Top pair oop with multiple limpers in unraised pot

I think my inability to play these situations well is one of if not the biggest flaw of my game right now. Lets say you are in the blinds and there are 3 limpers PF. With a hand like ATs or KJs, you would be glad to join in on the action. Now the first question is would you raise with a hand like ATs or KJs from the blinds with 3 limpers behind you? If you are like me and choose to call or check, what do you do when you hit top pair?

There are 4 or 5 bb in the pot, the board has a draw, how much do you bet? If you bet 3/4 pot there is a chance that someone already has you beat. If you bet less than that, it gives opponents a good reason to draw. Would you say top pair with a good kicker is the leading hand after a 4 limped flop?

BLieve said:

I think my inability to play these situations well is one of if not the biggest flaw of my game right now. Lets say you are in the blinds and there are 3 limpers PF. With a hand like ATs or KJs, you would be glad to join in on the action. Now the first question is would you raise with a hand like ATs or KJs from the blinds with 3 limpers behind you? If you are like me and choose to call or check, what do you do when you hit top pair?

There are 4 or 5 bb in the pot, the board has a draw, how much do you bet? If you bet 3/4 pot there is a chance that someone already has you beat. If you bet less than that, it gives opponents a good reason to draw. Would you say top pair with a good kicker is the leading hand after a 4 limped flop?

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no..

when you play a hand like that you are not looking for top pair hands, your looking for some sort of two pair or strong draw or a homerun hitting a straight or flush... with top pair i check and see what develops behind me.. limped pots like that are super dangerous for top pair type hands.. you are generally either sllightly ahead or way way behind.. so checking to keep the pot under control is the best action.. you can fold cheaply if it goes bet raise..

i generally wouldnt raise in this spot as i know that hands like A10 suited or KJ suited play really well in multiway situations. besides if you get called in one or two spots, now your creating a bigger pot that you have to play OOP which is never what you want..

calling preflop is fine.. but i wouldnt get too committed to top pair type hands, especially with a mediocre kicker...

a tournament may differ, if the blinds are high enough and theres a sizeable pot out there you may decide to go for a dead money grab and try to take down the pot preflop.. its costly if you do get called though..

Top pair top kicker is almost always a letdown.

You've got a good hand that's probably the best hand at the moment. Even so you should check and risk getting outdrawn on the turn.

Being OOP is the main consideration here, if you've got the best hand then you win a small pot but even though a bet on the flop may get calls from weaker hands, you'll also get called by a lot of draws and bigger hands. Betting the turn and river into a very dangerous range isn't going to be very proffitable, and if you're raised at any point you really have to throw your hand away.

Instead I think checking is the best option, see what kind of action happens behind you. If there's a bet and a raise, usually you should fold. If there's just one bet then often just check-call your way to the river (actually, the river would be a good spot for a blocking bet to give you better value and let you make an easy fold if raised).

Ah thanks for the input fellas so I guess I have been playing it the right way. Its just that checking with top pair and a strong kicker feels so wrong...but then again all kickers are essentially equal in value in an unraised pot.

Would you guys bet to disguise your hand + fold equity with suited overpairs and a flush draw?

I had a hand like this the other day.

I'm in BB with ATo. I decide to check and see a flop. Flop comes T85. I bet, get min-raised from a player who is unreadable (I could explain, but let's just say she doesn't know what she's doing.) I'm short stacked, I have no choice but shovey-time.

I get called by 85o. Obviously my mistake was not raising the preflop.

If I look down at ATs or KJs and I'm in the blind and people are interested in playing, I'm already out of position (which means a big C-Bet is really my best chance of winning the pot, which I'm going to do on x% of flops anyway), I would be best to raise preflop. And something big, too. If you do a weenie raise like 3 BBs, you are getting called all around, not even having thinned the pack a little bit. But if you do something big and annoying, like 6-7 BBs, weaker hands like 85o from weak players and others will go into the muck. Big raises from the blinds are appropriate when you don't want a multi-way pot.

If you call/check, you must play your hand like a drawing hand, and you shouldn't play drawing hands out of position.

At least, that's my take on the subject. You're welcome to play your game at your table though.

Weregoat it seems that we can all agree that top pair is no good on an unraised flop. 2 pair or better and even then I would still be cautious.