KTo from SB on a coordinated flop

[benkath1]

[ QUOTE ]
What about if SB had raised pf?

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I'd be inclined to fold preflop. I don't like playing an easily dominated hand from an early position raiser OOP.

[Shillx]

This flop play in this hand is really interesting. I'll give you a few scenarios here. For all, assume that there are 6 players in the pot for 6 small ones.

1) You hold Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] in the BB.

Flop: 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

SB bets. You should raise here everytime.

2) You hold Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] in the BB

Flop is 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

SB bets. You should just call.

3) You hold KTo in the BB

Flop: 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

SB bets, yuck. I would fold here due to the fact that you don't know how many bets you will have to pay. Holding the K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] makes it somewhat closer though you have little to no edge, even against random hands. Toss it in like clockwork.

Reasoning:

1) Well this one should be simple enough. You raise to try and give yourself the best chance to win if you hit a Q or J. If a queen does come on 4th street, the only hand that you really have to worry about is JT, and that hand isn't going to fold for any number of bets on the flop. However, you would really like for a hand like QT or AJ to fold on this flop.

2) Now do you really want the guy with AJ to fold? If a jack comes, it gives anyone with a bare T a straight, so it will be near impossible to "clean" up your jack outs. You would rather keep the AJ in there since he will pay you off like a slot machine should a ten come. You have have the 2 card nuts and he will only have the one card nuts so expect to winfall if that happens. Getting any kind of Jx hand to fold in this spot is terrible while it is great in the 1st scenario.

3) Similar comments apply here. You can't feel really good about your hand if a ten slides off since it will give anyone with a nine a straight. Even if a nine does hit, it might give you a chopping hand or even a losing hand if someone has JT. You aren't closing the action in this case so you might have to pay multiple bets on a board that people figure to have connected with.

Brad