Bad play?

[Haiku Joe]

I was in a 1-2 no limit game yesterday with a number of solid grinders capable of making moves. I was on the button with a stack of ~ 650. The UTG and cutoff each had ~300. The UTG opened the hand with a standard raise to 13. The Cutoff called and I called with Jc9c. The flop came Jd5c3c. The UTG c-bet 26 and the cut off called. I put the UTG on an overpair or a big Ace. I thought the Cutoff might have a middle pair or a draw of some kind. I decided to raise to 100 hoping to either take it down or be heads up. To my surprise the UTG went all in for an additional ~145 and the cut off called. I thought about it for a while and made the call. The board ran out bricks and the UTG showed KdKh and the cutoff showed Ac6c. Comments?

[Bradley Stewart]

In cases where I’m drawing to a flush or straight I normally call to see if i hit on the turn. If you put him on an over pair you would be flipping at best, when he calls your raise. But I play tight, I don’t think your move was bad.

[Steven Young]

Multiple opponents changes things for sure. But top pair and flush draw is a very strong hand. In this specific case you were drawing pretty thin. However if you were against either one heads up you obviously have much better odds. In this case after the second player calls the all in, then folding might be the best option. You are 100% beat by at least one of them, and you could be drawing to very few outs.

[Craig]

Lets start off by giving a direct answer to your question of: “Bad play?”. Not necessarily (no for short), but that doesn’t mean we should play any hand like a robot.

This hand requires knowing your opponents and the hand ranges you are able to put them on. The better you do this, the more the answer to your question changes. The UTG is betting big (for 1/2) in early position. You indicate this could very well be a big hand. Your call, following the CO call is fine. Folding is okay, but so is calling as long as you are able to re-evaluate on the flop.

The flop tells us a new story. UTG bets pretty strongly into the $40 pot, and the CO calls. What can they both have? Interestingly enough you put them on correct hand ranges. As the UTG is betting into two players who are both in pos he better have something that can stand a re-raise, but when the CO calls we need to ask ourselves, what does he hold? If it’s a draw which one is it? Small straight or flush draw? If it’s a flush draw, then you may be drawing thin especially if it’s a bigger one then yours (A,K, or Q flushes beat yours). So, do we automatically go all-in with top pair and a flush draw?

Wellllll, not so fast. You have Jc9c. Your top pair is easily behind any big pair, including AJ, KJ, and QJ. Sure, you have a flush draw to go with it, but the CO call, and the UTG play need to make us think more deeply. You actually did this in your analysis. If you are confident the UTG is more likely to hold a big hand in this spot, then you have little to no fold equity, but before we say that we have a flush draw that can increase our odds, we need to take into account the CO who cold called. If this is a flush draw, then our outs just diminished and our odds just went way down.

I know the books say to automatically raise here, but sometimes when we think about the situation as it plays out it may say otherwise. I can’t say your line is incorrect because so many say it’s correct, but at the same time I find myself analyzing these situations more and more, and when your hand range analysis tells you that you may be in danger, then it may be best to listen to your own analysis.

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