$5.50 NLHE STT: How to play a low pocket pair on a 3 of a kind flop?

[palmerd2]

$5.50 NL HE STT: How to play a low pocket pair on a 3 of a kind flop?

I have pocket sixes in middle position during the earliest stages of a STT. I raise 2.5xBB and am called by the small blind.

The flop comes 8 8 8. He checks. What should I do next?

What I did was raise the pot. He 3-bet, and I 4-bet all-in. Was this the right decision?

 

[OzExorcist]

Depends - reads, stacks sizes?

 

[new2poker]

I think you were right to bet on the flop but I would have folded to his raise (if neither of you were short stacked and pot-committed after the flop)

He called your raise pre-flop suggesting he may have some kind of hand.

On the flop, he check-raised you which suggests he likes his hand a lot and is confident about it. Usually, the blinds will bet straight out on the flop if they think their hand might be good but are not confident (because betting is cheaper to find out whether your hand is good compared to check-raising).

I would guess he has a pocket pair as well and the chances are it is higher than 6s. This is because 6 is below the middle pair in the pack. In addition, his check-raise suggests he is not too worried about you getting a free card (in case you had decided not to bet) which would mean that there should not be any or many overcards to his pair.

 

[palmerd2]

Interesting persective. one of the things that really gets to me is the check-raise. It just doesn't make sense...

Can check-raises usually be interpreted as signs of strength? At these lower stakes, I very rarely run into players who are bluffing skillfully.

 

[JEP712]

A lot of info is missing here like stack sizes, player's stats, ect. Since you say it's the earliest stages of a STT then I would assume everyone stacks were the same.

IMO raising with 66 from middle pos is bad. During the early stages you want to play super tight. You can't win in the early stages, you can only get knocked out. Basically what we're trying to do in this stage is to gain information, make it to the later stages and hopefully stack someone. You really don't want to be raising unless you have a premium hand like JJ+ AQs+ (AK/QQ+ out of position). With stacks so deep, you want to limp in with the 66 and set mine.

So the flop comes out 888 and he checks to you. Letting out a 1/2-3/5 pot bet is fine but if you encounter any resistance then just let it go. There isn't anything to win and you have everything to lose. B/C this is a special situation with those 8's on the board, the villain might of just thought you were betting with air so he check raised. Again after this I would of just let him have it. Not really worth continuing the hand. Pick a better spot to invest your chips.

 

[new2poker]

If someone check-raises you on the flop when you were the preflop raiser, I would say that nearly always represents strength.

But I agree, when you play online poker, you can't interpret player's bets with much confidence. That's especially the case at the start of an online tournament when there are many players who think that top pair is the nuts after all the cards are out.