I played the following hand and was confused at what to do. Looking for some thoughts/advice.

1/2 NL on a Friday Afternoon

Couple limps I open QJ off to $17. 2 callers, couple of limpers fold. lets say the pot is $50 after rake

FLOP: K 10 2 rainbow

Two checks to me I bet $17, V1 calls, 2nd player goes all in for $83 total. V1 has $350 more behind I cover. Hero?


So, if my maths are correct this is a call based on pot odds alone.

Pot = $50 +$17+$17+$83 = $167
Need to call $66 to win $167 = about 2.5 to 1. = 28.5% win rate for break even
Drawing to 8 clean outs is aprox 32% equity.

32% > 28.5%


So based on the above, if V1 was not in the pot this is a clear call. Is that all correct?

How does V1 and her $350 behind effect my decision? Am I ever folding? If not, is this a call or a shove?

Thanks!

Your math is right. Absent a second villain itÂ’s a call. With that villain present it no longer is a pure math problem. If you shove and villain calls you are risking 333 more to win 483. You need right around 40% to break even. If you think villain will call your shove you shouldnÂ’t shove. Your outs likely are clean against both villains so you donÂ’t really gain anything if villain folds to your shove.

If you call and villain shoves, you now have to call 267 more to win 566. That is 32.1% to break even. That makes it close.

Best case is you call plus villain calls, which just increased your pot odds. It really depends on what villain might do. If villain is aggressive and likely to shove, itÂ’s probably leading you to be more likely to fold. A passive villain who might call would make you more likely to call.

1) If this is a 1-2-17 game then your CBet is way too small and probably looks weak especially with a short stack in the hand having only 'pot' behind. I would bet $35-40 so that I still have the option if the short stack shoves.

2) I like side pots. Hero is PF raiser AND CBet into this favorable Board. At a minimum I'm making it $180 to force V1 to make a decision now instead of perhaps improving on a Turn that leaves us still drawing and them more comfortable conintuing.

As the math has shown .. calling the all-in and ending up all-in ourselves is somewhat close. So I'm going to force the issue with V1 and possibly protect my stack by getting them to fold instead of calling with even better odds than I got v the all-in. Most Players briefly forget about the money in the middle and only see that they are going to be HU in the side against a Player that has shown strength 3 times already this hand.

As I said, I like side pots, especially when I can 'break even' if I win the side but yet lose the main .. thus creating somewhat of a freeroll in the main. (I know that's a stretch here, but you can't win the main unless you first win the side!)


Side note 1A) If I 'want' to drag V1 (or others) into a bloated pot, then I'll bet $45 so that they are stuck calling off the rest of the short stack's shove. You can use your raise sizes both ways depending on how you 'prefer' the hand continue. GL

Without reads you have a math problem that you seem to be on top of, and a simple plan that leaves out post-flop decisions. We can talk about that later.

When you are in a great position, you want to get as many chips as you can into the pot. You are only in an OK position, which is why I'm not in love with the idea of raising here without reads. Shoving seems to be off the table as you saw above, but if you raise and get called, what turns are you folding to when she bets and you whiffed and have something like 17% chance of hitting the river? I'm all for telling a story with your betting, but in 1/2 that story usually falls on deaf ears, and it's just fancy poker syndrome. Also, your equity is so thin here that your margin of error on your math is too high to make this an obvious call. Without going into too much detail, you don't know how heavily weighted sets are in their ranges, so your assumption of equity may not be as accurate as you think it is. It should be easy enough to find more favorable spots in 1/2.

This spot is marginal enough that you can even find a fold (or a shove!) under the right circumstances, with more information. Consider the following:

Do you have any reads on the players? What hands do you think V2 shoves with there? Were V1 or V2 blinds? How common is an almost 9x open at this table? (What might each of these villains be calling that ~9x with?) How old are V1 and V2? How nitty or losse did they seem to be leading up to this?