02-11-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Scary Flops
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Should I still fold my big pairs (Especially over pair pockets) or 2 pairs when there are lots of actions going on and the board is 1 or 2 cards to a flush or straight giving the possibility of a someone ALREADY having the hand?! Or, should I call/raise and get capped with my 2 pairs hands such as AA and TT?
Another thing is about slow play (absolute has nothing with the above question). I was dealt AA, the flop was [Kh, As, 9d,]. I slow played, the person before me bet, and the player right before me called, also did I, the turn was a T, and someone bet, the person right before me called again, also I did the same. The river was 5h same thing happened before me, this time I raised, the person who was usually doing the betting calmed down and called, and the person before me reraised, I called half-guessing that he had a straight ＃. He had a QJ.
Was that flop appropriate for slow play? When I saw it in the first place, [Kh, As, 9d,] should I have bet instead of letting others limping in? Or if not there, should I have raised when the T came down?
Thank you!! Please help.
Answer: The two questions I ask myself when the flop looks scary and there is lots of betting:
1. How much is it going to cost me?
2. Who is doing the betting and raising?
Most of the time, the correct move is going to be to fold. When people raise and reraise on the turn card in limit holdem it is very rare that they don't have what you think they have. A couple notable exceptions when a call might be in order are if the person is a maniac bettor -- they are betting/raising relentlessly with anything -- and secondly when you might think someone is reacting to someone else's moves to get you out of the hand.
Sometimes what happens is you have one bad player in and the third player raises them on the turn card forcing you to call two bets instead of one. I'm not sure if you'll find this often in low limit holdem but it happens frequently at middle and upper limits. It is uncomfortable if you are the preflop raiser and have an over pair and you are forced to call two big bets on the turn; they know this and that is why they raise.
The best advice I can give you is to play it safe against the players for a couple times, fold to them. Then after you see what they are actually willing to raise with, you can make better decisions about what to do, whether that be bare down and call or to muck.
Now for the set of Aces... Most of the time when I flop a set of Aces I just come out betting. The reason I do this is because I normally come out firing on the flop if I have raised preflop. The flop bet is the information round for me. The other players know this as well so if I bet into an Ace high flush, they don't automatically give me credit for an Ace. While this may not be the exactly the same thing in your game, the end result is the same because most likely those players will call to often anyway.
Next, I'm not scared of chasing any hands out that might have called otherwise. My philosophy is that if anyone has anything, they will call anyway, otherwise I won't get much from them so I might as well just guarantee a win and bet. Lastly, when you slow play in limit holdem, put the raise or check raise in on the turn card.
There are two reasons you do this; one, by charging them two bets on the turn you skew the odds against them quite a bit; two, most of the time they feel pot committed so you are guaranteed two big bets from each player. If you wait till the river to raise you give people too many free cards and often times you don't get a chance to put in a raise.
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