40/80 Badugi Bellagio

[ActionFreak]

Game is playing a little wild. It is raised UTG and reraised. Both of these guys are giving a lot of action. The button (older guy with long gray hair who just sat down) four bets. I look down at 9764 badugi in big blind. I don't see anyone who is drawing folding before the river. Is this an easy 5-bet?

[palman]

Call and stand pat. It'll be read as either a monster or a really weak hand. You should be able to get a c/r in if the button is pat as well, also the button will think he's good for at least one street and may pat and/or call down the entire way with a worse badugi.

If you call down in later streets you will likely get people who draw to 10's or J's to stay with them hoping you're on the real weak badugi, and you may get value out of people trying to get you to break what they think is you having a bad badugi.

The pot is relatively large with this many people, so I like calling pre-draw to potentially get people out of the pot with a c/r or get them to make mistakes whether it being them reading you for weaker than you are, or them being scared of your holding and not getting as much value. 5 betting would be slight +EV here, but I think potentially getting people out of the pot is worth more.

If the button is pat, I might wait until one draw to go to c/r to eliminate the other two players if they're drawing. If no one else is pat, your deception allows you to make crying pot odds calls on the end because people might read you for weak. I don't think you eliminate the field any by capping predraw or c/r'ing the first draw. Added benefit is an 8 or a 7 made on the 2nd draw might get spooked enough that you don't lose any extra bets, and you can potentially get away cheaply given the right action on the first draw.

I can't think of an old guy in this game that isn't pat on the button or have at least 1,2,4.

[ActionFreak]

I got the action wrong.. it was the small blind who 4 bet. I capped it. Small blind stays pat. I stay pat. UTG drew 2. Middle position drew 1. Small blind leads out after first draw. My action?

I don't remember the small blind's name. I have only played in this game 6 or 7 times. I have never seen him before but people seemed to know him.

[palman]

I would need a strong read on a player for me to muck it just to the SB's aggression. If it gets 3 bet on the first draw you can expect your opponnents to stay to the river, unless UTG blanks twice. The pot is already large enough that narrowing the field should be your #1 priority, so I still call on the first draw and raise the 2nd.

With my line, one of two things happen: 1) you narrow the field in a pot which should be 960 after the first draw or 2) both your opponnents still drawing call 2 bets cold on a big street and you get just as much value as if you went alot of bets on the first draw.

If UTG goes away if he catches 2 blanks on the first draw with a raise, then I'd take this line. But most opponnents calling a cap here drawing 2 I'd imagine don't go anywhere.

SB's lead into the field doesn't really give you much information here, as he's going to lead with mediocre hands to see if you raise so he can break, or he may pat if you slow down.

That being said, I think raising/calling on the first draw is relatively close.

[ActionFreak]

I raised his bet after the first draw. My thought was that I wanted guys drawing to face two bets with the possibility of having to put in 4 or 5 bets on again on this round.

Everyone called. My read at that point was that I was probably beat but it was close.

Small blind showed down 85 badugi.

[palman]

Once it's capped predraw 4 ways no one ever gets away after the first draw. I like your thought process more in a 5-6 way pot with multiple people drawing 2, as most will dump then unimproved.

Another thing to be taken from this hand....SB made a mistake by not going for a c/r after the 2nd draw. SB will lose the same amount of he's beat by betting out, and missed out on 3 big bets with the only downside being you might break when you wouldn't if he just led out.

[palman]

Just for clarification, the reason why people usually won't go away for heavy action after the first draw once the pot is capped, is because usually in a pat vs pat situation, one of the pat players will give up on the aggression. It's very rare that it will go for multiple small bets after the first draw, and then multiple big bets after the 2nd draw.

You were dealt a pat 9, and put in one raise after the first draw and presumably called down from there. For the people drawing to be really concerned about putting in alot of bets on the big street, both of you would have had to be dealt good pat 8's or better, which is just extremely rare.