Overcards plus one of your cards is dead

[Jacob_Gilliam]

This situation occurs quite frequently where I play (Pacific Poker, between .50-1 and 2-4). I get dealt split jacks or whatever, 1 of my jacks is dead, and there is an Ace and a Queen behind me. There coming along to fourth no matter what I do or what they have. How do I play this type of hand? Raise, call, muck? All these pots are multiway usually 5-6 to see fourth, not counting me.

[TheSalche]

If you've got an overcard (ace or king in the this case, depending on who calls), then I think I raise for information. If they re-raise, you can be positive they have you pretty well beat, and you may want to fold 3rd then. When they call it becomes player dependent. Is this the kind of play that might call with (AK)Q, (10J)Q, or a 3 flush? If they will call with those hands, along with calling with an overpair, watch 4th and 5th closely. If you can't get rid of them on 5th, its time to slow down, and possibly check/fold.

[Jacob_Gilliam]

No, no, no. This is Pacific. They'll call with any three random cards, and everyone with a pair is staying til the river.

[beta1607]

I think in this situation you have to just call. Split jacks don't play well in a large multiway pot and you want to make it easy to ditch your hand if other people get aggressive or catch good.

[peritonlogon]

With a hand like that I think you play it passively since you will rarely gain information with a bet, you have no idea whether you have more than your share of pot equity and your fold equity is approching zero along with your chances of knocking more than one person out. Also, folding 3rd is a good option since your chances of making a hand that can win a big pot are low and pacific's antes are low enough that you can always wait for a better spot without costing yourself much.

[Roland]

Fold 3rd. Dead hands suck in multi-way pots.

[benwood]

Roland is correct.Just fold.Your downside potential is much bigger than your upside potential.

[patrick dicaprio]

given the conditions you describe: easy easy fold. and it isnt even close.

Pat

[patrick dicaprio]

call with what? hoping to catch the case jack??

Pat

[blumpkin22]

I'm sorry, but you are being ridiculous, and so is Roland. Roland is normally dead on, but I'm afraid he is mistaken here.

Fold a pair of jacks when people are playing 3 random cards? Are you kidding me? Okay, so there is one dead jack. So what. The situation would be far different if there was, say, a dead jack, and your kicker was very dead also.

The correct play is clearly to call if raising does not narrow the field. You want to keep the size of the pot small to magnify the mistakes your opponents are making. On later streets, particularly fifth street, you want to raise or check/raise accordingly to narrow the field, unless you have not improved and one or many of your opponents have. This sometimes means raising with a hand that is second best at the moment. 7CSFAP describes this situation is a fair amount of detail.

But seriously, folding that hand is just wrong. It's not dead enough to not be worth playing.