88 in Big blind, 4 limpers |
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Posted Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:01 pm GMT by krakajak
PL SNG, blinds 10/20, I get 88 in BB w/ 4 limpers. Should I play them aggressively, or check and hope to hit a set? I decide to play them aggressively, and raise the pot. Everyone but the button folds. The flop is J,7,7. I figure he probably missed the flop, so I need to bet big enough to push him out of the pot. I don't think anything less than a pot sized bet will work, so I bet the pot and he instantaneously re-raises me.
What could he have? We can eliminate a lot of hands based on his pre-flop play. If he had limped with garbage, he probably would have folded to my raise. So we can rule out the 7 (he might have called with A7s, but it's unlikely). If he had a strong hand he wouldn't have limped, so we can rule out pocket pairs bigger than mine, although there's a small chance he has 99 or TT. We can also rule out AK and AQ.
So the most likely hands for him to have limped in and called my raise with are: (a) Axs, (b) two paint cards without a jack, (c) two paint cards with a jack, or (d) a small pocket pair.
Based on his post-flop play, unless he was on a pure bulff, we can eliminate Axs or two paint cards with no jack. At the time I thought he might be bluffing, but now I doubt it. His play was consistent with Jx, but an aggressive player with a small pocket pair would probably play the same way if they put me on AQ/AK.
This was probably a re-raise or fold situation, but I couldn't bring myself to do either one. I wasn't confident enough that I had him beat to re-raise, but I thought there was a good chance that I had the best hand, and didn't want to muck it and leave myself short-stacked either.
The turn was a K. If anything, this card should have helped me. It couldn't have helped him, unless he was bluffing with KQ or KT (at the time I thought that was possible, but now I don't). If I had gone all-in, he could have easily thought I had AK and folded his J.
What screwed me up was this rule of thumb I play by, which is "When heads up, with a pocket pair, don't be afraid of a single overcard, unless it's an ace. But be very careful with two overcards on board."
Even though I had no reason to fear the king in this situation, this rule of thumb blinded me to everything else. Instead of bluffing at the king, I checked. My opponent hesitated for a while, and bet out 300 chips, 1/6 of the pot. I folded.
Anyway, I would appreciate any insight as to how I should have played this hand.
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Posted Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:32 pm GMT by buchkoba00
I really don't like the raise preflop out of position.
I'd check and hope for a set on the flop, otherwise it's just not worth getting involved with 4 other players.
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