$5 NLHE 6-max: Playing Middle Pocket Pair

$5 NL HE 6-max: Playing Middle Pocket Pair

Full Tilt, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

JonasBluffer (CO): $4.49 (89.8 bb)
BTN: $3.66 (73.2 bb)
SB: $1.54 (30.8 bb)
BB: $6.79 (135.8 bb)
MP: $4.79 (95.8 bb)

Pre-Flop: JonasBluffer is CO with
MP raises to $0.20, JonasBluffer calls $0.20, 2 folds, BB raises to $1, MP folds, JonasBluffer calls $0.80

Flop: ($2.22) (2 players)
BB bets $1

... Me???????

Do you guys think its good calling here?

PS: I was new on table.

I'd fold preflop, your risking too much of your stack to setmine, original call was fine, but I wouldn't continue after the 3bet.

As played, you cant really fold now, you have 40% equity against big pairs with 3.22 already in the pot. I would just call , it is unlikely you can ever fold out better hands by shoving, I would want MP to come along as well if possible, instead of shutting him out in order to win more if we hit some of our outs.

OK first thing is that against this raise PF, 77 is not the kind of hand you want to be playing.

The origional raise represents 1/6 of your opponents stack.. he either has a big hand or has committed himself to a bluff.

As is you have called it.

You have an open ended straight draw (8 outs) plus if you put your opponent on a over pair (AA KK QQ?) then you also have 2 outs for a set.

So lets say you have 9 outs which means that you need 2:1 odds (there abouts)

Calling is terrible.. you are beat and then paying to see only one card.. you will not be getting correct odds for that, and then will face a raise on the turn offering even worse odds.

My feeling is that the correct couse of action on the flop is to shove.

The pot is $3.22 and your stack is now $3.49 so its basically a pot sized shove.

If called the pot will be 8.50 and will have cost you about 3.50 .. so the odds are about 2.4:1

Which are correct odds to call.. so correct odds to shove with.

Plus you also generate a bit of fold equity.. occasionally he might fold with this hand so that further improves your odds of winning a little.

Shove the flop and hope for the best .. the odds are correct. TBH it would have been far more sensible to fold theis PF.. but as is...

Hy guys!
Thanks for the posts, here is how the hand continues:


Full Tilt, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

JonasBluffer (CO): $4.49 (89.8 bb)
BTN: $3.66 (73.2 bb)
SB: $1.54 (30.8 bb)
BB: $6.79 (135.8 bb)
MP: $4.79 (95.8 bb)

Pre-Flop: JonasBluffer is CO with
MP raises to $0.20, JonasBluffer calls $0.20, 2 folds, BB raises to $1, MP folds, JonasBluffer calls $0.80

Flop: ($2.22) (2 players)
BB bets $1, JonasBluffer calls $1

Turn: ($4.22) (2 players)
BB bets $2.49, JonasBluffer calls $2.49 and is all-in

River: ($9.20) (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $9.20 pot ($0.61 rake)
BB showed (a pair of Queens) and lost (-$4.49 net)
JonasBluffer showed (a straight, Five to Nine) and won $8.59 ($4.10 net)

To be honest, I think that hand was played pretty bad from start to finish. You really should have folded to the 3bet preflop. Since you didn't fold preflop you put your self into a hard decision on the flop, and the harder your decisions are, the more likely you are to make a mistake. Just calling on the flop probably wasn't your best move. Like stu_ungar said, You should have shoved AI. That way you do get a little fold equity and stop your self from calling another bet on the river where you would most likely be even further behind (right now you are at less than 40%, on the turn if you missed you'd be at around 20% and calling an even larger bet)if you didn't hit. It seems like you just got lucky on this hand.