1/2 NLH Live Hand discussion

[eliasxax]

New guy sits down in UTG and immediately straddles to £5. I am now second to act and look down at JTd. There had been a fair bit of 3 betting since I had sat down but nothing wild. All hands were pretty ordinary. I bought in for £300 but lost a couple hands and my stack had dwindled to £185. The straddler had £400 in front of him.

Action: I called the £5

If there was no straddle I would usually raise here, but I didn't want to face a 3-bet and was eager to see a flop for as cheap as possible.

The button also called the £5, and the blinds folded. The straddler then raised to £40.

Action: I called the £40

No point in raising here after I just called the £5. Don't like throwing away suited connectors to just one bet, especially as good as JT. Although, maybe my stack is now too short to play this hand in a pot with an opening raise of £40. Let me know what you think about this.

The button folds.

Flop: 7c 6s Jh
Pot: £88

Villain leads out for £50.

Action: I call

Definitely thought about jamming here for £145 but don't think anything that I can beat would call. I would only fold out hands like AK, AQ and under pairs which I think I want to continue with me. I am also aware that TT+ are all in his range, but didn't necessarily want to give him this much credit as thought he might be trying to boss the table around as soon as he sat down.

Turn: 7d
Pot: £188

Villain puts me all in for my remaining £95.

Action: I call

I don't like calling here but don't think I have much choice.

River: 6c

Villain shows KK.


Feel like I could have avoided this and made a few mistakes in the hand but can't really pinpoint what they are. If you could let me know what you would have done differently and why I would really appreciate it. Thanks

 

[c0rnBr34d]

Here's my opinion on it. When V puts the $5 straddle on our stack is now 37 BB. We should be raising or folding pre only on this super short stack. Since we have JTs, the worst position pre flop, and an active table just fold pre and wait for the game to go back to 1/2. If you must, then raise to $25-30 yourself and fold to the 3 bet. Or if no one raises we bet or jam the flop depending on how many callers we get when we hit our top pair. We really just don't have much wiggle room with only 37 BB. If it's heads up and we get raised on a flop as dry as this maybe there is a small chance we can bet / fold flop (if we bet 25 pre, got one call, cbet 30 and got raised on this drawless dry board). But for the most part we are going broke if they have JT beat.

 

[fundiver199]

I think, the key to this hand is preflop. I understand, that live poker is very slow, and therefore its tempting to get involved with anything decent and playable. But you were effectively UTG, and then JTs is a little bit iffy to be honest. Especially when stacks are short because of the straddle, because its a hand, that often depend on drawing and bluffing over multible streets.

Also if you are going to play it, then its better to come in for a raise. Limping allow even more people to come into the pot, and you give yourself no chance to win the hand preflop. If you limp-call, you also end up paying more to see a flop, than had you just raised, and you give your opponents valuable information about your hand.

As played when you face that big raise to effectively 8BB, I would just fold. You are getting a worse price, than you would with a normal 3-bet, and you have another player left to act after you.

Postflop I dont really see, how you can get away, when you flop a pair with so little stack left behind. But this also highlight, why playing JTs UTG is not a profitable play, and even less so, when you come in for a limp.