1/3, relevant villain has only 110 and is a fish. He calls too much, makes really small bets when he bets, and sometimes folds without regard to the odds. Pretty typical fish. I have a tight, moderately winning image.

BTN straddle, I'm in big blind with 55, SB calls, I raise to 16, villain to my left calls, folds around to SB who calls.

FLOP (50): 784r

SB checks, I bet 30, villain calls, SB folds.

TURN (100): 3ss

Villain has only 60 left now, and I just put him all in, which was my plan on the flop if he called.

I was really wondering later though if this was perhaps a mistake. Villain never folds an 8 or better, I do think he folds a 7 or a 4 though. Maybe calls with 9T as well. Maybe calls 67, or maybe not...

Alternatively I could check and probably fold to a bet, or bluff scare cards on the river if he checks it back.

Thoughts?

a

C/f flop

Call pre?

I dont know why so many 2+2ers think they have to raise small pairs, especially in the worst position at the table. How many flops better than this one do you think youre going to get? And you're still in a bad spot. You are burning money raising preflop here.

You know they wont put you in jail for limping, right? Nobody will take your man card away.

So many reasons:

1) So they don't see that you raise only JJ+/AK.

2) Building pot with a relatively better equity hand for the times you hit.

3) Getting it HU or 3-way and being able to take it away with a cbet often.

4) MOST IMPORTANTLY, taking initiative, as you'll most likely see someone else raise if you don't raise it yourself.

However, raising in the blinds as OP did, is just atrocious IMO.

If I raised to $16 in a straddled pot at my 1/3 table we'd be going 10ways to the flop. I would actually fold preflop (recently deciding that it's unlikely small pocket pairs are profitable OOP at non-****** filled tables). But I guess you know your table as we somehow got this 3way and actually have position on one.

Decent chance our hand is best 3ways. I'm basically just looking to end the hand now against overcards / hands that have completely whiffed, so I'd just bet $20 (no need to go so large, imo).

Another reason I don't raise preflop is because being OOP we have zero clue who is interested in the hand preflop and we often go to the flop with a relatively very weak holding and get ourselves into what we think our commitment spots. With just barely a 1/2 PSB left and this guy likely calling OESDs / gutshots / any pair on the flop, I can understand why we feel committed, and I can't hate on the shove. But all of this goes all the way back to preflop, imo; we created a decently sized pot with a hand that was likely going to remain incredibly mediocre.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Just call pre, raising is pretty pointless here, villain's plan of "call preflop then continue when I hit any piece of the flop" is going to work out pretty great against 55.

AP, check the flop and try to nurse your hand to showdown. Betting is just going to be -EV, villains will call with a pair or draw and their equity in the pot if they just have overcards is less than 25%, meaning you're trying to fold out equity of like $10 with a $30 bet.

A general comment on this hand would be that you played it like mere aggression was going to achieve something against this guy, but it doesn't really. 55 is an average hand with poor playability on most runouts, and you're OOP. Honestly I'd rather raise like K7o out of the blinds against this guy than 55 (but wouldn't raise either, obv).