What do you do here?

[CitrusSR]

Playing in a £5 MTT live fishfest this hand occured....

(Its a monthly league format but with some money paid on the night aswell and this was the 2nd event, lots of new players and the game is generally poor until towards the final table. 30+ players start)

Very first hand of the tourney, blinds 25/50. I had 67 on the button and the whole table limps round to me, I call, small blind calls and big blind checks..

Flop: 7J9

All 7 players before me check, I check too. (No point betting bottom pair against fishy calling stations!)

Turn: Q They all check again, and I again check. (Considered betting with the flush draw but decided against it).

River: K

Check, check, then player 3 bets 1000, folded round to me...... Call? Raise? Fold?

[PokerWoody]

Relevant stack sizes?

[Matty H]

You say this is the first hand? What's your starting stack? I'm assuming it's 1500? If that's the case then I call, not raise. You have a pretty rank flush and with 7 other players in the hand there's a chance you are beaten. Call and lose and you can fight your way back. Call and win and you're off to a great start anyway

[Dice Man]

I'd probably fold here. In my experience people don't usually overbet on a complete bluff. If I were that guy on a table of fish and I ahd just rivered the nuts I might make a huge overbet here in the hope that one of the fish with 67c would call and I'd rake a relatively huge pot. (Id also get a bit of a fishy image myself here in making such a big bet. Most of the people/fish watching who folded to me would have thought "he's an idiot, nobody's going to call him for that much", but I guarantee they would think this with the disposition that they would also have called with 67c and thought of themselves as unlucky/ cold-decked).

The question here is whether he is betting massive on a gutshot nut straight or the nut flush. He might not even have noticed a flush had come and if he's holding AT he'll want someone to call with a ten on it's own. It may be the case that he really hasnt noticed loads of flushes beat him as well, and he doesnt really have the nuts.

Those are the considerations I'd be making, as well as how badly will calling and losing be and how good will calling and winning be (in terms of long term cash potential)

[CitrusSR]

Starting stack is 4000 chips.

[Matty H]

Starting stack is 4000 chips.

In that case I still flat call. No point risking more chips, but at the same time I don't see me folding here either. It's a huge overbet. If I was holding a decent flush I'd be wanting some action with it, not trying to scare everyone off the pot. I'm guessing he's holding the straight and the river club annoyed him into this overbet.

[POB666]

Starting stack is 4000 chips.

I call, fair enough its a piss poor flush, but if these people are as fishy as u say then it could be worth it, i doubt this person would have bet as much in relation to the blinds if he had started with the usual 1500, its probably cos hes's got a bit of a stack he's willing to throw them around a bit. Besides if you lose the hand the stack to blinds ration enables you to wait for premium hands to build your way back up

[POB666]

What happend then? did he show u 10 deuce, lol

[trustme]

I would call too. You will still have a decent stack.

Here I would put them on the nut straight and the overbet is being used to get someone holding a ten to call.

[CitrusSR]

I folded in the end. And afterwards I wasn't too happy with myself for folding, I suppose thats why I posted it here to get other peoples opinions!

If it had been someone I'd played against before I probably would have called. And, I don't know why but as it was a woman who must have been well into her 60's I automatically gave her respect, I suppose I assumed she must know what shes doing and had been playing for years! (Do many 60 year olds suddenly take up poker?!) Even so it was still a very tight fold. And she didn't show her cards.

Watching her play for the rest of the time she was on the table, it became clear she wasn't a good player at all and a bit of a calling station so I think she probably did have the straight in the first hand, although there's always the chance of a higher flush. You never know it could have been an amazing fold!!

But yeah I wish I called!