04-22-07, LearnTexasHoldem:

Can you get away from a set?

Question:

I love your website and thanks for taking time to read this. I play in a 1-2 NL Cash game about twice a week. It's a very loose game with raises to 10 dollars being called by 3-5 people a lot of the time. Here is what happened in my situation though.

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I was playing very tight and not seeing too many playable hands and finally I was in the SB with pocket 8's. There was about 3 callers before I raised to 10 dollars. I figured if anything I could of won a little pot. But the BB called and 2 others did as well. I put the BB on a good hand and the other callers on mediocre hands. The flop comes 8-7-5 rainbow. Obviously I am aware of the straight possibilities so I come out firing. I bet 20 dollars. The BB raises me to 60 dollars. The 2 other players call the 60 dollar bet. I figured the BB didn't have anything because he probably thought I missed the flop and was just betting to pick up the pot now. It was the other two players I was worried about. Could they have honestly called a raise with 6-4 or 9-6? I went all in and hoped they had a smaller set or maybe 10-9. I also knew if they had 6-4 or 9-6, the board could have paired and gave me my full house and the winning hand. Both players called and they turned over 6-4 and 9-6. The board didn't pair and I lost about 85 dollars. Is there anyway I could have gotten away from this hand? I can't help but to keep thinking about this hand. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer:

Let me put it this way instead: Do you want to get away from this hand? What if your opponents had turned over their cards before the turn, and with the river exposed, said: "If you wish, you can take back the money you've put in the pot and get away from the hand." Would you stay in or remove your money from the pot? The thing is that you actually have decent potential in this hand. Your chances of winning are slightly above 35%, and since there are three players in the pot, combined with the money from the big blind, you've only contributed about 30% of the total amount sitting in the middle of the table (at least if the other players have you covered). Consequently, removing your money would be a mistake. With that in mind, there isn't a way you could have gotten away from the hand - and you shouldn't have.

By the way, I don't exactly love your raise to $10 from small blind pre-flop. You say that it's a loose game, and that raises to $10 are being called all the time. So you know that a $10 raise probably won't buy you the pot. You can do that sort of raise if all players have very deep stacks, and you figure that you can win a sizable pot if you hit a set. This time, however, you only sit with $85 in a $1/$2 game, which isn't enough to start building pots with medium pairs. But in this hand, the result would have been the same whether you raised or called before the flop.

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