interesting thinking there, If the stacks were bigger then I would exactly play it like you said , i actually went into the tank for some time with this one, my thinking at the time was either hes hit the flop hard two pair and trying to suck the two remaining players in , hes got AA ( little unlikely he probably would have mini raised at least to get some money in the pot pre flop) or hes hit either bottom or or mid pair and is testing the waters and is not quiet prepared to invest all his money. I Wouldnt you just shove with Jx win a nice pot and moove on ? So for me it was either fold or shove , the reason for this is because of fold
equity , if we shove hes most probably folding the underpairs to the jack. If we float, what do we do if he just bets another 8k ? where getting great
odds to call with top pair , and are back to square one , but this time we have less equity to showe as our oponent has now invested nearly half his stack. If we just float again on turn , then we are preety much pot comited on the river. What do you think about this?
Do you really think small / middle pair checking with the small stack to blinds ratio ? i would check call when stacks are deaper definetly , but when we are under such pressure from the blinds , the button and bb showed no interest pre flop , we hit flop why not make a little stab at the pot , if oponents dont hit the flop ( most of the time ) or dont hit a draw , then they are folding any bet here right?
You're right, folding is too weak, but you don't have to shove. An out of position bet from a player who showed no interest in the hand pf is almost never a bluff. clearly he connected with the flop in some way. Since most bottom or middle pairs are going to check/call these flops, his most likely holding is some kind of Jx which probably beats your's. But that's not to say that he's not testing the water with a lower pair or some kind of a wheel draw. I know calling will cost you 20% of you're stack but in this case I think it's the right play. Float the flop and see what he does on the turn. If he bet's the turn then let it go. If he checks the turn and the river blanks i might even consider calling a small river bet.