Am I behind here?

[The Baron]

If you had a small flush in this situation, how would you play it?

Lump it in right here.

However.... surely only one of two things is happening if I do....

a) He is passing unless he is a complete mug (which I do not believe him to be)

or

b) I am beat

[The Baron]

I lumped it in and he called with QJ (in case you hadnt already guessed) but after a bit of a chat with Sexygee I think I played it incorrectly.

[T-V-B]

Bet the pot on the flop and the hand is much easier to play. If you had bet the pot, most opponents with stronger holdings than top & bottom pair, would make a more sizeable raise in order to get all the money in asap. In the instance where he basically min-raised your $16 bet, he could have any combination of made hands or draws at this point and you've put a decent amount of money in the pot and don't know where you stand. You've forced yourself to put more money in and see the turn.

You show strength and bet $26 on the flop, the standard 2-4 player gets excited and makes it $75, you discount the 2 hands you could possibly beat (because who min-raises utg with Aces or Kings?) and make a difficult laydown.

[Nem]

He's got u by the short and curlies here. From my experience, he would raise more with the bare Ace.

Fold for me

Where? OTF?

[snoopy1239]

I think he has A-Q

I'd checkraise the Turn

[snoopy1239]

I think he has A-Q

I'd checkraise the Turn

I posted this without reading the rest of the thread. Guess I wasn't too far off.

[snoopy1239]

He's got u by the short and curlies here. From my experience, he would raise more with the bare Ace.

Fold for me

Where? OTF?

misdread it - I've reposted

[snoopy1239]

I lumped it in and he called with QJ (in case you hadnt already guessed) but after a bit of a chat with Sexygee I think I played it incorrectly.

did he have a spade?

[Nem]

He's got u by the short and curlies here. From my experience, he would raise more with the bare Ace.

Fold for me

Where? OTF?

misdread it - I've reposted

You've been hanging around Tikay too much

[Nem]

I lumped it in and he called with QJ (in case you hadnt already guessed) but after a bit of a chat with Sexygee I think I played it incorrectly.

did he have a spade?

Who? The Undertaker...

[snoopy1239]

I lumped it in and he called with QJ (in case you hadnt already guessed) but after a bit of a chat with Sexygee I think I played it incorrectly.

did he have a spade?

Who? The Undertaker...

lol - i think it's time for bed

can't get anythink right tonight

Anyhow, I put him on A-Q and would have checked raised the Turn.

I think you played it okay, just unlucky.

[The Baron]

Bet the pot on the flop and the hand is much easier to play. If you had bet the pot, most opponents with stronger holdings than top & bottom pair, would make a more sizeable raise in order to get all the money in asap. In the instance where he basically min-raised your $16 bet, he could have any combination of made hands or draws at this point and you've put a decent amount of money in the pot and don't know where you stand. You've forced yourself to put more money in and see the turn.

You show strength and bet $26 on the flop, the standard 2-4 player gets excited and makes it $75, you discount the 2 hands you could possibly beat (because who min-raises utg with Aces or Kings?) and make a difficult laydown.

If I bet the pot and he reraises me he could still have AQ (with A spades) couldn't he? Now it costs me much more to find out.

[The Baron]

I think you played it okay, just unlucky.

I don't think I did for the following reasons:

1) What could he possibly have to still be there with the flush out and me reresenting it? Whatever it is, it most likely has me beat.

2) Playing loose aggressive as I described he could easily have QJ.

3) My all in bet either scares him off if I'm winning (which I dont want) or he calls when I'm behind (which I dont want).

A better play here would be to call a bet on the river where he may bet again (If I have checked twice to him) with something like KK AA or AQ or even a missed draw. It gets more money out of an opponent's losing hand and saves me being stacked if against a winning hand.

Thanks for all the feedback. Very useful.

[Sheriff Fatman]

This is a classic reverse-implied odds situation on the flop where you are likely to either win a small pot or lose a big one.  As such, I really don't like the re-raise on the flop which, when called, has indicated that the guy is not going away.  I'd maybe have given it up to his re-raise on the flop but more than likely I'd have flat-called the bet, rather than re-raising, to see what the turn brings.

The problem with reraising is that you've created a big pot, out of position, in a hand where you're never likely to know where you are.  Protecting your hand, if you're ahead, is going to be expensive and, given the likely range of hands you'd expect the opponent to hold (most of which have spades in them), you're still very vulnerable to redraws if you are ahead.

I think with a flat call on the flop you can make a reasonable sized bet on a non-spade turn without committing the rest of your stack which would determine where you stand.  Even then I might be inclined to check and see what the response is.  Top and bottom pair, no flush draw, on that board is still a hand I'd hope I could get away from.  However, with the pot you've created on the flop it becomes much more difficult to do so.

Sheriff

[The Baron]

This is a classic reverse-implied odds situation on the flop where you are likely to either win a small pot or lose a big one.  As such, I really don't like the re-raise on the flop which, when called, has indicated that the guy is not going away.  I'd maybe have given it up to his re-raise on the flop but more than likely I'd have flat-called the bet, rather than re-raising, to see what the turn brings.

The problem with reraising is that you've created a big pot, out of position, in a hand where you're never likely to know where you are.  Protecting your hand, if you're ahead, is going to be expensive and, given the likely range of hands you'd expect the opponent to hold (most of which have spades in them), you're still very vulnerable to redraws if you are ahead.

I think with a flat call on the flop you can make a reasonable sized bet on a non-spade turn without committing the rest of your stack which would determine where you stand.  Even then I might be inclined to check and see what the response is.  Top and bottom pair, no flush draw, on that board is still a hand I'd hope I could get away from.  However, with the pot you've created on the flop it becomes much more difficult to do so.

Sheriff

Spot on Sheriff. My flop play was the cause of the problem. (Don't you love a good problem though?) I could have played the flop any number of other ways to be honest.

A much bigger crime IMO though is not slowing down after his calling my reraise. This is where I stacked myself. The point of my reraise was to take the pot down there and then after getting the extra bet out of him. When it didn't, to back it up with my stack was a bit silly.