Suited connectors OOP: Pair plus flush draw with SPR around 13

[CurryLover]

A friend played this hand the other night in a live £5/£5 NL Hold'em game. I saw it happen and it got me thinking...

Hero limped after a couple of other limpers with 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. The button raised to £35. Everyone passed and hero called.

Pot was about £90 and remaining effective stacks were around £1250. The raiser is a very basic player. Not very good, bit of a fish, but does not give his money away. He has also just won a couple of decent pots to get unstuck and is probably about even now. Whilst he might sometimes raise with baby pairs, this would not be standard for him, and he is definitely not the type to make tricky raises with speculative hands. His range here is thus almost totally confined to medium/large pairs and big card hands (probably something like 88+, AJ+, KQ, and perhaps KJs).

Hero's image is competent and very tight. Villain may or may not have registered this.

Flop came: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Hero has hit a nice flop with a pair and flush draw.

Considering stack sizes, opponent profile etc. what is hero's best line?

He went for the check raise. Villain bet £80, hero check-raised £300 more. Villain thought for quite a while, checked his hole cards again, and set himself in. Obviously hero called. Villain had A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Outcome not important.

I think there is a better line for hero here (other than folding pre-flop), especially considering the SPR is very favourable for hero. What are your thoughts?

[tetrisworlds]

nice post

[CurryLover]

[ QUOTE ]
nice post

[/ QUOTE ]
ty

Any thoughts?

[obiedman]

bet free bet

[Albert Moulton]

With 250 bb effective stacks, I think it would be good to make a modest raise preflop with this hand to (1) buy the button, and (2) build a decent pot to either (a) win on a continuation bet if the situation on the flop is conducive to a cb, or (b) win a big pot if you flop a decpetive, big hand. In this case, a raise to $25 would probably get the button to frequently fold, and get all the limpers to call so you can play a decent pot in the best post-flop position. Of course, since the button had AA, then the raise would have been reraised and you would fold. But this is a reasonable play in most cases.

As played for a limp preflop, I think limp/folding in this case is better than limp/calling. Despite the deep stacks, it is generally a leak to play suited connectors out of position and heads up in a raised pot. The reason is that you will generally win too little when you win to cover the amount that you will pay out when you lose. If you had position on the preflop raiser, then calling a $35 raise would be great, even heads up, because the SPR will be about 13 and you can use your position to put a lot of pressure on the preflop raiser with any number of flops and turn cards regardless of whether you hit the flop.

As played for the limp/call, I think donk betting the flop is often better than c/r on the flop. If hero led the flop, then villain would raise, and hero could push (or reraise). This way hero is doing the stack-committing push/reraise giving him some fold equity rather than as played where hero is calling the all-in from villain. If I had a set, I would have led into the preflop raiser. So, in general, I play big draws the same way. Remember that winning without a show down is actually a good thing, since you are typically about 50:50 vs an overpair. So, while you can't fold, you should be happy with a win if villain folds on the flop.