Live 1/2nl Hand

[gaddyjr 0]

Stacks: Hero - $350, Villain - $1100Read: Villain is an older man, probably in his late 60's who is there every day. He is one of those guys that would rather play a suited connector than AK because he thinks he can win bigger pots with them. He is known to be quite boastful and generally thinks a lot of himself. He sat down with 1 stack of red and 1k in cash. He always sits with a lot of money and I get the impression that he doesn't mind to gamble.Hand:Hero is dealt QhQd in the SB and the Villain makes a live straddle (to $4) from the button (if you have never played in MS before, you can live straddle from any position).I was first to act and called the $4. There were 4 more callers until the villain raised to $12. I reraised to $50 and the villain was the only callerFlop: Ks 5d 5sI bet $65 and the villian pretty quickly makes it $200.Hero???1. What do you think of the preflop play? Limp-raising good or bad? Should the raise have been more?2. How do you like the flop bet? Too small? Too big?3. What is our response to the raise? Fold? Call? All-in? Why?

[DrawingDeadInDM 0]

Hero???

1. ..Limp/raising is bad.2. Flop bet is fine--maybe a little more.3. It's your read.

[gaddyjr 0]

1. ..Limp/raising is bad.

I respect your opinion, but could you give me your reasoning. IMO, if I make a standard raise to $15 here, I get 3 to 4 callers where with the limp raise I was able to get heads up and get about the same amount of money in.Comments?

[DonkSlayer 1]

Stacks: Hero - $350, Villain - $1100Read: Villain is an older man, probably in his late 60's who is there every day. He is one of those guys that would rather play a suited connector than AK because he thinks he can win bigger pots with them. He is known to be quite boastful and generally thinks a lot of himself. He sat down with 1 stack of red and 1k in cash. He always sits with a lot of money and I get the impression that he doesn't mind to gamble.Hand:Hero is dealt QhQd in the SB and the Villain makes a live straddle (to $4) from the button (if you have never played in MS before, you can live straddle from any position).I was first to act and called the $4. There were 4 more callers until the villain raised to $12. I reraised to $50 and the villain was the only callerFlop: Ks 5d 5sI bet $65 and the villian pretty quickly makes it $200.Hero???1. What do you think of the preflop play? Limp-raising good or bad? Should the raise have been more?2. How do you like the flop bet? Too small? Too big?3. What is our response to the raise? Fold? Call? All-in? Why?

I think you have to be ready for his raise and call him really quickly, to show strength. You only bet $65 into this pot after the flop, fuzzy math but was that even 1/2? It screamed weakness, and knowing that he likes to gamble makes me think that he thought you were trying to buy the pot preflop and then made a weak continuation when you missed. Your only hope here is to call quickly and scare him a bit, b/c if you take your time he will push at you again, and if you reraise and he has a good K, you're screwed. He's likely on spades, as his raise after all those limps was definitely for value and not to thin the field.

[macphec 0]

2 reasons I HATE the limp reraise.1. You limp with a big pair and it becomes a family pot. Terrible for obvious reasons.2. Even more important than #1 imo, You are telling everyone that you have a big pair usually giving them the impled odds to stack you. A big part of poker is deception and by limp reraising you are screaming "I have a big pair".. . Unless of course you can make the same play with 85s, then it's cool.

[gaddyjr 0]

2 reasons I HATE the limp reraise.1. You limp with a big pair and it becomes a family pot. Terrible for obvious reasons.2. Even more important than #1 imo, You are telling everyone that you have a big pair usually giving them the impled odds to stack you. A big part of poker is deception and by limp reraising you are screaming "I have a big pair".. . Unless of course you can make the same play with 85s, then it's cool.

Points very well taken. So you would have just opened raised to what? $15? $20?

[mk 11]

Points very well taken. So you would have just opened raised to what? $15? $20?

Yep, $12-15.

[David_Nicoson 1]

1. What do you think of the preflop play? Limp-raising good or bad? Should the raise have been more?

I think if you're going to limp-raise, the raise needs to be more. You're defining your hand pretty narrowly in a fairly deep situation out of position. I like $85 or so here. You are going to be at a disadvantage after the flop, so you need to charge a lot.

2. How do you like the flop bet? Too small? Too big?

OK.

3. What is our response to the raise? Fold? Call? All-in? Why?

My guess is that he doesn't have anthing. His preflop raise isn't big enough to achieve much except announce that he's making a raise to set up a flop steal. He's going to put you on a big pair, so you'd have to be fortunate enough to have flopped quads to have a king. If I go with that read, I'm going to call and then check and call the turn if he continues to bluff. That said, I never hate folding on the flop with just one pair. Go with your read. I don't like an all-in, regardless of what the cards are.

[DrawingDeadInDM 0]

I respect your opinion, but could you give me your reasoning. IMO, if I make a standard raise to $15 here, I get 3 to 4 callers where with the limp raise I was able to get heads up and get about the same amount of money in.Comments?

For a couple reasons..-Limp/raising UTG will likely kill any action from an observant player. -The straddle does weird things to people. You really don't want to see this flop 8 handed.-Limping from EP never guarantees a bet/raise behind you.

[bcook823 0]

I'd straddle my button every round, if I am reading all this correct. If the button straddles, then the sb will act first both preflop and post flop? Id straddle my button every time. What happens if two people want to straddle. I'd straddle the CO too, if the button wasn't going to straddle. Did the quick move make you think he was just making a predetermained play, or did you think he had a big hand and was excited about it?

[gaddyjr 0]

I'd straddle my button every round, if I am reading all this correct. If the button straddles, then the sb will act first both preflop and post flop? Id straddle my button every time. What happens if two people want to straddle. I'd straddle the CO too, if the button wasn't going to straddle. Did the quick move make you think he was just making a predetermained play, or did you think he had a big hand and was excited about it?

You are correct about the straddle. There are a lot of people that do straddle their button every time. It two people want to straddle, preference is given first to someone is coming in - missed a blind - and then to the whoever is closer to the button.I don't think it was predetermined. My first thought was that he had a hand like 56s or spades. I think he just thought that he could push me around with his stack.Thanks everyone for all of the responses. I ended up putting him on either trip fives or spades. Either way, like someone mentioned above, I didn't want to play a pot that big with only one pair.I folded and he showed 9sTs and acted like it was the bluff of the century.

[HurricaneKyle 0]

I'm not a fan of the limp-reraise either for reasons already stated. Unless the game is full of really bad players then its not a good idea to employ it in your repotoire. The flop is a little scary, and I think the bet is OK. However you have to anticipate his raise. He's an action player, who raises with any kind of connector. Seems to me that you had some information to make the tough call but didn't act on it.You know he doesn't like AK, so that makes it less likely the King hit him. Don't beat yourself up for not calling here, its not an easy spot but in the future be more inclined to go with your feel instead of the actual strength of your hand in relation to the flop. That really doesn't matter here, all that counts is that your hand is better than villains. If it is, beat him in the pot.

[DrawingDeadInDM 0]

2 reasons I HATE the limp reraise.1. You limp with a big pair and it becomes a family pot. Terrible for obvious reasons.2. Even more important than #1 imo, You are telling everyone that you have a big pair usually giving them the impled odds to stack you. A big part of poker is deception and by limp reraising you are screaming "I have a big pair".. . Unless of course you can make the same play with 85s, then it's cool.

I somehow missed this the first time, and I think it's pretty important--so bump for importance.

[GABMAD 0]

Ok, it was really hard to follow the situation preflop. How can the villain, if he's on the button reraise himself? or was there a raise by one oppoenent to 4$ and a reraise by the villain on the button to 12$?? I'll assume that's the case. Preflop, I do like the raise, and I put the villain on a hand like A K. When you bet the flop, it's a good raise, but I don't know if it's profitable. The pot was... 4 limpers for 4$=16$ + 100$ (hero's and villain's money), that's 116$ in the pot. I think your bet was marginal, you could of gotten the same inforamtion by checking, but the reraise yells out A K. fold. It would of been helpful if you specified his playing style

[gaddyjr 0]

Ok, it was really hard to follow the situation preflop. How can the villain, if he's on the button reraise himself? or was there a raise by one oppoenent to 4$ and a reraise by the villain on the button to 12$?? I'll assume that's the case.

The button made a live straddle. That means that he puts in $4 and he gets the last action.

[Pancake407 0]

he didnt reraise himself. He straddled from the button, its basically like posting a blind, and raising from it.