The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Sometimes when you think you have the nuts, which in poker terminology means you have the best hand possible, really you don't. I came across this when playing online the other day. I was the little blind and had Deuce-Five unsuited, an extremely weak starting hand but called since I already had a bet on the table and no one had raised. There were a total of 5 callers in the hand and the flop came: Deuce Four Five. This was a great flop for me: two pair including top pair. Now because there were four people still in play, I bet out to protect my hand and just take it right there. After my bet, the next player immediately tripled it. All the other players folded. This player hadn't played a hand in some time so I figured he had something. I didn't think he had an overpair because he called and didn't raise pre-flop. It's possible he could have slowed played aces but since the table had plenty of "calling stations", most were wise to raise pre-flop to protect their hands. I figured with the raise, he might have made a straight with Ace-Four or Three-Six, probably suited otherwise not much reason to call in the first place. He might also have held Four-Five suited, with his 2nd pair of fours beating my pair of deuces. He could be making a play at the pot, but with three people yet to make a decision on my initial bet his hand only indicated strength. After a few moments I decided to fold my two pair, and as a courtesy he showed his pocket 4s: he flopped a set and probably wanted to find out if landed a straight on the flop, hence the raise. My point of all this? It's ok to lay down a decent hand when someone raises you. If he was bluffing, so what? You're still at the table with chips. Be careful when calling or re-raising an opponent in this situation, because if your opponent raised you after the flop, more than likely he'll continue to bet strong to the river and you have to decide if it's worth your remaining stack.