Building the pot

[Vintage82]

I have recently be turning over the tables at party poker .10/.25 NL level. Due to most tables being calling stations and having min buy-ins I thought i'd start to build a few pots in position, with marginal hands, so if I hit, I can bust a few smaller stacks, who I had observed pushing with less than great hands after hitting some small part of the flop.

No hand history I'm afraid, was using PP's anywhere site at work...!

Hero is dealer, dealt KsQs

UTG calls, mp2 calls, Hero raises to .75, BB calls, UTG calls, mp2 calls.

flop: 6s Qd 2s

BB checks, UTG bets 1.5, mp2 calls, Hero calls, BB folds.

turn: 4s

UTG bets $3 (all-in), mp2 raises to $5 (all-in), hero calls

river: 10s

UTG shows Qh3s (a pair of Q's)
mp2 shows Qc9h (a pair of Q's)
Hero shows KsQs (a flush, K high)

Was worried about the river spade thinking mp2 might have the As, but was quite amused at the showdown!

Anyway, a valid play?

 

[OneMoreBust]

It looks like you just raised pre-flop, and then let the rest of the table do the betting for you the rest of the hand.

Do I like your move? Sure, but only for sure with this hand. You flopped top pair with second highest possible kicker, and you also had a 2nd nuts flush draw. The only scare card for you would be the ace, or running cards to make possible straights, etc.

This lets the pot grow, but you have to be aware and willing to ditch if an Ace comes and the rest continue to show strength. However since the spade came, sure, play anyway you need to in order to get the rest of these guys' money in the pot, you have a solid hand, and it will hold up a lot of the time

 

[F Paulsson]

I presume you're referring to the preflop raise when you're wondering if it was valid or not. As far as I'm concerned, this preflop raise can be done solely on the merit of value; you have higher-than-average equity so getting more money in the pot is a winning proposition for you.

What you could experiment with is building the pot with weaker suited connectors, e.g. 9-8 suited. Not every time, of course (NL is a style where there should be no "always's" and no "never's"), but sometimes. The raise isn't for value (with a hand like that, you're probably somewhere around average or slightly-below-average equity) but for the times when you flop a big draw or a lock, the size of the pot will encourage more action.