Live 1/2 NL ring game at the local casino. I get dealt 56s on the button. 3 players limp in, I call, the SB folds and the BB checks. The pot is $11. The flop is 566, giving me the nut full house. I bet $7 and everybody folds. Was there a way to extract more value out of this hand?
Comments
So, checked around to you on the flop? Since you have the absolute nuts here and are last to act, you could check as well and hope someone catches a piece of the turn or decides to take a stab. Yes, you give someone with a pocket pair a chance to make a higher FH so be careful if someone goes nuts betting but this is an option. You'd think someone with 77+ would have opened/raised rather than limped/called but you just never know in these games. Its probably safe to assume no one is on TT+ but I'd be careful if any card 7-9 comes on the turn and someone starts piling in the chips. You are praying someone made a straight and you get to stack them but there is always that risk they made a bigger hand.
From my experience, paired boards in limped pots like this one tend to be played pretty cautiously. No one has invested a great deal in the pot and many players are happier letting go of the 1BB than to take the chance of looking foolish. I have a friend who plays lower stakes online and he makes a habit of betting full-pot on boards like this if no one else has acted yet. Its a crazy play but it works for him - he has been getting that move through about 80% of the time, even though people who have played with him know he's bluffing almost always. They'd rather be bluffed off their 1BB investment than look silly being ripped for a big pot.
I get that. I didn't think I was going to be able to get much out of that hand unfortunately. That's what I find hard sometimes, finding the balance between slow playing and trying to get value out of the hand. Not that easy. Generally my idea is to bet any hand that cannot improve. This way, if I get called and someone picks up a better hand I have no regret.
Maybe you can get more value overall by adding bluffs on flops like this one then? Doesn't do a thing for this hand or made hands but shows you can probably pick up a few cheap ones just by taking stabs in position. You can even size the bet down so you don't have to be successful in getting it through as much. If anyone picks up that you bluff sometimes, you may even get called when you actually have it.
Many of the monsters we hit don't get action unfortunately. I flopped a straight flush once in a live game and couldn't get a nibble, even after checking back the flop in position. I showed my hand afterwards and the other 2 in the pot both said they didn't have anything even remotely connected to continue with. Oh well. Picking up 5.5BB with 5/6 isn't a bad result - I'd take it every time and be winning more than I do with AK (according to the stats kept here, long term 5/6s wins ~0.05BB each time its played).
I like your play. Never underestimate the willingness of live low limit players to CALL. They will call with all kinds of hands some of which make sense and some which make no sense. I know. I AM one. Haha Just didnt work out well this time.