Beginner Limit Hold'em Poker Forums

I agree with all your thoughts and think you played this hand fine. Preflop is standard 3 bet vs most people and as you said, when he caps your hand isn\'t in great shape but you have a draw. It\'s going to be hard to bluff him off many hands on this draw heavy board, though AK is one hand that would have a hard time getting to showdown against you. Still, you have the 3rd player in there and the flop connects with a lot of cold calling hands so its somewhat likely he has a pair and already seems loose and passive so its doubtful he would fold it.

-DeathDonkey

I\'m pretty used to play draws aggressively in big pots, so I was wondering if passive play in this hand is the correct line. As I understand, raising with strong draws (preferably on position) sometimes buys you free cards and, more importantly, buys you the pot if you improve to some weaker hand, like a pair or something. Here, neither seems likely.

UTG in this hand is a semi-loose preflop and solidly aggressive postflop. SB is real loose and real passive.

Poker Room skin
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $2/$4
5 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is Button with A J
UTG raises, CO folds, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB folds, UTG caps, Hero calls, SB calls.

3-betting with AJo is a close decision, I guess, but UTG raise in a 5-handed game from a fairly loose aggressive player isn\'t too scary. I can\'t imagine a hand for SB to cold call 2.5 bets (which makes by 3-bet a bit more suspicious in hindsight, I guess, because AJo doesn\'t play so well multiway) and when UTG caps I know I\'m in trouble. Most of the typical capping hands dominate AJo.

Flop: 9 T Q (13SB, 3 players)
SB checks, UTG bets, Hero calls, SB calls.

UTG makes a standard continuation bet here. Now, with an open-ended straight draw (though the other one not for the nuts), I\'m not going anywhere from this pot. I think raising here does no good, because the pair outs might not be good so I might not have the \"fair share\" of the pot equity. There\'s a risk that SB folds and UTG 3-bets. Implied odds for the draw are still decent. In other words, shutting out SB is not going to increase my pot equity so much as to risk 3-bet from the UTG.

Turn: 7 (8BB, 3 players)
SB checks, UTG bets, Hero calls, SB calls.

Again, no point in raising here? We can\'t make UTG fold and UTG is the one we\'re not probably going to outdraw with a weak pair. If SB has a flush draw, he is probably going to cold-call for two bets.

River: K (11BB, 3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, SB calls, UTG calls.

It\'s easy to value bet when you have the nuts, the position and everyone checks to you!

Results:
Final pot: 14BB