Playing 1/3 at the local casino, 9 handed. Hero is in the CO with red 88. Folds to hero who bets $12. BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls. We all have about $300 behind except SB with about $100. BTN I think is a competent reg, SB sat down recently but seems like an aggressive fish, BB is a passive fish.

Flop ($48): 7h 8c 10s. Checks to hero who bets $30. BTN calls, SB shoves for his remaining $85. BB folds, hero calls, BTN calls.

Turn ($300) 7h 8c 10s 9h. Hero checks, BTN bets $100. Hero?

Why didn't you re-raise SB's all in?

BTN might have gotten there with a straight, but he could easily have two pair or a flush draw or a pair plus a draw. For 100bb, just shove the turn.

Lol, only 3 people to react after us... and all of them see a flop in a raised pot. Standard. This is kinda why I don't hate just open limping here. But as long as we don't raise huge, I'm fine with whatever preflop.

SPR is an awkward 6. If this board hadda contained a flush draw, I think I'd argue for an overbet on the flop to setup a turn shove. I think you could still argue that even without the flush draw due to awkward stacks and many action killing cards.

I'm reraising after the SB shoves. A call gives Button too awesome of odds to come along with an awesome draw (which is pretty much all a competent player will continue with against a shove and call).

Not exactly sure how the Button gets to the turn with a straight. Seems more like T9 or something like that. He's betting into a protected pot so I doubt he's ever bluffing but it's possible he's betting worse. We're getting 4:1 on a call, so even if he shows us a straight we can't fold. If we call, we'll have $100 left in a $500 pot; seems like we can't check/fold (?) and otherwise he could easily check behind something that may pay off. Might just be forced to jam? ETA: And with just a 2/3 PSB left, I agree with Java and would likely just jam myself as first action.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I should have shoved after the SB went all in. I'm really surpised that I didn't think about that in the moment. I guess it was just a big spot that I haven't been in often enough. Thanks for the advice.

+1

Just to add though, open limping will make you considerably less money, especially when it's folded to us in LP. You don't want to be taking GG's approach and just limp every hand you play. You can realistically make money doing that because the population is so bad, but if you're playing to make money and/or have hopes to either play professionally or for a decent chunk of your income, then playing like an OMC will do you no good. Also, size to whatever puts you at the highest probability to getting heads up post flop. I would've gone $15 if it were a new table, but it appears we have to go even bigger. Saying raising is fine as long as it's not big makes no sense.

It's not that simple, imo. A big raise to $15 or whatever is a decent mistake if someone wakes up with a better hand and reraises us off our equity preflop, and even more of a disaster if we run into a dominating hand by the shortstack SB. Open limping enourages everyone to come into the pot, which isn't exactly a bad thing when a huge part of 88's money making ability is when it flops a set; raising hands out of the pot that would have hit postflop to pay us off is also a disaster. A raise didn't even gain the Button, and we often would have went HU OOP to a competent player with a hand that flops horrible the majority of the time.

I certainly won't take a hard line on it and state that raising is horrible (far from it, and there are definitely benefits to raising), but saying that open limping is horrible simply isn't true.

Git'scloserthanyouthink,imoG

This is so MUBS, it's ridiculous. You're afraid of opening 88 because of the off chance that someone wakes up to a premium hand? Sometimes when we open, we get three bet - oh well. It's going to be more profitable to open - c bet - villain folds.

I never said open limping was horrible, in fact, I said that open limping is profitable because of how terrible the population is. I just said raising will make you more money.

I would re-jam flop. Now x/c and hope to fill up. I am x/f rivers unimproved. This shouldn’t be a bluff with someone all in (although I’ve seen it plenty of times). Also prefer a bet ott to a check. If raised, call. Jam board pairing rivers and x/f others.