blonde poker forum

Hey!

Live game, I have  2s 3c in the bb. Blinds are 1/2, live cash game. UTG straddles, there is 5 callers, I call the extra 2 pound with so many players in, UTG checks.

Flop

 Qc  2d 3h. The pot is £20, sb checks I lead out for £14, utg folds, utg plus 1 raises to £42, it folds round to me, what would you do here?

I'm confident I have the best hand outside a set of 2s or 3s, and that's hard to see with me holding 2 3, i'm pretty sure I have the best hand here, was thinking about smooth calling, but oop decided I just wanted to get it in.

I reraised to £90, opponent shoved and i snap call. I had about a further £80 behind, if he smooth called, I was shoving any safe turn card.

My thinking was there was no flush draw, no real draws apart from 45, couldn't see him having q2 or 3, only was really worried about a set, and if he had a set good luck to him.  

Its live cash in a limped pot im not folding but im not overly happy. Expect to see like all of 22/33/Q2/Q3 which is why im worried Possibley QQ. But there are so manay variations of AQ/KQ/QJ/Q10/45/A4/AK Etc that i wouldnt be suprised to see people turn up with these hands. If we are not getting it in on this flop then i dont think we should call pre.

Any information on the villain in this hand?

Vs a lot of general casino players, I'm happy getting it in here. Probably shouldn't play the hand pre, but in reality im not folding for the extra £2. We don't travel to a casino to fold hands innit :p. Q2/Q3 is possible, people do limp with suited combos of this hand in a live game, but I find myself in similar situations to this fairly often in some of the local casinos and pretty much always end up getting it in against top pair. In a "tough" game of "good" players, we shouldnt be playing this hand in the first place and should really be folding it post too, but vs the bulk of casual casino goers who can get overly fond of top pair, we're in pretty good shape against their range. This is another one of those important distinctions between standard live and online poker, where something that is definitely a mistake in online poker can be ok, if not optimal, in a live situation. It's rare that you'll be put in this sort of spot in an online game, very rarely see 5 limpers.

Basically, seems fine to me, given the above factors. Also want to point out that they can have QQ here too, although it is kinda rare, the limp raise is still a popular one. Super system says so :p

Opponent limped a fair bit. Only other hand of note was when I raised the button, the flop came 445, I bet, he called other player called, turn was a 9, Check Check, I bet he £18 he raised to £50, 3rd player folded, I tanked for a while before folding his line didn't make sense I was sure he was bluffing, in the end I decided to fold as I could find a better spot.

Definatly totally different to online! This hand in question, he has already re reaised me in a hand.

So when this hand happened, i'm pretty comfortable getting it in. I thought AQ would be raised pre. I didn't expect KQ or JQ Qx would re raise me, but probablywas  the type of hand he had.

I had not seen any of his hands shown down so far.

It's a pretty common misconception in poker to think, even without realising it, that an opponent thinks along the same lines as we do. For example, in this situation, we may think our opponent would raise pre with AQ or QQ, but that could be because WE would do it. What is important is being able to get into their head, wear their shoes and wander around a little bit. As soon as we learn to do this, we can start to think like our opponent. Does he go crazy with top pair? Is he one of those old school never raise pre people? If so, he could well show up with AQ or QK. QJ seems pretty likely here, if this is the sort of villain we're dealing with.

Folding pre is fine i guess but i'd rather put it in because a straight can be Ace high. As played call/evaluate turn. 3betting the flop usually just doesn't allow the 1 pair hands we beat to continue. Def don't discount Q3/Q2 and 222/333 aren't impossibilities either. Considering the multiwayness of the flop and the villain limping a lot as described i'd be proceeding with caution

In a live game i'd get a 100 bbs in with this hand no problem. Why did you lead? Is it that likely to check through. Surely we want to bloat the pot now when we usually have best hand and no real idea what bad turns are if we get two callers.

Because i want to start building a pot when chances are i have the best hand. I need to protect it a bit too. No idea if check raising is the best option. No guarantees anyone is betting, though there probably would be a bet.