How many streets of value do we have?
We played the odds and ended up with a good hand in a multi-way pot. But how much value can we extract from this, if at all?
After a long absence, we're back at NL50. We've found a good table with at least one recreational player present and we want to play against him as many times as possible. Now we have a decent hand which is supposed to help us sneak up on him...
The preflop call is OK considering that UTG looks like a recreational player. Otherwise it's hard to realise our hand's potential because our flush would be weak and a top pair wouldn't have a kicker. Besides, we are playing out of position. So unless there are recreational players in the pot it's hard to make profit even with our 7-to-1 pot odds.
It's a very favourable flop for our Hero. He decides to play it slow but actually there's no reason for this as, with so many opponents, there are lots of different hands that would pay us. There's no reason to try and trap anyone because our opponents tend to play tight in these multi-way spots. In other words, by checking we let the whole crowd draw for free. Any pocket pair has its free chance to improve and get big implied odds for our stack. The UTG player bets, Hero calls and also gets one overcall.
On the turn, our Hero realises he can't risk any free plays, so he decides to donk for value. Now that flush draws became real, our hand also requires more protection. The deuce itself is more or less a blank card, so our bet shouldn't scare many weaker hands. We bet the turn but the flop aggressor suddenly gives up, and now we play heads-up against BB.
The river doesn't look too promising. We should consider some flush draws and gutshots completed plus bigger hands slowplayed. On the other hand, there's also some range we can still extract some value from. Or not. Looks like we're stuck and in need of your expert opinion once again. Let's review our options...
If this board and the Villain's play look too suspicious, we can always consider check/calling. On the other hand, we could try and extract some final portion of value but give up in case of strong resistance. And, finally, we may just decide our holding is not weak enough to throw away whatever happens and fight to the end hoping to catch some big bluffs in the process.
What are your personal thoughts about this hand? We didn't include check/fold in this poll but, for some players, it may be a valid option as well. Or maybe there's some other strategy we should adhere to. Let us know in the comments.
Previous poll's results
Last time we were trying to make our dream come true with our full-house. But it simply wasn't meant to be.
As our polls show, it was a tight spot with your votes divided mostly between bet/call and bet/fold. But which option is actually better? It's doubtful that a solid opponent would raise the river with a straight or a flush and there are simply not enough bluffs to justify the given pot odds. So we should just bet hoping to get some value from weaker holdings, and if we're offered to play for stacks we should politely refuse and move on.
