Flop Decision

[shemp]

Loose passive 10 handed 15/30 in the bunny patch. Two loose EP limpers, I call 2-off the button with QsTs. Very loose passive button calls, good small blind completes, and decent BB checks. Yeah. Tough game.

Flop is Jh 7d 2s. SB bets, BB folds, limpers call, I... fold.

This fold is automatic for me, even though I suspect I have a call -- this schism between what I think is correct and what I do prompts my question about what you do on the flop.

Any card above a 7 gives me a gutter, a double gutter, or a pair (3 outs of which will be top pair), and any spade gives me a flush draw, as luck would have it, some give me a flush and straight draws. I'm not last to act, but that doesn't worry me too much. It is, really, not too much less than what I can hope for (flopped quads is, alas, rare) with a monster like QTs.

The reasons I fold are that a) the outs above my overcard will often cause a turn raise even in a passive game, b) the 8 puts a possible straight on board -- but, even more, the scenario I hate is c) when an A or 8 hits and the SB bets out and the two limpers fold -- now I'm in a quandry where I can't really call solely for a gut shot and I'm not sure if my pair outs are any good, and the hand is shaping up to be, call, call, call, fold. Yes, and I also get a sinking feeling when the button raises...

All but the last of these summarize as: I might improve and be forced to fold, or improve to a good draw, but get a mediocre price on it. There are only a couple cards that give me a monster draw.

What say you? I mean, Sklansky probably makes this call, right? -- I suspect reason c) exposes me as a mediocrity -- folding to avoid what will some small but significant percentage of the time be a difficult turn decision. For all of the above, I'm likely do dump QTs preflop even in a passive game... blecch.