Is there anyone who would have folded in my spot?
Not sure how pot odds work, when you have a made hand. Yep, I saw the possible flush draw before I called.
1 Like
I wouldn’t have folded. But this happens in poker; sometimes you make a sound and rational decision and lose. You don’t have to play very long before you start to collect some I-don’t-believe-that-happened stories.
Pot odds have nothing to do with your hand strength.
Pot odds are the ratio of the total pot to be won be calling the bet before you. Say the pot is 100 chips, and your opponent bets 25. You are being asked to bet 25 to win a pot that will be 150, which is 6:1. To be profitable, you need to win better than 1 in 6 times.
If you are on a draw to the best hand, you should call if your odds of filling the draw are better than 1 in 6 in that situation.
You may still lose the showdown even if you fill your draw sometimes, so you should take hand strength into account when deciding whether you want to call. If you feel confident that your hand is best you can always call, otherwise you should try to work out how likely your hand is the best given what you think your opponent has.
In this hand, you flopped the nut straight, pushed, and got two calls, from a player who hit the flop for two pair and another player drawing to the nut flush. The nut flush misses, but two pair turns tens full of 99s to draw out against you.
Despite the outcome, this is a good play. You had a very strong hand, and gave your opponents the worst possible pot odds to call. When two pair called, that created favorable pot odds for the flush draw to be able to call profitably.
In this situation it didn’t work out for you, but a lot of the time that hand will hold up. Flopped straights are strong and are often the best hand, but flopped straights do risk being drawn out on, and should be bet aggressively to prevent that. In most runs of this situation, you will be called by made hands like two pair and sets, but fold flush draws unless your opponent is loose.
In early position, shoving is not always the best, though, because you scare everyone off the pot and they fold and you get minimum value for the straight. Try check-raising to get more money in the pot before you show your strength. It also can reveal your opponents strength if you observe them betting.
The boat caught me totally unaware, and I’m used to people getting their draws. Even as I was calling, I was pretty sure UTG had the draw, and was trying to remember the odds. I think they are something like 4 to 1 twice, or 2.x for both draws. In the end, I figured any odds in my favor were worth making the call. Had I known the SB had 2 pr. I still would have called. he only had 4 outs.
You flopped the nuts, you can’t fold there. You are way ahead of their ranges.
Against those specific holdings, you had to dodge 13 outs twice, which is about 52%… basically a coin flip. You ended up getting about 2.3-1 pot odds, so calling was correct, even if you could see their cards.
You were risking 1740 to win a pot of 4080 (1740 x 2 + 600). If you did this 6 times, you would expect to win 3 of them, for a total of 12240 and lose 3 of them, for a loss of 5220. This gives you a net profit of 7020, or 1170 average profit for each of the 6 hands.
So overall, your call nets you cuddly kittens and fluffy puppies, even though you got soggy frogs that time.
This is probably where someone tries to tell me you add your 1740 to the pot before calculating the pot odds. I’m sure that someone will get thrown off that bridge when we get to it. 
3 Likes
Problem is, players here don’t really have any respect for chips. If I’m sitting in a poker room, I don’t think I’d follow two all-in calls with 2 pr., knowing I’d be hopping in my car and driving home, if I lost.
I just finished a SnG
. Once, I folded 3 straights, preflop, out of 4 hands. there were a few others along the way. there are players who would have won a bit of chips by playing whatever they were dealt, come hell or high water. I know why you don’t, but still an inescapable dimension of the site
Yes, preflop. QJo is not a flat call to an UTG open from your position. 3-bet it if you must (lighting chips on fire) or fold it (better option). Its in terrible shape vs any reasonable open and there are too many people left to act after you.
On the flop, you have to call the absolutely terrible 4x pot shove. Top 2-pair is in a strange spot after the shove and call. Of course T9o in the SB has no business being in the hand to begin with but what can you do?
2 Likes
I ask if you don’t bet a made hand like that in those circumstances when do you bet. you were sure of your hand the others had to make them. that’s good enough for me.