sitting on this 1/2 game late night. a few folks have big stacks -- one guy is either drunk or high on life. he's betting a lot, betting quickly, fishing, etc. I immediately think he's a total idiot. but he sizes his bets pretty decent. he does seem rich though and like he doesn't give a F. when the guy to his left leaves, I move there. he is the only relevant villain. Most importantly, his range is beyond readability - preflop at least. I was trying to size up some tells from his betting patterns post flop. One hunch I got is that when he bets big and fast, he's got some equity. A fair share, something big. But lots of times, just like 2nd or 3rd pair. And people are calling him with 4th pair sometimes.

Hero is dealt Tc Th. Hero is in the button. Hero has 230. Villain covers. v2 covers. v3 had around 150-175.

There are 5 limps around. Hero raises to 20. v2 and v3 in early position call. Others fold. Villain calls. Pot is 75

Flop is: 2h 7h 7d

v2 and v3 check. Villain pushes in 75 super fast.

lot of things go through my mind. I'm of course worried about Villain. but also concerned about v2 and v3. I look at them and they don't seem suspicious to have the 7 or that interested in hand. that pushes me towards grounds for calling.

Villain is just chilling and smiling big and I don't have a great read. His range is wide. The flush draw is causing me to consider those hands. Other pocket pairs lower than 99 is also in range. Overcards don't make much sense. Possible backdoor flush draw like Ah Jc. It's a pretty decent flop for tens though against a standard player in position.

I call with the thought that I can fold on turn. I'm not pot committed. I have 165 behind in a 225 pot if I call. I have enough so that I can make a new decision on turn... so when I call he's got chips and before the turn hits the felt, he's all in. Like super quick. I don't think he saw that the turn was a 2d.

So.. I could use some analysis, help. Of course a good consideration is -- Villain can insta-jam with a boat there?


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Tough spot here. I'd probably let this one go with your overpairs with hearts, call with the ones without.


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This is a classic situation that comes up frequently enough in this forum.

Hero is at a table where a whale is playing. He is seemingly spewing money off and the first thought that comes to mind is, "this is a juicy situation, should be easy money." What most tight players (you're on 2+2) don't recognize is that this is going to be a high variance situation. It is one thing to tell yourself that the money doesn't matter, but for most of us, it does. Being up or down 5 buyins with such a game in going to be a regular occurrence. We're not really up to it. So the right decision is to move to another table for most players.

Don't believe it OP? Think about it this way. The whale is showing down 2nd and 3rd pair. You have an overpair. If you really believe he's stacking off with weak pairs, this is a no-brainer call. If you were playing 2nl and the call was a $1.65, would you hesitate? Probably not for the cost of a fast food cheeseburger.

Winning poker requires being brutally honest with yourself. Some games aren't worth the risk, even if you have a substantial edge. There's an old story of a craps player at the Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. At that time, the Horseshoe had a no cap policy on betting. You could bet as much as you wanted. The player started on a hot streak and was just continuing to double up. It got to the point where in another 5 minutes, the player would have owned the casino. Benny Binion walked over and said, "I'm putting a maximum bet rule in place." The player objected saying, "I thought this was a no cap game." Binion replied, "So did I, until a couple of minutes ago."