Smart push or overly frisky?

[Nick C]

Preflop seems pretty loose to me. A hand like T6s needs a lot of help to hit something you're going to feel good about playing strong postflop, and if I'm remembering correctly, you're going to flop two pair or trips only about 1 out of 25 times. The flush potential helps, of course, but you'll flop a flush or a flush draw only about one out of eight times (and it'll be a draw that you flop far more often than a flush).

The postflop passivity of your opponents also helps, since you'll sometimes get to chase cheaply, and then of course there's always the chance you'll end up winning with middle pair no kicker or something after a lot of postflop inactivity. But, in any case, $10 does seem like a pretty big preflop investment for such a hand, even on the button, especially considering that you're not even 100 BB deep.

Once that flop comes, well, you'll have two pair or better by the river slightly over half of the time. (And your "suited connector" is ragged enough that you're unlikely to make two pair at the same time anyone else makes a straight.)

Anyway, the flop push seems fine to me. I don't really see any other raise to make, so I guess the other option is to call. But if the flop bettor could have 4x or KsJs or 5c4c, and I'd imagine he could, then I think you'd like to protect your hand with two people left to act behind you (and that $25 alone might not get you HU), and if there's some chance that the flop bettor will actually dump 88 or KsJs, well, that's a bonus.

There is a case for calling also. If Villain's flop bet strongly suggests he currently has a better hand that he won't fold, and you also think he'll underbet again on the turn, then by calling you do give yourself the opportunity to save some money that ~50 percent of the time that you don't improve. Another factor is that, despite what I said about hand protection earlier, I'm not sure if you really should mind so much if the preflop raiser, for instance, wants to hang around for $25 with even as much as AsKc and five immediate outs against your hand. But if you can get a better hand or a better flush draw to fold, and you have the flop bettor beat, then that certainly is a benefit of a push.

[pokerchap]

T6s is a terrible hand. Fold PF
I play it the same way on the flop. It is wrong to fold here and if you call his bet on flop you are likely getting it AI on the turn either way. Against a passive who leads for $25 this may be a spew (pushing on flop) but I am not ready to fold this hand.