Where in the World Is Snuffy Volume 4 – The Situation

Volume 4 is back where I brought you Volume 2, The Meadows in Washington, PA. I made it to the casino in the late afternoon wanting to play some 100 play video poker. Two problems with that as it’s 10x points day at the casino and there were a bunch of busses there meaning the average age was about 80. Both of the 100 play games were taken. Time for some poker instead.

First off I will give you a slight warning that there are some bad beat stories in here but along with it I wanted to talk some strategy with the hands. I sat with $200 and early on won a decent sized pot to get to $280. In the second lap around the table the following hand occurred.

I am on the button with 1010. There is an EP raise along with 2 callers to me. I call along with the BB and we see the flop 5 ways. Flop comes 1082hh. EP leads for $10 and a MP player raises to $25.

Question #1: How much do you raise here?

It’s pretty obvious that you must raise in this spot, I just need to figure out how much. I opted for a raise to $50. Looking back at it I think I need to make it $75 here. With that board texture you need to push out at lease some of the players drawing. EP calls and MP calls. Three to the turn and the board pairs the 8 (non-heart). EP and MP check to me.

Question #2: How much do you bet?

Stack sizes at this point are important. EP has $170 behind, I have $220 and MP covers. Now I’m not scared of anything that comes on the river (except maybe the case 8) and I want to keep all draws in the hand. I opted for $50 on the turn again leaving $170 behind and both EP and MP call.

River is a non-heart king. EP shoves his last $120 in and MP shoves over the top. Action to me.

Question #3: Is there any way you can find a fold in this spot?

I have to call $170 to win nearly $800. I think it’s pretty obvious that the EP player has something with an 8 and I’m 99.9% sure it’s EXACTLY 10,8 (note he was not the pre-flop raiser). What the hell do you put MP on? You can take an 8 out of the equation.

I make the crying call (if you can call the 3rd nuts there a crying call) and MP is the first to roll over the KK. EP mucks and I just got kicked in the junk early and I am on to buy-in #2. I think it’s really hard to put MP on KK considering there was no 3-bet pre-flop.

If I had the hand to play over I think I raise to $75 on the flop but with the board pairing on the turn I still don’t think I shove there. I probably make it another $75 leaving a short-ish $100 river shove.

Since this is getting a bit long I will wrap it with a part 2 later.

Answers on all three questions are appreciated.