TLDR: $1-$2, 5h6h in BB, UTG blind-raises to $40, 5 callers. Hero.....? Flop 3h5c7s. SB bets $100, Hero......?

Game is $1-2 blinds, but it’s spread limit, where the maximum raise is just $100 over the previous bet.

Hero is mid-30s, rocking the “fat married white guy with a mortgage and kids” look so probably pegged as a nit. Stack is $300.

Villain has been drinking and is having a helluva time. He’s frequently made huge preflop raises without looking at his hand. Stack is like $500. He’s sitting to my left.

Sitting to my right is Table Captain. He’s a young white guy listening to an iPod. He has a stack of over $1,000 and can do those flashy chip-shuffling tricks.

THE HAND:

I’m in the Big Blind. Maniac Villain announces before the cards are dealt “I’m raising to $40” and sure enough he raises to $40. 5 other people call, including the Table Captain in the Small Blind. I look down and see 56

Question 1: Is this a mandatory call or a mandatory fold?

I’ll spoil it for you and tell you I called, and while I care to hear what you say, my bigger decision point comes next:

FLOP: 753

Pair, gutter, backdoor flush.

And of course the Small Blind immediately leads out with a maximum bet of $100 into the $280 flop.

Question 2: Do I Raise, Call, or Fold?

Fold pre, fold flop

geezus these convoluted posts
just tell us the action in the hand
tldr call

You’re right, I cut it down. I was stuck with a screaming newborn and had nothing better to do that go nuts on detail, lol.

sorry, i'ts just impossible to read in between 4 tables of fast fold poker

I feel ya!!!

Anyway, yeah, I called like an idiot (is there *any* hand I should just *call* with in this spot?):

7-handed. Flop 357 (pot $280)

SB bets $100, action on Hero with 56 and 5 guys still to act after him (and one of them hasn’t seen his hand). I...?

Fold pre.

Reason, when we call we end up in this kind of situation, where we sort of hit and it would be a nice place to be HU in position deepstacked against a guy with a fold button. But we're actually super shallow against a bunch of guys and our hand probably isn't good against a whiz kid's donking range so now what do we do?

I fold now.

I dont think you should have a calling range preflop. Blind raises is the new big blind, so you are playing 10bbs deep poker. 140$ or fold pre. With 56s I fold

This has been a good reminder that it’s better to be lucky than good.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT: I did in fact raise Whiz Kid to $200, assuming that though I was behind I had sufficient odds against any hands except sets. I expected it would fold back to Whiz Kid and we’d see if I could outdraw his pocket tens one time.

But instead....The Drunk Maniac—who still hasn’t seen his hand!!!!—called the $200 cold. And....one of the middle position players called off his final $80.....and then a Late Position guy called off his final $170 too!!!

Whiz Kid called. Turn is a 9s. Pot is like $1120 now? Whiz Kid checks. I bet my final $60. Maniac calls it. Whiz Kid calls it.

River: 4

Easy game. (Whiz Kid had JT, Maniac didn’t show, and one of the Late Position guys had a QQ, naturally.)

Sorry to brag. It’s more...I felt like I HAD made big mistakes in the hand. And now I’m convinced that’s true!

Yeah, you got lucky. That’s poker. We all make poor choices and we learn from them.

Food pre, fold flop.

With $280 in the pot and $260 in your stack, I think you gotta go with it on the flop. Glad that one of your outs came in.

Preflop was way too high a price to pay. The maniac raising blind isn't the only villain...