should i have even seen the flop?

[chok1]

I was in a small buy in tournament (5+1) and was 10th place chip leader. I was the largest stack at my table (4,625). The blinds we're 100/200. I'm in bb with 5d5h and it gets folded to the button who has 3300 and calls. SB calls and I raise to 1000 trying to steal or isolate the draw. Button calls, SB folds. Flop comes 10d6h4s. I push all in. Button calls and beats me. He had 108s. Was I in the wrong for raising trying to isolate him. Or was he wrong for calling?

[eMarkM]

I like the raise to try and take it right there. He was certainly stupid for calling that big a bet with a suited one gapper. I'd probably only raise to 600-800, not overbet so much in case the button's suspicious looking limp was a trap.

On the flop there's no reason to push. You're only going to get called if you're beat. I'd lay out a probe bet of about 1/2 to 2/3 the pot and see what he thinks of it. If he calls or raises, I'm done with it unless I hit the set on the turn. So here you raise say 700 leaving you with ~3900. On the flop the pot would have been about 2K and if you bet 1-1.5K you still have ~2400 if he plays back at you. What you did was build a big pot with a marginal hand. Your raise was good, but overall you risked far too much of your stack on the small pair.

[spatch]

Absolutly see the flop, and the raise was a good one, with only one player behind you. You could have easily won the pot pre flop, and in fact, he probably should fold that hand, assuming you wern't banging at every pot recently. But by this point in the game, you should have known his tendancies as well. Did he see alot of flops? (very likely considering what he played for a raise against the chip leader there), and the hands he had won with or shown to that point. If it was possible he could have, and would play a card that would give him an overpair to your pair, an all in bet on the flop was not the move, a bet of say 500, that would get someone off there hand if the flop was of no help, but that you could get away from if they came over the top of you, and you would still have chips to contend for the win remaining.

[docknet]

I don't know, its tough to force out some online players. I like to play small pairs for a limp or call a small raise. If I catch a set, they are totally unsuspecting. If I don't, I fold to all but the smallest of bets.

[flyingmoose]

Well, I wouldn't advise you fold your unraised BB too often.

Your preflop raise wasn't bad, but you were playing outside your field when you tried it. In a higher buy-in tournament you would have had a good shot at picking up the 600 in chips without a flop. However, if you were playing a 5+1 tournament at party, then you have to realize that you're playing at the smallest buy-in on the server that arguably has the weakest players. In such a situation, you can probably find a better spot to invest your chips.

[patrick dicaprio]

i really dont like a raise out of the BB here. if your opponents have hands that you are ahead of like two big cards they will call you rraise but you can likely take the pot on the flop if they miss and can get away cheaply on a big flop. most times you will get called here by both players but here you got lucky and one folded. if you really are going to play the pot you should raise bigger. the pot was 500 and you raised "to 1000" which is an 800 raise offering your opponent almost 2-1. so he is right for calling here even though he didnt know your hand since he is getting good odds to call if you have two overcards or pairs lower than 88. if he thinks he can play you off your hand on the flop if you miss then he might call here with any two.

Pat

[betgo]

There is nothing to be gained by trying to isolate. I would check and play for a set 3-way. You don;t have to play every hand aggressively with a big stack.

The raise is OK though with the big stack to try to win the pot and you probably have as good a hand as your opponent if you are called.