Basically my read on the BTN was that he was playing far too many hands and I felt he was using his stack to intimidate us.

I'm not convinced that calling pre-flop was a good idea but I figured that if I hit my hand in any way.. Besides I was getting good enough odds to call the extra .02.

The raise after the flop was to suggest that I hit top pair. And as I said I felt that the BTN was just using his stack as intimidation.

Was I way off? I don't usually play hands like this in any position, and would have folded if the re-raise was more than he bet, I would have folded. I would like your opinions on if this was a good spot to bluff or not.

Party Poker $5 No Limit Hold'em - 10 players
2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked

Hero (SB): $3.54
BB: $2.10
UTG: $5.46
UTG+1: $2.25
UTG+2: $2.82
MP1: $1.70
MP2: $5.00
MP3: $5.20
CO: $3.60
BTN: $10.26

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with 8 K
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.04, 4 folds, BTN calls $0.04, Hero calls $0.02, BB checks

Flop: ($0.16) T 3 6 (4 players)
Hero bets $0.08, BB folds, UTG+2 folds, BTN raises to $0.16, Hero raises to $0.32, BTN calls $0.16

Turn: ($0.80) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, BTN folds

He folded. Good bet. You don't want a call.

depends on villain really... if they are stations then I would tend not to bluff here but if they can fold a hand then i guess you can bet on a card which is semi-decent to bluff...as much as this worked you really dont need to bluff almost at all at 2/4c...

yeah, i wouldnt bluff as much as NL2 because most of them are calling stations, play your good hands, and most of the time you should get paid off

15 outs assuming your K is good so this is really a semi-bluff. You have a really strong drawing hand here and it's a good play to make a bet here. If he calls, you still have ~30% to make a hand.

hmm, there are several thing I would like to comment.

Firsly, BTN can't be intimidating you with a big stack, or at least he shouldn't be able to. As this is cash game and not a tournament it really is irrelevant to you whether BTN has 4, 10 or 1000 $ as you will still be playing for your stack when gooing all in. DUCY?

Secondly, you figured if you hit your hand anyway...Well I would say if you hit anything less than two pairs and you still gets action your hand is worthless. If you hit your hand you might be able to take down a small pot, but should the pot grow when you're given action you pairs aren't going to hold very often and will cost you a lot of money in the long run. Also be aware that even if you should hit a monster it might be difficult to extract to much value as you're OOP. So I would say that this hand isn't worth playing, evem if you're only completing the SB to see the flop.

In the hand itself I like your turn bet very much. It is not a pure bluff as has already ben described it is a semibluff and as such you have roughly 30 % equity when called, with the possibility to extract more value on river. Of course when called and you don't hit I think you should give it up.

Your 3bet on the flop seems like an odd size. It seems like a pot builder. If you are trying to get him to fold there you should bet a bit more (he's getting 4.5:1 to call you).

I like the turn semi-bluff tho.

I would 3 bet the flop to at least .50 for more fold equity. The turn is fine but if you bet more on the flop and he shoves on you you can get away slightly cheaper(compared to firing a bigger second barrel on the turn) since you wouldn't have the odds to call.

Also A Ertlberg is right the big stack can't bully the table even though a lot of people believe it. If there are other big stacks they can play more speculative hands because of their implied odds but if you understand your size stack(which you should be reloading to 100BB as much as possible) then you can exploit the "bullying." It is important that your not too worried about the $$ aspect more than losing in general, hopefully at 5NL you don't have that problem.

Like I said I don't usually play trash hands like that. And if he had shoved or made a bigger raise I would have folded on the flop.

There were a couple of things that have helped me here and need to work on.

1. I'm always concerned with what the pot odds are for me, but I never seem to think about what odds I offer when I make a bet or re-raise. Looking back, he probably would have folded the flop if I had re-raised more.

2. The point made about the big stack not being a bully. I guess I need to leave the tournament mentality behind when playing cash games.

Thank you for your comments.