Hi all,

5/5/25 btn straddle, hero limps in EP with KK988ds (k-high 9-high) and relatively active non-nit pro raises next to act to $125, rec hold 'em player otb 3! to $400 and pro only has $600 or so so action will not re-open if he jams. Folds to hero who calls $400 $1,400 eff. and pro indeed jams, btn calls and hero calls.

Flop ($1,800): T-8-5ssd. We have middle set but that's about it, no fd. We jam $750 or so into a dry side pot. I guess my main question is whether anyone folds this hand pre given that we are effectively closing the action. I read somewhere that double-paired hands make very good cold calling candidates in 3! pots. Even if we are not getting direct odds to call pre we should have implied odds if we flop a set or better, no?

Thanks,
DT

I like the limp, I would definitely be inclined to fold pre once it is 400 back to us. I think we need a strong hand to take two to the face, more like KKQJT ds or even better the same sort of hand but with an ace and a nut and second nut suit. or at least a nut suit anyway. What is button's 3 betting strategy? imo most players live players are three betting pretty nitty in 5 card plo.

Ran this hand three ways against 5% and 15% ranges and we have just shy of 33% three ways, can't be that bad to call right?

Pre is probably a fold. We shouldn't get overly attached to kkxxx hands and if we do call we can choose kkxxx hands that have better equity against aaxxx hands.

If we don't fold we may also prefer jamming the hand ourselves.

I think these decisions are easier if Hero opens for a raise, even a min-raise and don't really like limping from early position.

That’s very interesting because I limp pretty much everything in early position. We’ll be OOP the rest of the hand. Why don’t you like limping from EP?

For a couple of reasons.

But most relevant here:

It's good to start building a pot with a range advantage, even OOP.

When opponents 3! Hero raise we generate more useful information and outcomes than we do when we limp and villains can 2! much wider.

It's much more difficult to play a sound, balanced strategy that starts with limping - and if we are playing a poorly thought out limping strategy we will be leaving money on the table and/or risk being exploited.

Thanks. I like the point on info from 3! the most. If opponents 3! balanced it can start to get dicey though. In my games it’s usually just AA so you get a lot of info.

On the the other hand by limping hands we don’t want to face a 3! with we limit our exposure pre.

I think you can definitely get away with mostly just limping when you do play in EP in live plo (4 or 5 card) against a lot of aggro lineups so long as you are still extremely selective about the hands you play, and you incorporate a strong lrr strategy.

Issue then becomes how easily can we realize our equity and to what extent when we win there is only the pre-flop money and when we lose the pot is larger. I think the call requires you be slightly better than the opponents in your post flop play.

What does “better than your opponents” mean at this spr? Our decisions will be pretty easy and so will theirs.