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You have there are two limpers, you call, everybody behind you folds, the small blind calls and the big blind checks. Pot = $50
The flop is everybody checks to you, do you bet or take the free card?

Come on guys, post your replies. This could be another great learning chance for you. Ed gives great advice and this is certainly a type of hand that could be played in lots of different ways.

on to the question . . .

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a big no limit player I mostly played Limit Holdem and I lean towards the aggressive side.


I would make a standard bet here. In no limit I typically like to bet around 75% of the pot although depending on the game and the limits sometimes I'll just bet the pot, so I would probably bet $35 and be happy to just take the pot down.

There's lots of other minor points I could bring up regarding the situation, what to do if I get called, raised, etc but I'll wait for some other members to chime in before posting more.


Jason

__________________
I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

If the table is very loose and passive then I don't mind over limping here but in general I am going to raise this hand up. Raising here is usually going to be the best play because it makes you much less easy to read. Overlimping makes your hand look exactly like it is, a small suited connector or pair.

By raising preflop, we'll narrow the field and often be able to take this down on the flop when we miss. Sometimes we'll hit big and our hand will be more disguised. Its also much easier to win somebody's stack in a raised pot than it is in an unraised pot.

As played, I'm betting this flop because it looks like everybody has missed. There aren't really any draws out there so all the more likely that we take it down here.

A ton of turn cards can improve out hand such as any club, any 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. If my flop bet gets called once or twice I'd be 2barrelling a 5, 6 or any big club. If its still a family pot on the turn I'll take a free river if I can most of the time.

The big live games are much looser than the $.25-.$50 NL games on the Internet. Everybody sits much deeper and is therefore willing to see more flops for a limp or a raise.

The typical $5-$10 NL will have one stack under $1,000 and everybody else will be sitting $1,500-$5,000 and occasionaly somebody will have $10,000+. I just played in a game where I had $4,000 and three people had me covered at a 9 nine handed table.

I like raising to buy the button when I am one or two off the button, especially if I haven't been seeing a lot of flops. That being said, suited connectors and medium and small pairs want to have a lot a people seeing the flop.

Another MAJOR difference between online and live is; raises of 3-7 BB's get called MUCH more liberally in live poker than they do online. You can make it $50 UTG and get called in a few spots "sometimes quite a few" so it is more difficult getting control of the pot.

I guess in order for me to take things like stack size into consideration, then I need to know what the stack sizes are. To get some good discussion going on these hands we need more information, like table dynamics, any reads, stack sizes etc.

I'm still not sure how overlimping here is better than raising though. If a player behind us were to raise our limp to $70 and the previous limpers called, would you call too? If so why not be the one who raised first?

I get that people tend to make a lot more loose calls preflop when the stacks are deep because of their perceived implied odds. If however, you have a player at the table who is raising 56s in middle position, implied odds are greatly diminished because it is much more difficult for you to pay somebody off in a big pot with this type of hand.

To some extent I need to agree with JM here. More info would be good. Aside from stack sizes, you didn't mention how many people were behind you before the button. I think our decision to limp along preflop depends partly on how many and who are left to act. There are tons of people when in the CO or on the BTN that will raise any two cards with 3 or 4 limpers before them.

But I think what Ed was trying to do was start the discussion on the flop. Limping behind is certainly a play that is justified in many circumstances, so being that he indicated that everyone behind him folded to the Blinds, means that he has absolute position on everyone postflop and now the discussion starts.

So that said, I absolutely bet out here. Your question of whether or not we should take a free card here doesn't make any sense. It seems to me that given your hand, another card is much more likely to help someone else's hand more than yours. I mean unless you flop another 5 or 6, chances are whatever card comes isn't going to make you feel really good about putting a lot more money in the pot. I'd bet 30-40 and hope to take it down right now. If it gets HU instead, then it's time to use more info we have on the other player.

The point of the discussion was the bet size on the flop, in previous hands I did go into greater detail.

I'd bet about 30ish. Enough to clean out the garbage hands but anymore is spewing chips when someone's calling you with a mid pair or a Q.

Turn action is card and read dependant

Good article!!!