7 Card Stud Hi ($10/$20) Ante $1, Bring-In $3

Seat 1: X X T
Seat 2: X X 2- Brings-In
Seat 3: X X A- Raises
Seat 4: X X J- Raises
Seat 5: X X 5-Raises (Capped)
Seat 6: X X K- Calls
Hero: 2h 2c 2- ?
Seat 8: X X A

Call or fold now? And what's your play from 4th street onwards?

-N

The 5's raise wouldn't cap the betting on any site or in any room I've ever played in. Nonetheless, I call with the intention of raising at some point. The pot is so big and my hand so strong that it's very unlikely that I'd ever fold.

There was someone who posted a similar hand a number of years ago and said that he folded after similar action, because the guy with the 5 (or whatever) just had to be rolled-up for that action, so he laid down a smaller rolled set. Several of us didn't believe him. In any case, I'm usually not looking for reasons to fold rolled sets.

There are about a million ways you could have the best hand now. Somebody has pocket Aces and knows the door Ace doesn't have him beat, somebody has three to a live straight flush, somebody has Kings with a suited Ace kicker...

You ought to be playing this as fast as they are. Even if the Fives are rolled, he might brick off and you might fill or make a flush or any of the myriad other crazy ways people win poker hands, and even if second best at the moment, you probably have 20 percent equity against the crowd.

No way am I folding this until somebody convinces me I'm beat, and a few functional raises on Third won't do it.

Here's how I get convinced I'm beat:


3rd Street - (1.60 SB)

Seat 1: xx xx 7 ___folds
Seat 2: xx xx 3 ___brings-in ___folds
Seat 3: xx xx 7 ___folds
Seat 4: xx xx 8 ___completes
Seat 5: xx xx 3 ___calls
Hero: 9 9 9 ___calls
Seat 7: xx xx T ___calls
Seat 8: xx xx Q ___folds

4th Street - (5.85 SB)

Seat 4: xx xx 8 8 ___double-raises ___raises
Seat 5: xx xx 3 9 ___folds
Hero: 9 9 9 4 ___raises ___calls
Seat 7: xx xx T T ___bets ___calls ___calls

5th Street - (13.43 BB)

Seat 4: xx xx 8 8 8 ___bets
Hero: 9 9 9 4 J ___folds
Seat 7: xx xx T T 2 ___

the dead deuce is pretty significant...

i ran some two dimes,

Ac 4d Ah - 7.92%
Js Qc Jc - 15.63%
5s 5c 5h - 51.80%
2s 2c 2h - 15.22%
Ks Ts 7s - 9.42%

this was with the dead cards you give. but if the remaining 2 was live....

Ac 4d Ah - 6.94%
Js Qc Jc - 13.51%
5s 5c 5h - 47.06%
2s 2c 2h - 24.24%
Ks Ts 7s - 8.25%

as you can see we win an extra 9 % with the live deuce which takes our win % over 20%, so even if we know our opponent is rolled we can play the hand for profit .

this is very hypothetical though, since its very unlikely the other 4 players will go to the end of the hand.

also the game might be super loose aggressive, in which case there is an excellent chance we have the best hand anyway and should obviously play.

takes a real hero to fold trips on 3rd....and im no hero