Play Along with Rob—What Would You Do in This Spot?

I returned to Player’s Casino (see here) this past weekend for my second session there.  And there was a hand—a situation—that I can’t get out of my mind.  So rather than just present it as a done deal and tell you exactly what happened, I thought I would try something that Lightning did recently.  He posted a hand up to a certain point, then asked for feedback from his readers as to how he should have played it.  After I get some responses, I’ll post what actually happened, along with a description of the rest of my day of poker.

Here’s the setup.  Same game as last time, 2/3 NL.  I bought in for $300.  At one point, fairly early, I was up almost $100, but as things sometimes go in poker, I had dripped back down to even, and then a bit below, and I had about $290-$295 in front of me when this hand happened. 

The three “villains” in my story will be referred to as “Left,” “Right,” and “Lady.”  Left was the guy to my immediate left.  He had me covered by at least $50, maybe a bit more—the biggest stack of the four of us.  He was the only player I had any kind of information on, and it was limited at that.  The most notable thing about him was that he made a few really big preflop raises opening pots, as much as $20-$25.  There was another guy at the table who did the same thing.  They almost never got called when they did this.  One time, after not getting a call, one of them showed pocket Jacks, and another time the other one showed pocket Queens.  I don’t recall which was which.  But aside from that, nothing noteworthy about this guy, he wasn’t particular aggressive after the flop, limped in about average for the table.  I seem to recall one hand where he called on the river and mucked when the other player showed a fairly weak hand, for what that’s worth.

The other two players were both very new to the table, and I really had no read on either one.  Lady was the only female at the table, and in fact she had taken the place of the other guy who liked to open huge that I just mentioned.  She had bought in for $150 or perhaps less, and had maybe $125-$130 when the hand started. Right was to my immediate right. He bought in for $300 and had me covered by just a few bucks at this point.

I was in the small blind with King-7 of clubs.  There were a fair amount of limped pots and this was one of them.  I completed for a dollar and Left, the big blind, checked.  I think 5 or 6 of us saw the flop.

The flop was pretty damn nice.  Ace-5-3, two clubs.  And one of the clubs was the Ace.  So I had the draw to the nut flush.  First to act, I checked.  Note:  I suppose this could discussed as well, whether I should have bet my draw or not, but that’s not really the point of this post.

Left started counting out chips.  I couldn’t recall for sure, later, how much he bet.  I know it was an overbet to the pot.  It might have been $25-$30.  I remembered thinking that, if folded to me, I really wouldn’t be getting the right odds to chase my flush, and so I was starting to wonder if the implied odds would make it worth the call.  Before I decided, Lady went ahead and called, and it folded to Right.

Right tanked, started counting chips, and so I was thinking, well he’s gonna call, so I definitely have the odds to chase. 

But he kept counting those chips.  And when he finished counting, he put out a raise to $116.

Damn.

And so that’s where I want the feedback, right there.

What’s my play?

I could fold.  I’m only in for $3.  No big deal.

But I do have the draw to the nut flush.  And we’re looking at what could become a monster pot.

So call?

Or raise?  With that bet and my stack, would it make sense to raise anything less than all-in?

So shove?

Do you think I have any fold equity?  After all, a raise here is a semi-bluff, I have King-high at the moment.  Does a shove get players to fold?

I want to point out that this was fairly early in the session.  I was on my first buy-in, and I had a second buy-in in my wallet, ready to go.  I was not going to leave if I busted out there.  I was still going to play.  So the situation I described in this post here, where I made a play because I was almost done playing anyway, does not apply.  I’m at least two hours from wanting to leave no matter how the hand plays out.

So, what is the proper play here?  Please let me know your thoughts.  Thanks.

Now, since this is a fairly short post by my standards, and not all of my readers are into poker strategy (honestly, the way I play poker, I’m impressed any of them are), I thought I’d flesh out this post with a few totally gratuitous pictures.  Something for everyone, I hope.

(Follow up: Okay, the wait is over, please see the follow-up post to see what I did and how it played out.  Go here, but you should really read all the comments below first.)