Crossing Over From Limit, Interesting Live Hand

[dabluebery]

Live Home Game, NL Holdem, blinds at .25 / .50 ($20 buy-in)9 handed.

I've got about $40 in front of me. Villain (BB) has about $60. No reads on villain yet, never played with him before. Bunch of college kids, not particularly good.

Hero is one off the button with 85 of hearts. Min-raise ($1) from UTG, 3 calls. I call, blinds complete, 6 to the flop.

Flop comes AQ7 and 2 hearts (Ace and the queen). Small Blind Checks, BB Bets $1, one call in the middle, and I raise to $3. I raised from my limit poker experience, having position, putting the guy on an ace (probably) and was looking for a free card to the river, or to disguise my hand if I made a flush on the turn. All fold except the Big blind, who calls the raise.

The turn is the Jack of hearts, and the big blind pushes all-in for $58, and has me covered. There's about $10-$12 in the middle, so it's a huge bet. I've got to call my $40 to win $40-$52 with a made, but weak, flush.

I couldn't figure out why the guy went all-in. Keep in mind that it's possible he's good, but possible he's bad, I'm not sure yet. His friends are a group of loose and aggressive NL players who like to bluff a lot, but I have no idea yet.

Post what I should have done on this turn call, based on your experience. Also let me know if I had the right idea with my flop raise. I will post results later.

Also, leave me alone for calling on the button in a LAGGY NL game, I thought the implied odds were just fine for 85s. Not sure what you guys think.

Rob

[toby]

Quick call for me.

Only 3 flushes beat you (K, T, 9), and overbetting the pot like that isn't a good way for him to extract money from you. Laggy players might think your raise meant an ace, and are bluffing the flush card. There are a ton of hands he could have like a straight or two-pair.

From my experience playing poker with college students, the size of the pot never made too big of a difference when someone wanted to go all-in WPT style, so I wouldn't think about that.

If he had a better flush, that's rough for you but he's a tard. The only hand he'll make money from is a weaker flush because anyone else is folding a pair, two pair, etc.

[JFB37]

If you aren't willing to call here you shouldn't have called pf. Only reasonable flush hands he could have are K9s, T9s or T7s. However, I would not expect the BB to have lead the flop with one of those hands. I think it is much more likely he has a straight or two pair.

[dabluebery]

Thanks for the advice.

He had T4 of hearts, and I was out the door before the river hit the board.

In summarizing his skill level, I came to the conclusion that he's either;

a) Johnny Chan and had an awesome read on me ( Nearly Impossible)
b) Just learning poker, and didn't realize what his massive overbet meant, he just got excited.

He did bet his flush draw on the flop, which shows something, I'm not sure what. Probably that he is just taking those steps to learn about poker. Tough hand, thanks.

Rob

[wslee00]

i've found that most people that go all-in overbetting the pot usually has the made hand at the lower limits. Not many players at these limits are sophisticated enough to make that all-in bluff.

[wslee00]

oh - and I know that you said this was a very loose game, but I still wouldn't call w/ 85s. I would play 86s in my home game, but that's only b/c hey, it's a home game - i'm there to have fun.