I haven't played limit in a reeeeaaaallly long time but I thought it might be fun to work off their bonus playing .5/1 or 1/2 limit because I don't enjoy playing with their 50BB structure of NL.

Anyways, on to the hand.

I'm playing .5/1 on Empire and I'm dealt 8-8 in the BB with a MP raise, a LP call, and a SB call. I know that low/medium pairs go down in value in limit, but I'm getting 7-1 on my call. I know the implied odds are lower too, but 7-1 seems too good to pass up even though I'm out of position. Good/bad call here?

Pot: $4
Flop: 9-9-9

The flop looks pretty good for me, but the pot was raised preflop so I'm not sure I'm good here. What is the best way to proceed here to find out if I'm beaten? What I did at the time was lead out. I was raised by the preflop raiser and then the SB check-raised. Easy easy fold here I'm thinking. After the hand though, I thought that maybe the better way to play it would have been to check? I think that a lead out from me, even though I'm in the blinds, might not get much respect and might get raised by a variety of hands at this level (like an A-K that wiffed but wants to scare you off). If I go for a check-raise here and someone comes over the top I think, again, that I have a clear fold. What about if I'm called? If I'm called I think my hand is good unless I get raised when I lead out on the turn, in which case it is again time to get rid of my hand I think.

Anyways, after I fold MP and LP call the SBs 3-bet and then the SB and the MP preflop raiser capped it on the turn, putting the SB all in. SB shows down J-4o for J high and the MP raiser shows down A-2o for A high. An unfortunate hand for me to fold I guess, but I don't see how I can stay in on capped action on the turn even if I stayed in on the flop. Good ol' Empire/Party.

I agree with what most people said, but there is one important factor here which, at the lower levels, changes a lot.
The SB was almost broke before the hand was dealt. From my experience, people with only a couple of BB's left start playing either extremely tight because they don't want to go broke or start playing like a maniac, with most people in the latter category. Also, with a flop like this many people go crazy with their ace-high or pair of deuces.
In a situation with normal stacks and decent players you should lay it down, but in this case I'm not sure.

Pieter

Your call preflop is correct.

You all are forgeting something very important here. SB is on a short stack on a $0.50/$1.00 table so you know for sure he's an idiot.

When the flop comes down 3 of a kind like this, the betting usually gets wild from a bare ace or even over cards if the players are bad.

This is a tough hand to play, but I probably would have played it just like you. I'd feel much better about my underpair if heads up versus 2 other players in the pot. And if I had an overpair here, I'd cap and hope for rags.

Easy, easy call preflop.

No reads on your opponents? They make a big difference here.

Two things about the SB's play scream weakness/'move' here - that he does it with a short stack and may be 'stacking off,' and that a typical player would be thrilled to see this much action and simply cold-call on the flop. So, again, reads help. Also, this is easy for me to say because I know how the hand ended up, so next time you might not want to include results.

Against loose/aggressive opponents I would probably check-call the flop or bet and call a raise, then check-raise the turn if no ace or king fell. Put the fear of God in 'em.

NT