Hi and thanks for reading

FCP/Pokerroom 1-1 10 handed ring game.

I am delt A-10 of diamonds on the button.

EP bets 3.50.

Folds to me, I call.

The small blind elects to call and the bb folds.

The flop comes 10S JD, 4S.

The small blind checks.

The player in EP bets $3 or about a third of the pot.

He now only has $18 left in chips. (He is not a super tight player)

I bump it up 5 so now it's $8 to go.

The small blind calls then the EP player goes all in for $18.00.

There is now $47 in the pot. So it's $13 more for me to call.

I think I might be behind but I think that I'm getting about 3.5 to 1 on my money.

Is that right?

So I call.

The SB quickly follows suit and calls as well. There is now $60 in the pot

The turn is an As. Giving me 2 pair. The SB checks. I check.

I'll hold off on telling you what the river card is but I'd like to get people's opinion on how I played this hand.

I guess my two questions are:

1. Was calling $3.50 on the button pre-flop a good play.
2. Was calling the all-in a good play or not.

Any opinions would be greatly apprecaited.

Thanks for your time,
Joe

The call preflop is kinda loose, seeing EP raised 3.5xBB. But besides that,

Flop, raise is fine for info but after he plays back strong, I think you should fold here, regardless of the odds your getting. You raised for information and you got it. EP has either overcards, or a very strong drawing hand. What worries me even more is the SB check/call. He has to have at least a set or maybe a strong draw also (which would be kinda loose for him to call). Either way, you're most likely way behind at the flop and i'm opt to fold here.

The rest of your response is fine, but that particular line is terrible advice. Pot odds almost always matter.

OP, I dislike your pre-flop call. Your hand doesn't look good against a reasonable EP raiser. In fact, the chance of domination sucks. If you'd had some cold callers in there, it might be reasonable to call in a multiway pot. Also, your opponent is short-stacked, so it's really not helping out your implied odds.

In your defense, you will have position, so if you have a decent read on your opponent, feel able to outplay him (though that'll be difficult with his short-stack), and have the discipline to fold when you're getting improper odds, it's not terrible.

This isn't a terrible flop for our hand, but it's not great either. If you're going to play back at him, your raise sucks. There's $11 in the pot pre-flop. His bet of $3 is bad, but then you add $3 (pot: $17) and bump it $5. Betting $5 into a $22 pot is asking for trouble.

My first impression is that we should fold the flop. Another route would be to call the flop and see what develops on the turn. Your third, more aggressive option (if you think you're ahead) is to push him in for the rest of his stack. Put the pressure on him. Your pot-size re-raise does great things. It makes him call off his chips if he wants to play, and it likely knocks out the SB.

After the SB calls and the EP goes all-in, what range of hands do you put them on? This is key to determining whether you should call.

pf call is kinda loose, but i despise the flop call.

SB flatcalling the 8 should set off bells in your head. this could/should be similar to the jen harman hand that's being posted. check/flatcalling 2 bets is a sign of a v strong hand.

when i meant "regardless of the odds your getting" i meant by what the OP estimated he was getting (i.e 3.5 to 1) Now of course, if you're getting 5-1 or 6-1 odds sure you can make that call.. Sorry if i didn't make that clear

also, we *really* need to know what your stack and sb's stack is.

Thanks for the well thought out responses.

To answer the question of stack size: I had $104 and the SB had 100. She just joined the table.

Thanks for making me think CobaltBlue. First, the reason why I called was because I had position. Good or bad that’s why I made the loose call. Perhaps, I put too much value on position.

I really like the two pieces of advice. I should have just called the $3 raise or really put pressure on both players with a pot sized bet if I was going to play. You’re right. $5 raise was horrible. Because with the playback of all-in now I’m forced to make the decision. (hopefully lesson learned)

The raise I made for information should have been a signal to me that I felt my hand was weak.

Cobalt Blue question: After the SB calls and the EP goes all-in, what range of hands do you put them on? This is key to determining whether you should call.

In terms of the range of hands, when the EP went all-in I thought he either had Ace K,Q,J or flush draw. To be honest, I wasn’t sure with the SB. She had just joined the table. I was thinking she was on a draw too.

The turn was an ace of spades. At this point if the SB bets out I would have most likely pitched it. There are too many hands I would lose too. Flush, Straight. Two-pair (AJ). But the SB checks so I check as well.

The river is an ace. Giving me aces full of tens. The SB checks again and I bet $35. The small blind folds. The EP turns over 2 jacks giving him Jacks full.

Needless to say he was pissed. The small blind said she had pocket kings.

This hand reminds me of the scene in the movie Top Gun when ‘Charlie’ (Kelly Mcginnis) chastises ‘Maverick’ when she says that although Maverick defeated the bandit in this example, we brought it up to show you what not to do.

Thanks again for all the responses they are truly appreciated.

Joe

Raise big or fold on flop

That's the problem here really. EP and SB have ranges that are quite strong against our holding. Even if they're on a draw (the best case scenario), we're not very far ahead.

If we give both of them a somewhat loose premium range (including draws), we're 22% to win. That makes the immediate call of the SB's all-in very close. Now with the SB likely calling behind us, you might cite implied odds.

However, with the SB tagging along, I actually think we should dump it. We're likely against at least one very strong hand...if not two. We'd probably feel okay if we pick up up another ten, but we're going to have a hard time feeling good about hitting an ace. We're also going to be in trouble if a spade or paint rolls off. The reverse implied odds are somewhat significant here.

A couple things..

--Don't call preflop with AT. If you are, be very aware that you're looking for trips/two pair. A lone A or a lone T are likely no good.

--Don't fold middle pair getting 3.5-1 on your money. Ever.

--Don't raise this on the flop. Peel one off on the turn hoping to stack the EP and the SB. (i.e. Catch an Ace or Ten)

--Don't check behind on the turn. I'd tell you to put the SB in, but I don't know our stack sizes? At least make some kind of bet at this since EP may have AJ and you may lose the main pot all together. If the SB has KQ then so be it--he hit his straight and we should've never been in this hand.

--See how making marginal preflop calls makes for difficult/marginal flop decisions?