Early last night at The Vic, I'm playing £0.50/1 NLHE and it's 8-handed. I'm on the Button with 7c7s. UTG+1 raises to 4, CO calls, I call and the BB calls (I'm liking the multiway at this point).

Stack Sizes going to the flop are:

UTG+1: Roughly 190
CO: Roughly 60
Me: 51.50
BB: 96 (he just reloaded having lost a huge pot the previous hand to UTG+1)

Flop comes 7h7d8h

We play a deal-your-own at those stakes, so you can imagine my heart jumping for joy as I laid out those cards.

BB bets 9, UTG+1 calls and CO folds; how should I play this, to extract the most value for the monster in my hand?

Info on the players:

BB is a crazy LAG who blew through his first buy-in the last hand by pushing all-in against UTG+1's top set, with merely a bottom pair with a gutshot in his hand.

UTG+1 is a laid back player who has only shown down that one hand, but limps and calls plentifully; furthermore he has the appearance of a nonchalant beached whale, and has been approached by a floor person telling him that the £5-£5 PLO table will be up in ten minutes - he's evidently someone who plays much higher dabbling with some of the small fries in the smaller games...

I have shown a tight fold where I folded my top pair on the turn to a friendly player who showed me his two-pair and thus my image is tight, conservative; however I very much doubt UTG+1 was paying attention to it, and BB wasn't at the table when I made that fold...

I usually require dinner first.

Call down try to rep a busted draw on the turn/river board depending...

They both have you covered by quite a bit. They'll probably bet enough to put you all in or close to all in anyways. Just call the flop and turn. Push the river if they don't bet enough to have you all in already.

Both sound bits of advice, and both reflecting my thought process at the time. I flat called and saw the turn of Ah.

BB checks, UTG+1 checks, what do I do?

Definitely flat-call that flop. The only hands that are going to play with you re-raising would be Pocket Pairs (88+), and potentially any 8. You are not likely to get much action from 2 overs on a board that ugly.

I agree with 7s7c, call down and rep a busted draw, or get hella paid if an opponent hits on the next two cards.. I may even check the turn if it's checked around to me.

The only hand we lose profit from in the long term by slowplaying is 8x, who will only give us much action on the flop. This is offset by the possibility that no one has an eight, plus the two cards to come may make someone else a call-able hand.

Ugh that's the worst card in the deck. You *have* to check. If someone else hit a flush and is "setting you up" for the check raise, they will *have* to bet on the river anyways, and you chase out of the pot anyone w/ an outside chance of making a hand on the river worthy of paying you off.

Seriously, that's a sick card. You love the ace but hate that heart. That blows our whole plan to bet our "busted draw" on the river.

minraise the flop and then you can get it all in very easily with a nice callable with anything giving great odds underbet on the turn.

Reloading preflop helps a lot too.

I think I bet the Ace, but weakly. You def. want to price everyone in, so I'd bet an amount that seems like it's an ace just trying figure out how good it is. 10 or so?

If the perfect flush card, an Ace, or an 8 hit the river, I think you can push and feel happy just about any result you get.

Unless you lose

I like this line best. You're the short stack and are already facing a bet and a call. Making a weak raise will price them in and make them far more likely to be willing to stack off to you on later streets (because of inflated pot + your short stack).

There are *so* many draws out there that they will be happy to come along. You never know: the A8 or overpair may feel obligated to reraise your minraise to protect against your "obvious" flush draw.

flat-call the flop

that turn is about as sickeningly scary as possible...i agree with cappy, you almost have to check because this card is so harmful to your opponents' hands

I would rather call than minraise the flop. The minraise on a board that draw heavy gives up WAAAY too much info about your hand.

On the turn, bet really small, like 1/4 or 1/5 of the pot. We want to let someone take a shot at us here, but you HAVE to bet the turn.

I checked the turn too. The river was a 2s, and thus a blank. BB bet 20, UTG+1 folded and I pushed over the top (wasn't that much more, I presumed pot-commitment would compell a call) and he folded his bluff immediately; I was kinda disappointed with the outcome, but on reflection raising on the flop is the only spot where I could have potentially got someone to invest more...

I like the way you played it. I don't like the idea of min-raising the flop, but maybe that's just because I don't ever like to make a min-raise. I think the turn can go either way. Don't think it's a big deal wether you check or make a small bet.

Bet it ... half-pot.

One part of poker is someone holding enough value to pay off our value.