I thought cutoff was on a steal...

[ajm36]

Fold PF.

You need to raise from the SB to force the BB out. When you just call, the BB is getting 5:1 to call, which he'll likely to with almost any two cards. While T8s isn't really a bad hand to defend your blind with, you don't want to play it against two villains.

As villain is very aggressive postflop, even if the sample size is extremely limited, I don't think his three-bet has to mean a made hand, but could just as likely be two overcards or even a pocketpair lower than 10. I like the flop reraise, both to try to force the BB out but also to better define villains hand. On the turn I think calling is the right thing, for two reasons. You could very much have the best hand, but even if you don't, you're probably drawing to 5 outs, and you're getting the right pot odds even if villain turned over his cards and showed you aces through jacks. On the river I think you played perfectly. His three-bet probably means he has at least two pairs or better, but the pot is now so large that it would be a huge mistake to fold.

Apart from the preflop call, I think you played perfectly. And if CO views the hand as a classic steal/defend scenario, I think your hand is good almost every time.

Edit: For your last question, I think you either have to fold or reraise in the SB to a steal-attempt. If you are in the BB a call is fine if you have a marginal hand and think the villain could have any two cards.

::grunch::

pre-flop - marginal call here. You don't really have enough hands on CO to consider the read valid. It might be a blind steal, or it might not. Personally, I'd prefer a hand with a little higher high-card strength (as opposed to drawing strength like your T8s) to defend with.

flop - I think I just call here. You've got top pair, but with a medium kicker. AT/KT/QT/JT (or any overpair) are all hands he could have open-raised with from LP.

turn - the check/call is fine here, especially after the 3-bet on the flop. You've still got top pair, but he could certainly have an overpair here.

river - cap the river. The only thing that beats you is a set, and I'd expect villian to have an overpair here far more often than a set. One more thing - expect to be chewed out from here to tomorrow when he flips over AA/KK. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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watch him go into a chip spewing suicide tilt when you kill his AA/KK with T8s.

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Hee-hee. My thoughts exactly... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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expect to be chewed out from here to tomorrow when he flips over AA/KK.

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[HouseCalls]

Villain turns over Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] for the rivered straight to beat my rivered two pair.

This was the second hand of my session - a lovely way to start the night [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]