[thetrinity]

was playing at another table and we had a rush of cashouts and the game broke, so i get moved to another table.

very first hand at new game:

utg limps (young european player with large stack of about 800, looks decent but no real way of knowing)

i get aq hearts utg+1 (didnt have to post since i came from broke game, stack around 330) i make it 13, get 3 calls (blinds fold) and utg calls.

flops 2d2h5h

utg leads 20, i?

[Itsamazing777]

Just call and see the turn

[Jimmy Proffett]

Just call and see the turn

yeah this is pretty much your only choice. Doubtful UTG has JJ or better; also doubtful anyone's holding a 2. If UTG has mid-pair and betting to see where he's at you have many outs on the turn. Wouldn't raise b/c someone behind might go crazy and shove, then what do you do?

[rm18]

call because your hand plays good multiway and possibility of a 2 you dont want bloat pot up too much

[Ian]

Preflop: Raising $13 isn't bad, but you'll get more value out of your cards by raising about 1BB larger.

Flop: Calling is slightly better than raising. "Feeler bets" like the one your opponent made are usually moderate made hands that you can bluff your opponent off of with a raise. I prefer calling here though because that may entice people with worse draws to tag along whereas a raise would push them out. Also, by calling you lose less when one of the players behind you flopped trips or a boat.

Just my opinion...

[rm18]

double post

[rm18]

although shoving over the top might be good for the metagame, you are ahead like 90% of the time but as soon as you brick turn are behind

[gryfyn1]

with so little info about the table or the other other players its tough; but it sure feels like he has a middle pair. Calling seems the the play with the ability to get away from the hand.

[thetrinity]

ya its obviously between raise and call, well except for maybe milwaukee mike who would definitely fold this on a paired board.

only problem with calling is that its such a small bet that if someone does have a mid pocket pair its easy to let them take control of the hand.

i elected to min raise to 40 after a bit, figured this might get a little pair off their hand (not the bettor, from the players behind), but maybe keep the worse draws around, and likely get me heads up in position.

i also thought if the player had the 2 by an off chance, then the pot size was still managed if he elected to raise my min raise.

anyways gets back to utg and he makes it 105 and i call.

turns the 7 of hearts he bets 115 and i go all in for 209 and he calls my hand out exactly as aq of hearts and claims to fold a ace2 (seems like he would have been priced in to try and boat up).

[Jikos]

Raising the size of the pot here is the option to go with. Out of all the possibilities most of them will go in your favor if you raise and take control of the hand.

1) UTG has a middle pair and you are flipping. He folds.
2) UTG has a middle pair and you are flipping. He takes your action calls/shoves.
3) UTG has a similar hand to yours but is dominated. He folds.
4) UTG has a similar hand to yours but is dominated. He shoves.
5) UTG has a 2 in his hand. You are a 2.5 dog. He raises all in.
6) UTG has a boat. Very unlikely. Consider this a cooler.
7) UTG has garbage. Steal the pot.

As you can see out of the 7 possible holdings your opponent can have with 5 them raising the size of the pot gives you a favorable outcome (+EV). In one of them you are still drawing live and the other is a cooler. While it's true you have two others left to act their continuing hand range is exactly the same as listed above and you accomplish the same things. This works best if you have an aggressive table image.

[daneblazer]

I like raising HU or 3 way but would lean towards a call in a 5 handed pot.

Yea if he really had A2 that's a rough fold. Even if he pegged you for AQh he's got a 1/5 chance of winning and has to call $90 for about a $600 pot. So he's going to price himself in with that turn bet then fold to a raise. Would he just check/fold the river if he didn't hit? Brilliant. That's a pretty awful turn play by him

[thetrinity]

personally i was leaning to utg to having a worse flush draw and trying to slow the action. it seemed like a weird bet if he had a pocket pair or 4x as it was unlikely to win the pot being so small. he limped utg so it didnt seem many 2s should be in his range. i didnt want to make the big raise like jikos said because i thought it was likely i was folding out everything aside from the 2. im still kinda confused on this hand, not sure wat the hell was going on with the turn. on the flop it sure feels like he has the 2, but the turn play was pretty bad IMO if that was really the case.

[hockey216]

he probably had a pocket pair (22-99), or maybe even a2, 23,24 type hand. it could have been a steal figuring ppl missed, but betting out of position into 3 opponents is tough, especially when initial pf raiser sitting behind him.

you call. you're in position. its multiway. i wouldnt raise in this spot as defensive move (if he has 2 in his hand or 55, he's going to reraise, and he is going to take your whole stack). just call and see the turn. maybe he slows down if he had a 66-99 type hand and paint card comes. you might be able to bluff him later in hand (or suck out). players' most common weakness is semibluffing their flush draw too hard. just call. see the turn. if you miss you won't lose much.