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$1/$2 NL

Hero is in late position with about $260 and picks up 10♣ 10♠ . During pre-flop, Villain raises to $10 in middle position. Villain seems tight; more passive than aggressive, thus making the raise jump out. 2 players call. Hero calls. Blinds call.

Flop is 10 7 3 rainbow.

The blinds check and our villain bets $50. He has about $350 remaining. Folds around to our hero. My read is that the villain has an overpair, considering his tightness. My first instinct is to call the flop, call any turn bet, and bet/raise the river. However, I then consider raising. At first, I consider raising $100 on top but then realize I'll only have $100 behind so I'll be pot-committed anyway. I ended up going all-in, figuring I can't go wrong with being aggressive and if the villain calls, he's behind.

The blinds and the villain ended up folding and I won the pot. However, in retrospect, I feel like I could have won more of the villain's money. Should I have just called the flop so I could hopefully get the villain to bet more later, or was I wise to take down the pot on the flop?

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    Given that he's passive, there was a great chance that he would fold an all-in raise from you. I would've just raised to $100, he would have good odds to call it... Aug 28, 2012 at 5:42
  • Two questions: 1. Silversana recommends calling here while you recommend raising. I feel like raising is better since two other players remain and either may call if they're on a straight draw. Is isolating the raising opponent wiser than keeping it a multi-way pot? 2. If an ace, king, queen, or jack hit the turn, does that change anything or do I just need to hope his overpair doesn't match the turn card?
    – Craig
    Aug 28, 2012 at 14:19
  • Yes you could have make for money. You had the nuts on a dry board. Villain is at best gong to call with AA-JJ and those hands would bet the turn. No way the binds have an over pair.
    – paparazzo
    Aug 10, 2017 at 13:49

2 Answers 2

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This flop is extremely dry; there are very few draws and given your read it seems that villain wouldn't have hands like 98 in his range anyway. You'll definitely want to just call this bet, for a few reasons.

a) We have his range crushed and he'll draw out on us very rarely. b) When he has air (something like AK, AQ, etc) he might double barrel on turn cards. c) It gets him to commit his stack with overpairs on turn cards that seem safe for him (and there's a lot of them).

So I'm calling with the intention of shoving over a turn bet. If he checks the turn I'm probably betting something pretty damn small with the intention of shoving the river, but this of course depends on what cards actually come.

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  • Considering I have two other opponents still in the hand at the time I need to choose call or raise, does that matter or do you feel the strength of my hand outweights the risks of 1 or 2 other players remaining?
    – Craig
    Aug 28, 2012 at 14:26
  • I'm not worried about that on this dry of a board. Given your stack size he shouldn't really play differently vs a minraise (i.e. a raise to $100) or a shove from you. Getting those other players to call is a great thing for you, because they'll often be hopelessly behind with a small amount of money behind. Finally, even in the worst-case scenario when you get it in bad OTT (which is mighty rare) you still have outs.
    – Silversana
    Aug 28, 2012 at 23:42
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Also to add to Silversana's answer, you should just call his bet cause that would make him bet again (turn, river) and you could just raise him then if you felt that he could get a strong hard if another card was shown.

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