothing or something very weak like a middle pocket pair or K-10. I am getting about 1.6-to-1 odds on this call. Now my hand has to be good 38% of the time to break even. So what would you do?

One last note: I notice LAG players who are up alot of money in a session sometimes become even more loose and agressive because they see the profit money as a bonus and don't mind losing it as much as if it was their own money. Just something to think about.

Thanks in advance...

[GoCubsGo]

Definitely fold to the checkminraise. Although the raise to you is small compared to the pot, he isn't checkminraising without a hand that has you dominated. You don't even have TPTK, and even if you did, this is still a fold. Usually aggressive players bet on a bluff, sometimes they raise, but they rarely checkraise and even more rarely do they checkminraise. If this were a bluff he'd raise more.

[amoeba]

I'm not going to suggest you fold or call the checkminraise.

rather, I think your reasoning for the turn call is erroneous. You should only use the "I only need to be ahead X% of the time to make this call " argument when you don't need to call any future bets on future streets especially since whatever hand that is ahead of you likely has you drawing very slim.

[bobbyi]

I like the flop bet. If the button has AK (very possible) you don't want to give him a free card on this flop or let him bet you off your hand.

Counting your backdoor draws as "outs" and comparing them against the money odds you are getting is unreasonable because if you pick up one of those draws you are often going to have to pay (much) more money to see the river card. On the other hand, this is a very draw-heavy board, so there are lots of ways for him to be betting a draw, if that is what we mean by saying he bluffs a lot, so there is a chance that we're ahead. It would be helpful if the notes told us whether he will bet his bluffs all the way down, or whether he would usually bet the flop and then give up on the turn when we called.