44 on the button

How bad/good was this....

Playing 8 handed, .50/1. MP2 is pretty tight and more passive than aggressive.

It folds around to MP2 who raises, and then folds around to me (holding 4,4 as the title mentions) on the button. Sb and BB are fairly tight, so I fold thinking this isn't a good hand to play 2 or 3 handed.

Of course, the flop is 8,9,4 rainbow.


Right or wrong?

8-handed is not really shorthanded, but anyway.

Your play should not be dictated by what you see after you fold. Every time you make a loose play pre-flop it costs a little, and you /might/ make it up the time you hit. Small pairs are the classic example. You are about 11% to make a set with your PP, which is like 8:1. Many suggest you can call 1 bet if there are 4 players in the pot already, including the blind, getting 5:1 because you will make up some extra bets on the flop and turn, and your hand will generally hold up 75% flop to river. In your case you have to call a raise with it, which is not good. YOu are wanting to isolate with a weak hand and you don't know if you can even push the blinds out, and you don't know your opponents hand. When you miss your set 9/10 times, you will be guessing if the flop/turn/river hit him, because there will always be overcards.

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8-handed is not really shorthanded, but anyway.

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Gah! I meant to post this in regular small stakes. My bad.


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Your play should not be dictated by what you see after you fold. Every time you make a loose play pre-flop it costs a little, and you /might/ make it up the time you hit. Small pairs are the classic example. You are about 11% to make a set with your PP, which is like 8:1. Many suggest you can call 1 bet if there are 4 players in the pot already, including the blind, getting 5:1 because you will make up some extra bets on the flop and turn, and your hand will generally hold up 75% flop to river. In your case you have to call a raise with it, which is not good. YOu are wanting to isolate with a weak hand and you don't know if you can even push the blinds out, and you don't know your opponents hand. When you miss your set 9/10 times, you will be guessing if the flop/turn/river hit him, because there will always be overcards.

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Ok, thanks. That's how I was thinking too. I'm just not comfortable with my spur of the moment decisions yet.

I kept getting this nagging voice in my head saying, "44 is pretty good heads up. 44 isn't far behind AK."

Stupid voice in my head.

Thanks for the reply.

[car ramrod]

fold is fine

Fold - you need a better hand than the MP raiser to even think of entering, and then I'm raising to isolate. In this case, there is no dinero in the pot, so EVEN if you hit your set, you will not make much.

[Fantam]

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I kept getting this nagging voice in my head saying, "44 is pretty good heads up. 44 isn't far behind AK."



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Good fold. You should not become results orientated and decide whether your preflop decision was correct or not by what cards fell on the flop.

You are right that 44 is not far behind AK. However, you dont know whether the preflop raiser will have overcards to your small pair or a higher pair. (You are way behind a higher pair).

Also as all the cards on the flop will usually be higher than a 4, you wont know whether the preflop raiser has made a higher pair than you. That will make your small pair a difficult hand to play HU in limit poker.

No-limit would be easier if you were in a position where you decided to just go all in for all your chips, because you would not have any subsequent decisions to make on the later streets.

[Eeegah]

Fold this unless you're DeathDonkey, and I don't see much of him anymore.

[Preytar]

I fold too. The pot is small, and our hand is not strong enough to reraise.