Party $3/6 HE, full table. I’m dealt 9s8s in late position. Three limpers ahead of me, I limp, another limper, then there’s a raise. Small blind calls, big blind folds, all limpers call. (Seven players!)
Flop: 9h 3d 5d
Checked to me, I bet to see where I am. I get three callers.
Turn: 2d
There’s a bet and a call. I’ve been working on not fearing flushes all the time (I think I fold too often when the flush card comes) so I decide to call. Our friend the pre-flop raiser raises. The two in front of me call, but I decide to let the hand go. I had thought he might have AK-AJ because he didn’t raise the flop, but now the raise on the turn scared me. Even so I’m reluctant because the pot is large and I haven’t seen anything from the other two players that indicates a strong hand.
River: 5s
The preflop raiser bets and gets called by one other player. They turn up the cards and the raiser shows AQo, no flush. The caller shows pocket sixes for the win.
Does anyone call the turn raise? Does anyone fold to the first bet on the turn? This hand feels full of mistakes to me.
3 replies on “Folding the Best Hand”
Actually, I think you did fine. Calling the turn wouldn’t be bad either, but when two players are representing bigger hands than yours, and there’s a third player in the hand who could have you beat just by accident, and even if you’re ahead you probably have to fade 15-20 outs between the three of them, it can’t be a big mistake to fold. We all fold the best hand sometimes. Part of the game.
One thing to consider is to the check raise the flop. You have a very vulnerable hand, but the pot is getting big and eliminating overcard can be valuable in such a situation.
I agree with Matt. As hard as it is, you have to think that one of the 3 people in the hand has you beat. The pre-flop raiser obviously is a little lost as there is no way he can push 3 people off of a hand at 3-6 for just 1 more bet into a huge pot.
I think the only arguement for you calling here is that the pot is at this point is 16.5 big bets (or something in that proximity), and you might have as many as 3 outs if you are behind (the 8 or 9 of diamonds puts 4 on the board and you almost certainly lose that against 3 opponents). It is a big pot, so you might want to stick around just for that fact…but folding isn’t such a bad play either.
I might have raised the turn to begin with. I find that a lot of people like to play timid the first 2 rounds of betting, then try to bet out when a scare card hits the turn. Usually this is with something like a open ended straight that picks up a flush draw on the turn, or 2nd pair trying to win the pot, etc. So I tend to discount turn bets such as these.