Here's a hand I had happen to me at Hawaiian Gardens Casino this weekend. I had A-8 in the cutoff. 1 limper to me, so I increased it to $15. The button, both blinds and the limper called, so we went 5 to the flop w/ about $70 in the pot. I'm up about $250 when this hand started.

The flop comes out J-9-5 so I've got the nut flush draw. The SB leads out with $25. The BB calls, UTG+1 calls, I call and the button folds. so now there's about $170 in the pot with 4 players.

The turn is the 10 of diamonds, so now I've got the nut flush, but the J-10-9 diamonds is on the board, opening straight flush possibilities. The SB leads out with $50, the BB shoves all-in his final $61 and UTG+1 snap calls.

What should I do here? Do I really have to be afraid of a straight flush with so many people in the hand? Should I be more worried about someone with a set hitting a full house?

Is table pretty loose and thus preflop result kinda expected? I mean, I'm certainly guessing we didn't expect to go 5 ways, but even going 3ways with this hand is fairly meh, and just given preflop/flop action in this hand suggests this is a fairly loose table. At loose tables, I'd fold preflop. At more tighter no action tables, I'm more cool with a raise.

We're getting 6:1 to call almost closing the action, so that's what I'd do on the flop. Our implied odds suck, although there is a good chance with this action that the K or Q is out there too, but given these immediate odds we don't really care if we get paid off. Even though the bet is lol small, I don't like the idea of attempting to get 3 opponents to fold at a loose table with a big raise especially if any of them are payoff monkeys.

I'm also shoving the turn. We made our hand, three others are interested, lets get it in before a terrible river perhaps kills the hand/action. If someone has a straight flush, nice hand.

JFC, just realized this was a barg post?

GgrunchingG

lol gobbledygeek

Ya, that's the problem with grunching posts one line at a time.

Ginb4lockedG

Obviously I shoved. The SB called (he had the king) and the UTG+1 folded (he had the queen). The BB had the 8 and was looking for either the 7 or king for his straight flush.

first fold A8 off its junk unless you are steeling small change or just making some noise if you are card dead.

Umm Call is ok shove is fine too.

I'm never folding A-8 on this table.

just curious.

A7o?
A6o?
A5-2o? i assume hey they make straights so going with those as well

Big leak.

GimoG

Srsly.

The A8o is questionable. Otherwise played pretty well/standard. Not nearly the FE needed to jam flop and you're probably against blockers. 6:1 essentially closing action is an insta snap here.

This was a super loose table. Every flop saw 6-7 players limping in. If somebody raised it to $12 or $15 pre, you'd still get 4-5 players.

The turn was the 10 of diamonds, giving me the ace-high flush but putting straight flush possibilities out there. The SB bet $50, the BB shoved all-in for $61, UTG+1 called the $61, so I shoved all-in. The SB called my shove for about $150 more and UTG+1 folded after deliberating for a long time. The river was the 2 of diamonds. The SB had the King of diamonds and the BB had the 8 of diamonds and was going for the open-ended straight flush draw. The UTG+1 folded the queen of diamonds (he showed when he folded) meaning the BB only had the 7 diamonds to help him. I wound up scooping a pot of $650.

Now you see why I say I would never fold A-8 on that table? Those guys were ridiculously loose and would pay handsomely to chase straight flushes.

A8o is complete garbage, especially multiway. There are times you can possibly make an isolation play in LP at a tighter table, but this ain't that table. Go ahead and stove A8o against 5 other hands and see how well it does (it sucks).

You basically got the stars to align here and only got paid off because someone had the second nut flush (noting how the third nut flush managed a fold) and, yeah, some donk called to attempt hit a straight flush (again, stars aligning). Do you know how often this situation is going to arise? Not nearly enough for the amount of money you seem to be willing to pay for it preflop, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

So you guys don't adjust your strategy when you're at a bad table? Or do you just play the same way all the time?

adjusting some if fine and needed, but junk self trap hands (ie negative implied odds) are just asking to get stuck. What if (more likely flop) an Ace hits? to easy you are a dog here, and if not than you make a bet and find your self with a small pot (ie win small lose big).

Tables like that does not mean you can play badly too, it means you have more chances of making value from your hands.

I do find it funny that you will defend A8 as good but sweat that someone has the Stgt Flush.

A2-A5 FYI is better than A6-A9. Rarely you kickers are good with the middle aces and the smaller ones can make straits (still not good hands but better).