1/2 NL. I have about $160 to start the hand.

I straddled. 5 limpers to SB who raised it to $15. BB calls, I called. 4 more called after. Button, who limped in, pushed all-in. SB folds, BB folds, I had KTos and left with a dilemma. Although button is new to table, I have a read on him and he is relatively loose-aggressive but smart. The 4 players who are yet to act are weak.

I decided to call with KTos because:
1. There is far too much dead money in the pot. I had $145 at that point, and there was $105 in dead money, I had $145 left, and that would be about 1.7:1 when I could win $245 by calling $140...
2. I am pretty sure button has 77 or worse since he limped from button when there was already $23 in the pot. If he had a quality hand, I feel he would've raised to bump the pot/steal the dead money.

Critique play.

I would have most likely folded to the original raise but I agree with you that his play sure seems like a squeeze play with some sort of marginal holdings.

Good lord that was awful.

You definitely should have folded to the original raise. Definitely.

You also should have folded to the push. I agree, it is logical to put the button on 77 or lower. But, it's not unusual to see some loser limp with AA trying to be tricky. Or with pairs higher than 77 as well... Any pair up to JJ could logically play it this way, and again, I don't think it's unusual to see QQ-AA make this play as well. Plus, you don't know what the limpers behind you are going to do. It seems likely to me that one of those limpers could have something like KQ, AJ, AQ and might be willing to gamboool it up.

I don't like this hand from start to finish. ESPECIALLY the preflop call of the initial raise. But, that's just my opinion.

what he said. other than that, if you feel like gambling with K-10 offsuit, well, GL!

<please tell me where and when you are playing>

I've seen worse.

People do crazy things in the straddle.

Again, I sense it is a button squeeze play. All limpers called to the Button. I think there is a pretty narrow range where the button would limp-re-raise in a straddled pot. Personally, I can eliminate all big hands that have me dominated.

No one else other than the first replier thinks it is a squeeze play AND I should not have gambled in this spot?

SW: I do play at River Rock and Boulevard if you ever travel off the island.

It could be a squeeze play. Problem is, the squeezer could easily have you dominated or at least behind.

And I don't know what type of image you have at the table, but I'll limp from the bb in a 9 way pot with AA if I know the straddler is agressive. I mean, the whole point of straddling is so you can act last. If you're just acting last and calling a raise, what fun is that? Straddlers raise their straddle, thats just the way it is. So I could easily put this guy on a bigger hand than 77 or whatever.

Mark

So it is conceivable that someone could limp from button with AA when 4 players had limped in already? I suppose it is possible, but I can't see it.

I don't know what kind of image I have on my table, as I have been playing a lot of hands, but whenever I show down, I usually the goods. Got chopped down from 300ish after laying down QQ and sucked out. I think my image is loose-aggressive. Again, the button had just sat down for like two hands. Doubt he has a read on me.

I dont think you're beating even close to enough hands to make this call correct.

KQ, KJ, AK, AT are all hands that have you dominated.

Squeeze makes the most sense, but I still dont like it. I dont see the rationale behind putting all your money in with a VERY marginal hand like KTo.

Upon further reflection, I think I made a tilt call.


I made the call, no one else called behind me. He showed 55, I lost the race.

Well, the best hand won...

LOL people who say that are usually awful at poker.

Also I think you can discount a lot of the guys high card holdings. I'd be shocked if we aren't 40% vs his push range.

That's all I needed to read.

This is the classic phenomenon of "one bad call begets another." I don't think any of your decisions were HORRIBLY wrong, but you managed to set yourself into a sequence of marginal decisions that wound up leaving you in a really wretched position.

The straddle...meh...It's okay once in a while, but I am not generally a fan of plays that have you blindly building a pot in bad position.

Calling the $15...meh...you could probably tell the pot was going to be big enough to justify it with this marginal hand.

Calling the all-in...meh...You got a good read that he was on a squeeze play, which I agree with totally, and you got your money in reasonably well (based on your read, you would have been wrong to fold at this point for so big a pot).

See, none of these decisions were horrible (none were really great, either). If you telescope the action into "I limped, button pushed, folded to me" then you are quite obviously making a horrible decision to play, but you are getting carrot-and-sticked into an iffy decision. You need to bring a little chess in your game and think a couple moves ahead. Let's rewind to the $15 raise. Ask yourself, what happens if I call? Look around the table. Chances are, if you can read the button as trying a squeeze later, you could probably have guessed he was going to make that play. Heck, you could probably guess SOMEONE would pump it up farther. So then you can effectively telescope the action now, by anticipating what is coming. Then you can make a better decision (like maybe pushing yourself). Regardless, since your call not only didn't close the action, but left a juicy pot for some predators behind you, you MUST consider the people behind you in your decision. It sounds like precious few people in your game do this.