A Set Against a Straight and Flush Draw in Texas Holdem
10:07 AM
By
Bingo King
Most of the time a set has a huge advantage over other hands in No-Limit Texas Hold'em. However if your opponent has a flush and straight draw against your set it is not so clear who is ahead.
This time the game has $0.5/$1 blind levels with 9 players. This table is quite loose and the third position player (we call him Bill) calls the $1. I look at my TsTc and raise to $4.5. The players behind me fold their hands along with the blinds. However Bill makes the call. The pot is $10.5 but before we look at the flop it is important to take note of the stack sizes: Bill has $50 and I have $59.20.
The flop is: JcThQc. Bill bets $12, a bit more than the pot. His large bet makes me very happy of course! Most of the times I will be ahead in this situation but even if he has 89 or AK I will have outs to make a full house. In any other situation I will have advantage over him. Yes, I know what you think now. You ask yourself what if Bill has a set of jacks or queens. In that case he would either check-raise or check-call but definitely not overbet the pot. With his large bet he made it clear that he wants to play for stacks so I do not have to complicate this hand and I push all-in. He makes the call and shows his hand: Kc7c.
That is about the worst case scenario for me. He had an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw to hit, but at the same time he had to avoid a full house. The turn and the river came: the 4d and 5d so my set held on and I won a $101.50 pot.
I cannot blame Bill for playing his hand the way he did on the flop. He was out of position and he had multiple draws. For him it would have been a good outcome to take the pot right there but with such a strong holding it is also okay to go all-in. The turn and river did not help him but no one can influence which cards the poker gods give. The only decision I do not understand is why Bill limped from middle position with Kc7c. Even worse, he made a call to $4.5 from out of position with his hand. In such low limit games there is no reason to play mediocre hands. Bill was unlucky with the outcome but also had to pay a high price for his preflop bad decision.
This time the game has $0.5/$1 blind levels with 9 players. This table is quite loose and the third position player (we call him Bill) calls the $1. I look at my TsTc and raise to $4.5. The players behind me fold their hands along with the blinds. However Bill makes the call. The pot is $10.5 but before we look at the flop it is important to take note of the stack sizes: Bill has $50 and I have $59.20.
The flop is: JcThQc. Bill bets $12, a bit more than the pot. His large bet makes me very happy of course! Most of the times I will be ahead in this situation but even if he has 89 or AK I will have outs to make a full house. In any other situation I will have advantage over him. Yes, I know what you think now. You ask yourself what if Bill has a set of jacks or queens. In that case he would either check-raise or check-call but definitely not overbet the pot. With his large bet he made it clear that he wants to play for stacks so I do not have to complicate this hand and I push all-in. He makes the call and shows his hand: Kc7c.
That is about the worst case scenario for me. He had an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw to hit, but at the same time he had to avoid a full house. The turn and the river came: the 4d and 5d so my set held on and I won a $101.50 pot.
I cannot blame Bill for playing his hand the way he did on the flop. He was out of position and he had multiple draws. For him it would have been a good outcome to take the pot right there but with such a strong holding it is also okay to go all-in. The turn and river did not help him but no one can influence which cards the poker gods give. The only decision I do not understand is why Bill limped from middle position with Kc7c. Even worse, he made a call to $4.5 from out of position with his hand. In such low limit games there is no reason to play mediocre hands. Bill was unlucky with the outcome but also had to pay a high price for his preflop bad decision.
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