This beauty's from a little earlier in my session; I'm packing about $800 in chips, and have all but one player covered. Villian #1 is a fat guy with a lot of jewelry and gold teeth; he seems to be relatively decent though, if a bit annoying. He comes into this hand at around $200 in chips, and is on the button. Villian #2 is a balding dude down from NYC who seems pretty ABC. He has around $700 after flopping sets on consecutive hands early in his session. He's in EP. I'm in the SB and get dealt . V#2 limps under the gun and some kid raises to $10 in MP. He's been tossing in $10 raises like candy, so it just means he got dealt some cards. Player to his left immediately reraises to $30. He hasn't done anything remarkable yet, but has played pretty tight as far as I can tell. Vi#1 smoothcalls on the button, and (Mistake #1) I decide to get tricky and just call. V#1 smoothcalls, first raiser folds. Four to a flop of:

($130)

(Mistake #2) I decide to get even trickier and check. V#1 bets out for $80, and V#2 smoothcalls. Now what? Feel free to reserve me a spot in the romper room . . .

Thanks in advance,

Eric

Being up against 10-10 or 4-4 from the EP guy is a possibility. Would he limp with something like A-Q? The smooth caller on the button who smooth calls the flop is certainly scary. Q-Q maybe? It seems like there is a good chance that you are up against a set although the $10 raiser might have something like top pair. You certainly can't keep calling like this though, so it might be time for a really strong raise. Maybe make it $240 to go? $320? I think calling is a terrible play, but you are going to have to make a pretty big raise to find out where you are at is the trouble.

You you should get caned for being cute and smooth calling...ok, caned is kinda tought, so maybe cropped. BTW, somewhere along the line, you have villian #2 named villian #1. This is probably supposed to hurt my read of the situation somehow, but yeah, like villian #2 would say, "fagedaboutit!"

I think that smoothcalling preflop was horrible, not just the usual horrible, but a tirading Bill Walton "HORRRRRRRRIBLE!" I think I raise preflop to $90, to a) see where button villian is, see if I can lesson the group by eliminating UTG villian, and to see if raise to $30 was for real or just raising to isolate the idiot $10 raise kid.

On the flop, I am not too unhappy with it, and I try to see where I am, probably make a bet of $120 to see if anyone hit the flop hard.

Now, after checking the flop, and seeing once person bet $80 and the button call, I am suspicious of a good hand...possible set. I will have to play this cautious because the pot size is getting pretty big. But, more than that, I really need to know where I am at...if I should escape now with my chips or take it down now. I would raise here after the flop and after the two calls...but Bob has a point. Any raise here will have to be in the $250 or above range which is a bunch of your chips...and are you willing to play for the rest? I don't like the position you put yourself into...letting the pot get built up and not figuring out what kind of strength your opponents have...

I like this story so far...it sucks just to think about an answer...sometimes second hand experience is better than the real thing...like drugs, driving drunk, jumping off of moving vehicles, getting a mortgage...

My answer is: don't call. I can't completely support raising here and I can't hardly support folding in this situation...so, in conclusion...yuck.