I'm dabbling into 6-max NL right now so I'll be posting once a day hopefully for at least a week.


I've been at this table for about 7-10 rotations and am right at my buyin, $40. My image is very tight. Villain in question is the big stack at the table, around $90. When I came to the table, a conversation was just beginning on a huge sheriff call she made on another player, and turned out to have the best hand. She has not gotten out of line since I've been at the table. Although my image is very tight, I have made the standard raise of $2 on the button twice in the last three rotations and just taken down the blinds.

$50max NL Holdem FullTilt

Villain is SB.
DonkSlayer is on the button with


Folds to DonkSlayer who raises to $2. Villain raises to $6. BB folds. Hero slow-rolls a bit and calls.

Flop

Villain bets $8. Hero?

I have ~$32 left and the pot is $20. Call, raise, push?

I probably shovel. Looks like he's on an overpair too.
I might play it a little differently if you had the ace of spades, but here I'm looking to make the flush draw pay, if it's out there.

I say raise, put in 20ish. Get him to push.

Eh, think we get 88-99-1010 to call more often on the flop then we do the turn, given the odds of the card values that will turn?

Just wondering.

If we only have $32 left, a raise to 20 is useless. When he's behind, if he'll call 20, he'll call 32. If we're behind, we can't fold to a push anyways. If we were deeper, I would advocate a modest raise, but with the stack sizes I think it's a shove.

---edit, I'm assuming Villain has us well covered here?

Spade or not, you're going to showdown with the hand if you raise here.

I like a min raise or a raise to $20 total. That way, if they have a flush draw and wanna play, they're just gonna push the turn. If they have an overpair, it'll be hard to fold. If they call that raise, you're guaranteed to get the last bit in on the river.

Your goal is to ensure that you get all of your chips in, not minimize the loss if you're behind or if you get drawn out on. Villain can fold to a push, but are unlikely to fold to a min raise.

If you really think villain is recognizing your tight image, I would just call:

A shove (Any fish raise is out of the question ) will only get called by JJ(QQ?)+ and big suited spades.

If you slow-roll a bit with the call, and a blank rolls off on the turn, he might fire again with something like a small pair, or even bluff.

The only reason that calling is a good play is if the villain has air and will continue to bluff.

If he has a flush draw, raise a small amount so that they can pay to draw out. If they have a big pair, raise a small amount to make them pay to draw out.

Calling is bad becuase it allows them to get away from the hand more cheaply if they miss on the river.

I shove, expecting to see JJ-KK or two big spades. If the sheriff call is still on her mind, she might even call with something significantly worse, despite your tight image.

although i think min raising is the worst possible play at almost any time, i may actually consider it here.

If villain is competent, he will regognize that our TAG hero has either a really big pair, trips or AX of spades. He will then understand that he is at best 40 (more likely 30)% with his flushdraw.

12+8+16+16 = 52 --------- 52/24= 2.2

But with that said, most villians will not think of this, so after a second thought, maybe a fish raise to lure em in is not sucha bad idea in this situation. But I think a good player will fold many many flushdraws if we make a small raise.

BUT, if villain has anything except a flushdraw or a really big pair, the min raise will ring bells. That is why I was thinking about callling.



If villian has a big pair, the money is going in on the turn. Our money is going in on the turn, so the villain will not get away more cheaply.

I'm not so sure the villain can put me on that quite yet. Although I haven't mixed it up much, I have been raising on the button relatively often...and I didn't reraise preflop. Until I do something in response to their flop lead, I haven't defined my hand beyond "worth calling a not-huge reraise to see a flop against a big stack."

Against a solid player, I think villain can narrow down heros range alot on that flop, if hero makes a fishy raise to 16-20.
88-1010? Possible, but much more likely a better hand.

Given your stack this is one of the rare times i would advocate min raising on this flop. It will get a pair of TT to push you all in because there is a chance that you are doing this with a flush draw, air, or 88 and 99. Also but doing this, the 'sheriff' may not even lay down an AK type hand because he is too stubborn to fold to a min raise. After the min raise there is 44 in the pot and you have 16 left, so you have him commited in any case. Pushing is also good however i feel that because of your stack a min raise will get some value out of an AK type hand some of the times and of course ensures that you stack TT-KK.

We are not worried about a flush draw here after villian 3bets us preflop. All we should be thinking about is how to massage the pot to get his whole stack in when he isnt as strong as JJ-KK.