1/2 Stud High: 4AA 5th Street Decision

[Jeff76]

Thanks for the discussion, guys. I'm glad to see that this was a tricky enough decision that I was correct to ponder it.

[MRBAA]

The discussion of 6th is great, and really illustrates why you must think of each situation individually. One thing that maybe didn't get said clearly is that 5th is an easy, easy raise. I play these loose low limit games and blowing out the two weak looking hands and getting some dead money in the pot more than compensates for the possibility you are against 2 pair (or occaisonally hidden trips) here.

[Jeff76]

[ QUOTE ]
One thing that maybe didn't get said clearly is that 5th is an easy, easy raise.

[/ QUOTE ]I actually thought so, but when I got it heads up on 6th I kind of felt lost and wondered if I'd blundered on 5th.

This discussion has helped me re-enforce that yes, I still know what I'm doing (somewhat) and 6th street posts have been VERY helpful in helping me thing about situations where I'm in with a likely 2nd best hand OOP.

[Jeffage]

This is a pretty cake raise on 5th street.

Jeff

[CarlosChadha]

[ QUOTE ]
This is a pretty cake raise on 5th street.

Jeff

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for clearing that up for us...

;-)

[jon_1van]

Ok, I've been on vacation for a while.


But here are my thoughts on the hand.


If you raise 5th you should check/call 6th ONLY when facing a relatively straight forward player. Carlos' suggestion to check/call relies on the possibility that your opponent may reveal his own hand by checking behind on 6th (a pretty serious mistake IMO).

If your opponent was very aggressive he might do 2 things you won't like. ONE, he may 3-bet 5th forcing you to pay more to isolate. TWO, he will probably bet 6th with his bricked flushes, forcing you to pay off his made two-pairs.


In light of this, you could consider a call on 5th. There are upsides to a 5th street call. FIRST, you need to realize that in a 4 handed pot seat 3 and seat 4 have very little equity because you and seat 1 both have likely edges. Since seat 3 and 4 don't have much equity when combined and the pot is smallish you don't have to auto-isolate because there isn't a ton to be gained pot equity wise. SECOND, seats 3 and 4 may not be calling 1 bet anyway. So you don't have to assume that just calling forces you to play a 4 way pot instead of a 2 way pot.

[Johnny#5]

I dunno ... I don't think this is near as easy as a raise as many others think for the reasons jon posted. Some other random musings ... Seat 1 can count on you betting 5th if checked to with a fairly high probability so the fact that he led into you imo discounts the probability he has a flush draw, pair + FD, etc. cause I would expect a c/r from them frequently. But ... I'm not confident enough in that to fold unimproved aces anywhere AND what I really don't want is for him to bet/3bet anything he has and put me in a crappy spot where I can't do anything but call down b/c I have no read on him and I'm OOP and I can't jack 6th and I can't risk a bad fold on 7th. I'd almost rather have the other players in there truthfully, unless you're worried they're gonna make some weird 2 pair to crack your AA I want them chasing 2 outers cause I don't expect to show down AA here and win often at all.