Raise with A7o, BB leads into raiser on 542 flop

[betgo]

The lead into the raiser was sort of interesting because this is basically an action flop. Any ace has a gutshot and an over pair looks good. If I had a legitimate raising hand like AK or JJ, I would probably want to put the money in.

As it is, with A7, I am about 30% against 88+ and about 23% against AT+. Annette calling in the BB could also have hit the flop harder with low cards.

It is kind of hard to figure out whether she is taking a stab at the pot, has a hand similar to mine and doesn't want to be pushed off of it, has some kind of draw she is willing to go allin with, or has a big hand and is leading into the raiser hoping for action. Of course this ambiguity is part of what makes her a strong player.

I think part of the lesson is that I shouldn't have raised her blinds with a marginal hand, as another relatively big stack on the bubble.

[helgefyll]

How about a call? Do you think she is firing again with air? I don't know how she plays, but alot of players will give up on the turn, and if she has something like a pair of 8's alot of scarecards can come on the turn. My only concern is that we probably aren't deep enough to do this.

[cjx]

[ QUOTE ]
How about a call? Do you think she is firing again with air? I don't know how she plays, but alot of players will give up on the turn, and if she has something like a pair of 8's alot of scarecards can come on the turn. My only concern is that we probably aren't deep enough to do this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think we tried that on a different betgo hand (though that time he had flush+inside straight draws), but it turned into disaster and quite frankly I can't imagine it going much better here. Raise or fold look much better and make your turn decisions much easier.

What if an 8 to K shows up and she follows up with a 2/3 pot bet? Calling pretty much equates to striaght up loose passive play here, it's not tricky and it's not helping define our opponent's hand so that we can either raise/bet or fold the turn. What if an Ace or a 7 show up? Calling is all questions and no answers and unless we hit it's disaster if she follows through on the turn (and still disaster in some cases that we do hit).

cjx

[betgo]

Looking this over, I like my fold. I tried to steal the blinds on the bubble, got called by another big stack who is a top player, missed the flop, and got bet into.