For some reason this hand has been bothering me. My question is specific to the river betting. Do you raise here or just smooth call? I raised and cant help thinking I blew $40, but only because I know the end result.

Your thoughts?

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=vi...view&hand=96571

i'm raising that river all day long, and calling the river raise. I don't like the open limp from MP. You need to fold that in MP. if you are sitting at a loose table then you can limp utg or utg+1, but I'm not open limping from utg+2, and certainly not from MP

without a read heads-up, i raise this every time.

aseem

can u explain that? i always limp with small pairs in MP regardless of if anyone has entered before me or not. I even raise with them towards late position. Bad??? How is limping closer to early position better then mid?

When you are in MP1 you are starting to look for hands to raise. YOur raising standards should rise a bit, but your open limping standards need to go to almost nil. NOw, I am raising this hand from MP3, CO, and Button, cause those are blind stealing positions. If the blinds are loose then you need to fold this hand up until the button, where there a limp would work, cause you can play it for pair value

Limping with small pairs is very weak play. Raising is much better than limping. If your raising, you want to take the blinds or get the hand headup otherwise hopefully against 2 unpaired overcards. The only time to be limping in with small pairs is when you expect 5 or 6 players to be in the pot with you so you get the right odds to flop a set. I usually fold small pairs though, unless the table is particularly tight and is respecting raises.

I think you played this hand as well as it could have been played. You were outdrawn. As for raising its a matter of opinion and style. Small pairs are even weak against most blind hands I agree with the limp try to see it cheap. But jayboogie is right about the odds preflop.

The way you played the hand was very aggressive and thats how it should have been. You did everything right in my mind. You had him paying for his draw while you were way out infront. You had 10 outs(fullhouse) to his 8 and you already had a strong made hand.

I'm still new to poker, so take my $.02 for what it's worth (probably $.000002)

Anyway, I would have played it identical, including the limp PF and the raise on the river.


Why is raising it up a proper play? If you get heads up, it seems like either a coin flip at best or at worst, you're behind by about 2-1. It just seems like you're isolating yourself, vs isolating your competition.