I have 4h4d in the Hijack in a casino 2/5 game, and open raise to $15.

I get four callers, the cutoff, Btn, SB and BB.

Flop comes 9c 8c 4s.

Checked to me and I bet 50 into the 75 pot.

The Cutoff (a tight passive player who hasn't got out of line yet) reraises to 175. I have $800 left and he has me covered.

All fold and it's up to me. I'm thinking he's either got a set (when I'm crushed) or a great draw, when I'm a slight favorite. Not sure of the best play here - call, fold or shove? (I shoved btw.)

Thanks in advance!

Tight passive players dont raise the flop with a draw. He either has a bigger set or flat called your raise with a big pair (AA-QQ) and now thinks its the nuts.

Thanks Mike - I should have mentioned that 'tight passive' tag I gave him was only based on about one hour's observation, so more of a guess really

Yeah, if he is tight-passive, I see this as one of two things: Getting over excited about a big set (I've done that), or played it slow with an overpair and is now scared of draws and is trying to push you out. I like the shove.

Thank you for posting this, I’m curious to see the responses...

I don’t see how you can get out of this....

<I think a great draw like open ended flush draw could be ahead of you, even though you have re-draws on that.>

I would give a tight passive a few draws on this board because he can have JcTc or strong draws like AcTc where he has the nut flush + 2 overs + backdoor straight.

There is also the factor that since hero made the original raise villain probably isn't giving hero too many huge hands. Hero can have over pairs/A9o/flush draws/straight draws or just be c-betting air.

You have to make an estimate of how many sets vs draws vs other hands villain has in his range and go with it. With some idea villain is tight/passive shoving flop only gets called by higher sets and a few huge draws so it is probably counter productive. My inclination would be call flop and evaluate on turn, with an eye towards calling at least one more bet no matter what the turn is. Depending on what I think of villain I might make a half pot bet on the turn to see how villain reacts.

My concern here is not really set over set, that is too rare to worry about without a very good read on villain. My concern is keeping his worse hands from folding so I make money against the rest of his range while not going broke when he is drawing.

As cliche as it is, we don't make money by folding our sets when the only hands that beat us are better sets. Never folding. I think you can flat here and see a turn, with the plan to get stacks in if it's a safe card.

I'm worried about Qs, 7s, and clubs ott, but besides that I'm getting it in. So we have eleven clubs and six 7/Q (minus the 4c which would be super duper) for 16 cards out of 47 that we don't like and will need to evaluate. So 2/3 of the time, when it's safe, I'm either raising AI or bombing turn AI if he checks. There's 425 in there after your call and you're shipping for another 625 but I think you can get called by sticky big pairs (that flatted pre), all his 98, and maybe some super strong draws (like the JTcc).

If turn is one of the 16 bad cards for us, I'm still likely not folding to a reasonable bet, but if he bombs you might have to give it up - it's sort of an in-game choice and I'm not sure I'd be good enough to lay it down at the table, but it's probably best to make that snug fold.

Never folding, so shove. If he has a better set, then chalk it up to a cooler and reload.

He probably has 88-AA, 89, NFD, or a combo-draw like JTcc or 67cc. You're losing to 6 combos, and way ahead of everything else. I'm putting him on TT or JJ if he's an average player.

3-betting the flop here against a TP player is likely an overplay.

A tight-passive player is very unlikely to raise a draw here so I'm really not worried about the flush (especially since if it comes in he'll make it very obvious). I think he's mostly limited to sets and slow-played overpairs—and raising makes it very possible for him to fold the overpairs.

Call flop, evaluate turn.

Stacking off on the flop here is just asking to get stacked by a higher set.

I would 4! to 425 here and GII on turn. Flatting flop is an option too but there are several cards that can kill the action on the turn. I'm not good enough to 4! fold flop here but maybe it's the correct play.

Thanks for the responses people! So three saying call and two saying shove so far? (He had 88 for middle set btw.) Actually since I'd only observed him for one hour it would be more accurate to label him tight-unknown than tight passive, so he could be capable of anything really. I tend to lean towards calling myself now I have to say, though since his money seemed to go in fairly confidently at the time I'm still not sure if I could have put him on only sets or strong draws (such as TcJc) in which case folding might be possible as well.

That sucks, but imo I highly doubt stacking off for less than 200 BB on the flop here against anyone except a complete nit is unprofitable. You're only behind 6 combos of hands here. Maybe I'm wrong though.

If you call and check the turn, you are giving a free card to all draws (that’s giving the V correct price for draws)...I think you did the only option available...the only way calling the flop may be better is if the turn completes a draw (any scare card), him holding what he had, and it goes c/c to river...but that’s unlikely...

I don’t think you could have played this any differently....

Actually just to clarify a bit, villain seemed very confident when he made his raise, and I was picking up a pretty strong 'vibe' of strength from him (my first instinct was to fold actually based on that read, though unfortunately I talked myself into a shove.) If that read of strength could only mean 98, sets or a strong draw, what would my best play be based on that?

Fast play jam. There is nothing else.

He has all the 98 here for value, not just set. If he has 98 he thinks you have AK, a draw, or an overpair. I don’t think we have enough of a sample to say he doesn’t have 98o combos, top pair, some big draws, and some overpairs.