Hi Everyone, first time posting here. I am a new player. I was playing live 2-5 nlh in a poker room. I got JJ in early position, I limp in for 5, guy to the left of me limps for 5, a few more limp in, and one guy in later position raises to $25, I call, guy to my left raises with $150 all in, the first pre-flop raiser calls, I fold with my JJ, everyone else is out. So now two guys are in pre-flop. My question is, did I do the right thing by folding? My reason for folding was because, in my mind, both of those guys had over cards, and if any AKQ dropped, I'm toast. But the part of me that didn't want to fold wants to know if the odds dictated that I should have called the bet?

What were the pot odds in that situation for me? roughly 2-1 right? I could have bet another $150 in order to net approximately $350...is that roughly 2-1 odds? That being said, what were my pre-flop odds of winning the hand? If they were greater than 1 in 3, then I should have called it? Were they greater than 1 in 3?

Any feed back or analysis is really helpful. Much appreciated.

Folding is fine (raise pre instead of limping), but this is the off the table work you should be doing before playing 1/2, let alone 2/5.

raise pre

Hi McGrupp,

it seems you are lacking some basic poker concepts. At this point if you are getting into the game in hopes of playing it profitably, I would advise you to start by reading some books to get familiar with things like position, opening ranges, etc.

Basically regarding your question, everything you did preflop was wrong IMO. And I'm not saying this to insult you, but rather to rehiterate the importance of you getting some of the ABCs of this game right.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but you might also want to drop to 1/2, and spend more money on learning the game at this point.

Cheers.

Welcome. Yes, you did the right thing by folding. Typically low stakes players only limp/shove with KK/AA. Calling a limp/shove after raising is also a strong move.

Let's assume the first player limp/shoves with QQ+/AK and the second player calls with TT+/AQ+. Your jacks only win about 1/4 time. Yes, you get about 2:1, meaning you need to win 1/3 time to make a call profitable. If the first player only limp/shoves with KK+, your equity plummets to 17%, meaning you need to win 1/6 of the time, or need 5:1 odds to call.

You should also raise with JJ in early position. Perhaps a moderator can post some legacy threads on pot odds and preflop raising hands that you may find useful. You can subscribe to those threads and easily reference them in the future. I'm sure you can search for them yourself too.