Hero: 20s/30s white male. Been running pretty hot, mostly all my action and stack has come from a player that has now left. Everyone but UTG+3 has been here to see it. Nothing to say really, I raised pfr and flopped the nuts with ATs and had the guy donk pot into me 3 way. I value bet him with KK 3betting pfr and betting roughly 2/3 pot on J99 board till river to get called down. I've been running over the table and most people have noticed and tried to stay out of my way. You could call me table captain I guess. TAG image at the least. Stack $900

Most other players have stacks ranging from 200-300 except for UTG+3 who just transferred here with an 850ish stack.

On to the hand!

UTG+2 limps, UTG+3 limps, MP limps, BTN limps, SB completes, Hero in BB checks option with 56.

Flop: 478 (pot=$15)

SB checks, hero...?

Lead out for 20. Slight overbet but that's fine in a limped pot. Can't expect anyone else to bet for us in a limped pot either.

Big hands want big pots. Try to build a pot however. Whether that comes by betting or checking is up to you and your read of the situation. Easy game.

You really should bet something here. With 5 opponents in the pot somebody is likely drawing against you with some combination of JT9. There are also a lot of hands that are not going away for one bet, 45 might venture a call, 67/68/89 likely calls, 78 doesn't give up to one bet. Over pairs probably call one bet. Sets are quite possible with 4 preflop limps. Essentially, with all those limps either somebody else hit this, has an over pair or you are not going to make any money anyways.

In a limped pot a check/raise generally isn't a good idea. With fewer opponents checking flop might be better.

Depending on table $10-$20 depending on how sticky they are.

Bet the flop for sure 100%. No fear .., wtf? Bet in order to get called. Split mentally the effective stacks in chunks so that you can load them into the pot gradually and look normal.

Pay attention and make a copy to what I'm telling you about raised pots


1) Never slowplay a flopped straight! You'll get plenty of action from pairs and one card straight draws. Get your money in early in case it gets counterfeited, and you have to split the pot.

2) Never slow play a flopped set! Nobody knows you have a monster anyway, therefore, it is stupid to conceal the strength of your hand. Backing off to a raise and then check-raising on the turn is a valid strategy (although not necessarily best). I do not back off when there is a third suited card on board. I feel that I have enough outs to disregard the possibility of a made flush against me. If you lose with a set, you'll lose some money. If you don't, you are not playing your sets correctly.

3) Never slowplay a flush. If somebody slow plays a worse flush you'll feel like a sucker when it gets checked around. Anyway, nobody is going to believe you anyway. Most importantly, do not try to check-raise with a made flush. When a flush card hits, players tend to be careful with their bets, so you might not get any. It's better to lead, hoping somebody raises.

The straightforward play is the surest way to win against the fish. Always remember that. Always!

Probably leading, although not be a bad spot to c/r seeing as the limpers can have the sets

Preflop looks obvious.

I'd go $20 on the flop. We want to build the pot as quick as possible for anyone who wants to play with us, and there's 0% difference in calling frequency between $15 and $20 on the flop.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I definitely bet. Lots of hands can call you here. Of course, that means lots of hands can hit the turn. I'd go $15 - $20.

I was pretty torn between leading out and C/Ring, but I decided with the latter because of the number of players in the hand and my position. I see the logic in both, especially leading as you must do the betting yourself most of the time, but I thought this was a situation where C/Ring could get me more value.

UTG+2 limps, UTG+3 limps, MP limps, BTN limps, SB completes, Hero in BB checks option with 56.

Flop: 478 (pot=$15)

SB checks, hero checks, UTG+2 bets 18, UTG+3 calls, MP folds, BTN calls, SB folds, Hero...?

UTG+2: 40s white male. Pretty sure he's a poker dealer from another casino. Playing pretty loose preflop but tighter post flop. Was making large pot sized bets like in this situation. Stack $180

UTG+3: 50s/60s white male. Table changed less than 20 min ago with his big stack. I saw him play one hand in which he raised preflop to 15, 1 caller. Flop A45r c/c. Turn 6 check villain bets 25 player calls. River 7 check villain checks it back and shows AA. Don't have a good read on him but doesn't seem splashy. Stack $800ish

BTN: 40s Asian male. Table changed over an hour ago. Pretty damn tight, been mostly folding preflop. Saw him limp once and raise once to take it down preflop. Stack $170

So, what sizing are people thinking to make our raise?

I'd make it pretty big. There is $69 in the pot, so I'd actually go about $90, maybe an even $100. Commit the short stacks.

With 1 or 2 opponents I might flat the bet. When UTG+2 bets and gets 2 calls I'm raising also. Since you can't have a combo draw or a flush draw your raise is going to look super strong. Any raise puts the short stacks to a shove/fold decision but I would want to give enough space to come over the top if somebody shoves and UTG+3 doesn't fold. $75 looks good.

Whatever I raise to, it's going to be less than $75 over the $18, or $93 total

Good point about being able to re-shove. Go as high as you can, round down to not look so calculating, and bet.

I either lead out $10 here or check/flat. Check raising is a move to thin the field or end the hand. Not really interested in doing either or those things at this point.

Since there are some 200-300 stacks, pot seems right, raise to 100. Your c/r is going to announce that you're playing for stacks. Just strike while the iron is hot.

Many times, after one person calls, others are like OMG OMG big pot I want it, I can't fold. Best case, two players have sets and one has 2 pair. Go get it.

Agreed, I would never raise 18 to 93, I would raise to an increment of 5, so in this case 90. Maybe even 85 just in case I miscounted Vs short stack

I'm late on the initial flop decision, but I don't understand all the recs for $20 with the stacks so small. If you bet $10, the worst case scenario is probably 2 callers and then you have pot 45 with SPR ranging from 4 to 6 for all but one opponent. You can still effectively GII by the river.

But that's the worst case. Leading for 10 there's a good chance of more than 2 callers and you could raised. Anyway, that's my reasoning but I'm curious why everyone leans to 20 rather than 10 or 15.

My sense is that people are inelastic on sizing to flop bets in a limped pot. Assuming you don't go crazy, they're probably calling about the same range for a $20 bet as a $10 bet, because there's still a lot of money behind and 2 cards to see. The only hands I could see raising are sets and 87, and they probably raise no matter what our sizing is.

+1

Build a pot while it's cheap enough that they will call an over-bet.

Yup, flop is really a street we can "overbet" (especially in a limped pot) and it won't matter to anyone since there is no difference $$$-wise between $10 and $20.

GcluelessNLnoobG

+1

lets also not forget that $20 isn't an overbet in most peoples eyes. people will think "6 players X $3 = $18, $20 is easier to bet than $18, i cawl!" and never even consider rake. and if they don't do that, inevitably the pot is going to have a bunch of $1, $2, and $5 chips in it, so they won't know the exact size of the pot. it's very rare that the dealer would end up with 3 $5 chips in the pot making it very obvious what the pot size is.

Ah, got it, absolute $ not % of pot. Thanks!

First rule of fight club is we don't talk about fight club.
Second rule of fight club is we DONT talk about fight club.

5 keys to dodgeball.
Dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.

First rule of flopped straights is don't slow play a flopped straight.
Second rule of flopped straights is don't slow play a flopped straight.

grunch I'd much prefer to trap with the top end of the nuts like 78 on 654, but never 65 on 874. There are just too many more cards that can kill you on 874 than on 654. And there are no cards that make your opponent a worse straight than you.

I would just start off leading the flop and keep betting strong.

UTG+2 limps, UTG+3 limps, MP limps, BTN limps, SB completes, Hero in BB checks option with 56.

Flop: 478 (pot=$15)

SB checks, hero checks, UTG+2 bets 18, UTG+3 calls, MP folds, BTN calls, SB folds, hero raises to 75, UTG+2 folds, UTG+3 calls, BTN goes AI for 170, hero..?