Wild loose home game and it's late and people are stuck - trying to get unstuck. Last orbit so people are looser than normal too. Gary PLO8 table captain raised from the SB to $25 after usual limpers and I decide to call from the BB with a crap hand (being stuck myself). I have 23J9:diamond. Two others call which is expected.

Flop is A86and Gary checks and I decide to bet my nut low and make it $75 (with $500 behind). Steve calls (effective stack $500) and Gary now wakes up and raises to $175 (effective stack before the raise is $500). I decide to lay my hand down with no high and potentially only drawing at half the pot. I took some crap when I tell them what I folded and Gary told me later he had medium low - flush draw - and 2 pair. Factoring in was I didn't have a back up low card. Was this too nitty? Steve had a high only FD.

Teach me this game. Lead on the flop a bad play?

1. Fold pre-flop
2. Have a plan.

Did you bet the nut low already knowing you'd fold if someone raised? If so, okay. Your problems here are threefold: playing a bad hand, playing a bad hand in a big pot, playing a bad hand out of position.

There is usually no great play you can make in this spot, so avoid it.

If their ranges contain hands as weak as that, you should never bet-fold nut low in this game.

A good hand to play passively on early streets and bet out if flush comes in. Get high only hands like his to fold.

I agree with the first two post starting with this hand is your main problem the 2nd problem is your position, O8 is profitable because people play too loose and stubborn from the blinds, they call when the should fold and fold when they should call,, but since you took this line I think you should have over repped your hand and put in a check raise,which is what your opponent did..you mentioned it was the last hand of the night so you leading on the flop inadvertantly creates a meta-game between your opponent, your opponent just labels your hand as being weaker than normal since its the last rotation so you give him incentive to raise,,, by check raising you keep your range wide and have the ability to put in a pot sized bet on the turn.... being how the game is winding down no one wants to call off the rest of their stack on the last hand of the night, sure your gambling you wont get counterfieted on the turn and river, but keep in mind the ace on the flop couterfiets most low hands(A2,A3,A4) unless your opponent happens to wake up with a 1234 hand,, a good piece of advice I heard was when in a tough or tricky spot take the more agressive route give your opponent a chance to make a mistake as well,,,,also if you dont mind me asking were you playing with money you could afford to loose, it seems you were being risk adverse for some reason

I would fold this hand, but I don't think it's absolutely horrid to play it.
48J9 or
4TJ9 would be horrid hands.

When you do play 23J9, you're gambling. You can play the game tightly and if you do, you minimize the amount of gambling you do, but the game is not as much fun.

Anyhow, you decide to play it and four of you pay $25 each to see the flop. Meh. (shrug).

$100 in pot.

Not ideal for you, but you have the bare nut low.

OK.

Ouch. Tough decision facing you now.

Gary is playing the hand as though he also has the nut low and something for high to boot. Hard to tell if he's being truthful, but the danger of getting quartered looms.

I don't like to bet and then fold to a raise, but I can't fault you for folding here. Tough spot.

OK.

I think it's a mistake to bet and fold and then tell your opponents what you have done.

Interesting.

"Nitty" is not the word I'd use. I think it was "inconsistent," and I think your timing was off. The time to consider not having a back up low card was before you bet this flop.

If your plan was to bet the flop and then fold if raised or check/raised, then fine. (I don't like that plan, but fine). But if you had no plan of how to behave if raised or check/raised, then not fine.

To me it's not that simple. Whether it's a bad pay or not depends on why you did it and how you planned to react to opponent's play.

It's only a bad play if you were completely caught off guard by Gary's check/raise. Poker players tend to follow patterns and have a consistency in their play. The idea is to remember how your opponents have acted in the past and then, partly on that basis, predict how they will act in the future.

Just my opinion.

Buzz