You make the call.

Had a hand tonight and wanted to play a little game.. See if you can figure out what the players had..

UTG raiser is a woman who likes to raise with any pair sometimes SCs she raises big when she had a big pair. She raised 25 dollars or 5x as the blinds are 5 5 .. this isnt so big in this game.

UTG+1 flats

UTG+2 (me) I call

3 other players call in pos then sb who just rebought for 300 makes it $50.. or min reraises.. what does he have?

UTG and original raiser flats the reraise and so does UTG+1..

when it comes to me I decide to raise to 185..

what do you think we all have? After I get a few responses I will let everyone know what happened..

boy guys I am a little dissapointed that no one is trying to figure this one out. So I guess I have to tell what happened. Its a great story that I think really is showing my growth as a player and trying to overcome my fear of big bets..

As I had mentioned in the first post when the gal UTG raised to 25 I really didnt put her on a big hand since she normally would raise more if she did. The guy that flat called her seemed tight so the fact that he called meant he could have a wide range including a big hand but certainly NOT AA-QQ.. he could have AK as I have seen him flat call this hand many times. the couple of players who called behind me also couldnt have big hands becaue they would for sure raise to thin the field.

So when the bozo min raised to 50 with only about 250 behind was a complete idiotic play .. I had seen this guy do this many times before and he was never strong but simply did this to get more money in the pot. So when the UTG gal flat called I knew she wasnt that strong and when the guy behind her also flat called I figured he was stronger than her but still not that strong..

Now it was my turn and I felt the guy that min raised would certainly go all in if I raised enought to put him to the test and with about $200 in dead money I was willing to race with 88 knowing the best this guy could have was something like J10 -KQ suited. So I made it 200 to go and just like I thought he went all in for 30 more. My surprise was when UTG gal called and so did the guy behind her. I knew my pair was better than hers. She had in previous sessions raised to over 100 with just 99s so there is no way she would just call with a pair as good. My real concern was the guy who called behind her. what could he have that he would just flat call twice for so much? He was obviously stronger than her but did he have a better pair than me? He was playing it safe and I thought I could use that to my benefit if I had to shove on the flop. He was certainly playing this hand quite passively and he is already a super tight player..

When the flop came 885 I obviously didnt need to worry about anything. UTG gal bet $200 into this pot and the guy behind her folded. I played with him yesterday and he said his "monster" was JJ.. I played with him yesterday and he is the tightest most careful player I have ever seen at my local casino. I never give him any action unless I am getting implied odds and I am drawing the the nuts.

naturally I called the 200 bet. I thought about raising but I felt she would bet again on turn. And she did. An A hit the board on the turn and she bet $300 .. with only $450 left I went all in and she sank trying to decide what to do. she thought she was beat but it was only $150 more now to win a $2000 pot so she called and I wont the hand..

UTG gal had 66

SB min raiser 33

Hammhah 88

tight ass JJ..

If JJ had played his hand the way I played mine I would not have been able to call preflop and would have bemoaned my luck and not having been in the pot and seeing my quads flop the world. But I saw the opportunity to win a nice pot with a good overlay and he played it safe that cost him $250..

I hope I have the gumption to continue to play more like this in the future.. of course with the exception that I will have to be a bit more careful maybe not doing this play with 88s but maybe 10s or AQ+ as two players called the big 5 bet.. they really are loose in LA..

h

Hi Wendy,

I'm not sure what you are trying to get out of us here, but I think you made two critical mistakes. First I'm not so sure reraising is wise here with middle pair with a player as tight as you've mentioned already calling a raise and a reraise. Unless he plays completely different postflop, he should be fairly easy to know where you stand against. In this case, with a fairly large pot and a pocket pair you might want to set mine when you are probably no better than racing against one player and possibly dominated.

Second - unless your casino is using half bet rules to allow reraising, your reraise amount is horrific as it shuts down all of your options. You raise to $135 a guy that has $250 behind. This leaves him only overshoving $115 - not enough to be considered a complete reraise, meaning you don't have an option to futher raise when action gets back to you. A reraise to $175 on your part, which would be a $125 raise would leave your opponent $125 behind allowing his shove to be a complete reraise and you to be able to raise again if you desired when action was back to you. All for only $10 less....

Todd

Your points are very well taken. at the time of the hand I knew the guy to my right probably had a better hand than the woman utg but I honestly thought my reraise would push them both out. It didnt and after he called then I was a bit worried. that said he is not a risk taker and I still had almost 700 behind and he would have folded everything other than a set to a big bet by me. considering he folded to just a $200 bet from the utg woman into a now over $900 pot proves this...

About your second point, I knew that I was betting an amount that if the sb player shoved pushed all in I couldnt reraise. If I had bet less there would be a real chance that utg woman might reraise light and locking me out of the pot. as she had done with 99s in a previous hand against another player. I also didnt think either she or the guy next to me would call quite frankly. I was actually very surprised they would flat call my reraise since it screamed AK at worst..

I think this demonstrates a few things:

* the games are super loose and two players called a 5 bet shove for over $200 with small to medium pairs..

* I probably shouldnt try this again with a hand as weak as 88 because of the propensity of other players to make these large over calls. I had seen this once before at the hustler but with my tight image I overestimated how much players would fold to me.

* Live play has alot to do with feel and reads and except for the read about the two players folding my read was pretty good. I got a great flop and won a huge hand completely disguised.

My main point is that I shouldnt have been able to play this hand at all. If JJ tight ass guy had played the hand more aggressively he would have won a very nice pot. I took a chance to win a $800 flip with a $230 investment and as a tight player myself I need to do these every once in a while..

I have been very reluctant to make a play like this in the past and because of it my hand ranges have been too predictable. I am now betting in limped pots more with any pair or draw and trying to keep the other players trying to read my hands rather than the other way around. I feel that in the long run this is just another way to become a better player.

thanks for the comment... always appreciated!

h