A hand that I thought was interesting

[scrub]

Someone posted this hand on another poker discussion group that I take part in, and I changed my mind about the hand while I was writing a post about it.

The pre-flop action is pretty terrible and distracted me from looking at the flop decision properly, so I'm going to gloss over it and hope that everyone just ignores it.

You're playing in a 5/10 NLHE game.

You have the table covered.

You are holding 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in the Big Blind.

The flop is 8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].

You had a muscle spasm preflop and accidentally threw chips into the pot meaning that you flopped the straight despite the fact that the pot has 805 chips in it with 4 players when a short stack raised UTG.

You bet out 150. UTG goes all in for his last 700, raising you 550. MP1 mucks. MP2 thinks for a while and calls--that leaves him with 550 chips. 550 back to you with 2355 in the pot.

What's the play?

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[Garland]

Noting that you have the sucker end of the straight and the fact that one player pushed and another player called, that is a very, very bad sign.

Taking inventory:

1) There are other forms of straights (J7 or J10) that could leave you drawing slim or dead.
2) There is a real possibility of a flush draw.
3) Someone may have a set or 2 pair and would still have outs against you.
4) Any J or Q that appears on the board will make you sick.

Change the hand to J7, and it's a close decision. J10 is, of course, a gimme push. But with one all-in and another caller, I think this is an easy laydown. You might be ahead right now with the low end of the straight, but I do not like 76's chances of being in first by the time the river card hits.

Garland

[scrub]

I should add that the UTG raiser is a maniac, which is apparently why everyone involved in the hand called him.

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[gavrilo]

what was preflop action, maniac raised, people cold called?

[scrub]

Yah.

Maniac's push does not mean that maniac has a hand and people calling maniac does not mean that they think they can beat aces.

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[sniperd]

If he is the kind of maniacs I have played with, I am calling here, basically getting 3 to 1 on your money. I would guess you win this a little more than half the time, so that would be worth it.

[jdl22]

I think calling is bad news. Let's face it at this point were playing for MP2's chips if we're in the pot.

If you think he has a better straight then fold. Otherwise he's on a draw that you have to make him pay for.

My guess is he's doesn't have a better straight. If he did he wouldn't want you drawing cheaply to a flush or possibly a better straight than he's got. So I think he would have gone all in with a better made hand there.

I push.

[Little Fishy]

How much do you have in front of you and how much does MP2 have in front of him. It's possible that UTG has two pair or trips or maybe even a strait or over pp. I'd push here. If you can get MP2 to fold that's good because it increases your chances of not being outdrawn. If MP2 does call than you still might have the best hand, and even if UTG beats you, you could still win a big sidepot. It all depends on how pot commited MP2 and you are.

[1800GAMBLER]

Push. I'm missing the confusion. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[scrub]

Please note that stack sizes are in the post.

They're the reason I thought the hand was interesting, and I am SHOCKED that so many of you are advocating a fold here. You are getting 4:1 on your call on a draw heavy board against a nutcase who raised preflop and got his push that was smaller than a pot-sized bet called by another short stack. Since you're going to end up putting MP in either now or on the turn, you're really getting more like 3:1, but I don't that changes the fact that folding here is a bad idea.

Think about your pot equity v. hands like:

TT
99
88
9T
89
JJ
AJ
QQ
AA
KK
AK clubs

You all really think you're up against JQ here often enough to not call at 3:1?

I thought the more interesting question was whether you would rather be all in on the turn or on the flop since you can't possibly fold... It was really one of those plays that are actually pretty much EV neutral and I just thought it was an interesting "Theory of Poker" type riddle to try to puzzle out if one had a slightly higher EV than the other. Then again, this might have had somehting to do with sleep deprivation and writing my last college paper ever.

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