03-24-05, LearnTexasHoldem:

Inside Straight Hand, Comments On

Question: Playing online 5/10 dollar table. 9 players. I am on the dealer button with a 4/6 unsuited. 1st position raises to 50. Gets 5 callers. Action to me, I think the pot is looking nice and if I can draw the straight or hit some miracle flop I could have a big pay day. I call. Both blinds call. Family pot, 9 players. Pot size 450. Flop comes 5 8 10 rainbow. 1st/2nd player check. Original raiser bets 100. 5 callers. Action comes to me, inside straight draw pot size 1050. Pot odds and hand odds are about equal 1/10. I call. Both 1st/2nd call. Turn 7. Draw has hit, I am ecstatic. 1st/2nd player check. Original better goes all in to the tune of 700. One caller, 4 folds. Action to me I have about 1200 left in chips. I put the original better on a set, pocket pair was the preflop raise. It set on the flop. He milked it. The straight possibilities scared him and he wanted the hand to end. The caller I wasn't quite sure of. Could have two pair, could have a straight. My straight was the low end, but the only two hands that could beat me were J/9 and 6/9. I take my chances and go all in, trying to get 1st/2nd position to fold. Two hearts on the board, I want to chase out any crazy runner runner flush. 1st position calls, 2nd position folds. The river is the third heart, a K. I am not to worried about the flush, but I am all in so all I can do is hope. The good news was that it didn't fill in the possible straights. A side pot occurs between the caller and 1st position.

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The end result is the guy in 1st position had a 6/9. I am out.

Did I make a good play and get unlucky or was I asking for it, staying in with such a weak hand?

Playing online, I have opened up my hand selection in late position because the majority of the time you can see the flop for relatively cheap. Have I gone overboard, playing crap and getting burned?

Thanks for your insight,

 

Chad

 

Answer: I could sit here and write that you shouldn't have been in the hand in the first place, but I won't, because I would have done the same thing. The safe thing would have been to fold preflop. Safe doesn't always win the most though. You've got to play and this looked like a perfectly opportunity for a trapping situation. In addition the implied odds on the hand, you already had the odds in the pot to try and hit that gutshot.

You did just get unlucky. There is no way to put someone on 69 in the front. You play cards based on incomplete information. Some guy may beat me and get paid off way more than he normally would, just because there is no way I could have put him on that hand, but that won't stop me from doing the very same thing the next time I get a chance.

In hands like this, the philosophy you take is that you are going to get the most value out of it as possible and if by some off luck he has the one hand that can beat you, sobeit; the vast majority of time he won't and you lose money by not being aggressive. Cards can be absolutely brutal sometimes and leave you thinking, "what they hell did I do deserve this?" hehehe.

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