JT hand

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
if one of the blinds calls, we're going to wind up making a lot of mistakes if we hit any out besides the non-spade straight cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure what you are getting at here?

Thinking one of the blinds hits a wierd 2pair if we hit a J or T?

Regards,
Woodguy

[M.B.E.]

Thanks for all the comments.

During the hand, I quickly ruled out a call because I was afraid that one of the other three players would checkraise. In particular I was suspicious of the one shortstacked player who had limped for a huge percentage of his stack, but he turned out to be just a loose-passive fish. It seemed to me at the time that my decision was between folding and pushing. I don't think I even considered raising less than all-in. I opted to fold, but regretted that when the other three players folded after me.

To comment on some of the responses: I really don't like the play of calling the 3200 and then folding to a flop checkraise by one of the other three players. I think that by that point my pot odds would just be too high to fold.

Exitonly's suggestion of raising to 10K then pushing a nonspade turn is interesting, and I've been turning that over in my mind, but ultimately I agree with Schwza that pushing is better because of the possibility that the cutoff (flop bettor) has a non-nut flush draw. (In addition, the 10K raise might not be enough to get him off a hand like K9 or A9.) If he does have something like Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] or K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] I think he would very likely push if I raise to 10K, because it looks to him like he has folding equity as well as a lot of outs. And needless to say it's disastrous for me to get all-in with J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] against Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] on the 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] flop.

If I just push after his flop bet, then even if he thinks I am semibluffing he will have a hard time calling with Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] because I could well have an ace-high spade draw. (As Schwza said.) The question is, if my opponent has the nut spade draw will he call my push? I suspect he would call a push if he has the nut flush draw with two overcards (e.g. A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]) but wouldn't he have raised preflop with that? It's more likely he has A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] than A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and I really don't know whether he'd call such a large push with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].

So in conclusion I'm coming around to thinking that my best play would have been to push that flop, although folding is probably close. If I had one spade, such as J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], I think pushing would then be clearly correct; it makes such a big difference because it blocks two of the hands I'm afraid my opponent might have with which he'd call my push: J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].

If I had 98 (top two) then I would definitely raise all-in on this flop so I think that accounts for MLG's concern re balance. But I wouldn't ever push with a set in that spot.