That’s tough to take, but even being a bear of very little brain I do wonder whether 5,6 suited connectors are worth pursuing that far when so many players are in on the flop.
I would have played both hands similar to your nemesis and don’t think that he is superaggro. Hand nr. 1 he called a shove with only ten big blinds. Though it was UTG, a shove with just ten bigs doesn’t have to be a very big hand and a call with every ace is ok, as long as you know that you are the only one left like in this case. In hand nr. 2 he made valuebets with a hand wich is good in this spot most of the time. If one of the other guys in the turn has the straight, he will probably hear from it and if not he wants to see chips for his nice hand.
I think sets will often take similar lines, giving you a reasonable number of combinations that you are ahead of. Your raise after his first min raise had the benefit of clearing the other players, which is a bit mixed, as you were probably more likely to be ahead of them. But with all of them in the pot, the chances of your hand holding up diminish quite a lot.
Once you made the first re-raise, I think you are pot committed. You can’t like seeing him raise yet again, but the double min-raises makes me think he doesn’t know what he is doing, increasing the odds that he is on some sort of strange draw, or even making some kind of silly bluff.
I don’t think your play is any kind of slam dunk, or even obviously the correct line… just an example of the many hard choices poker offers us.
As consolation, I don’t think calling at either spot on the flop would have likely changed the outcome. And if you had folded without ever seeing his cards… poker tortures us no matter what we do, LOL.
1 Like
Watching your hand and betting pattern I would have just smooth called his raise. Flopped straights even with a up and down straight flush draw are in danger of losing to higher a straight if it hits which with the turn and river coming is likely. Your opponents bet was a little loose considering he was working on the 4th nut flush that you may have had.