real men dont play hit or miss...

[TStoneMBD]

i dont know what you guys are talking about preflop. i think this is a very standard coldcall. i obviously played the rest of the hand terribly but i play goot on the turn which is the ultimate goal for poker players right?

[ArturiusX]

Flop is the worst by far.

[helpmeout]

I'm not a big fan of calling a raise with this hand, maybe with another limper but its just not that great, you gotta make up a lot of ground when you make a set.

Also some chance you are 3bet from the blinds and the LAG caps.

[Danenania]

Preflop is an easy call. Flop I'd fold. Don't like the river bet.

The big thing that jumps out at me about this hand is that on the flop you have huge balls. Massive balls. Balls that if I dreamed of having, I would literally be mind-crushed by their gargantuan-roundness.

[rory]

i dont see why its so great to play 55 in a 3-5 player pot for a raise. you are looking to flop a set? lets say someone else calls, so you are getting 4:1 on your preflop call. you are 8:1 to flop a set, so you need to make up 4 units-that-you-called somewhere, so really it is 8 small bets you have to make up, since you called two. so you have to make 4 BB when you flop a set to make it +EV to call. with the 'maniac' (1.5 seems like he probably is loose and aggressive preflop but thinking postflop) in you are going to pay out the ass if you want to make it to showdown, or he might run you into a real hand, like it sort of looks like he did here. i dunno i think it is not like close and that this is a pretty bad preflop call that is demonstrating a lack of understanding of what small pairs are about, but maybe it is me who is doing the not understanding here. i think i play tighter than most hush people.

[TStoneMBD]

im not just playing 55 for set value. its very possible that i have the only pair preflop and will play it postflop on boards like this. granted, i should have picked a better spot and just folded the flop here, but there are many times when my 55s hold up to be the best hand.

[Danenania]

Honestly I don't quite get all the math that goes into it, but I've read tons of posts by excellent players that advocate calling in situations like this and even situations worse than this. It may seem dumb to imitate rather than figure it out for myself, but this is the kind of spot where I trust a collective of very strong players' analysis and judgment over my own.

[rory]

with small pairs there are two situations where they are good to play:

1) you are pretty sure you can get the pot heads up. i would say not pretty sure but damn sure. this happens if it is folded to you in late position or if you are 3-betting someone who doesn't have to have a good hand and the guys behind you are tight. i'd say heads up against an opponent i have good control over as well with a hand like 55 if i was going the three betting route. but im just greedy.

2) you can get enough multiway action that you are getting a good price to flop a set, factoring in implied odds.

2 doesn't hold here. 1 doesn't either. so you should fold. there are situations that come up in stud like this where even if you think your hand may currently be the best hand, you should fold it anyway because your hand doesn't play well multiway and the way the pot has developed so far you have no chance of getting it heads up. in the hand you posted, i think you should fold 55 because your hand doesn't play well semi-multiway, especially for a raise, because it destroys your implied odds since you have to make up double the amount of bets postflop when you call a raise. even if you knew for sure you had the only pair preflop, you should still fold it even though technically you would be folding the best hand. make sense?

[baronzeus]

you REALLY dont think he can make up 4-5BB in the pots he flops a set? with a maniac? he can possibly make 3-4BB on the flop alone. i think in a huge field this is easy to make up.