A Big Draw Multiway with 8♣7♣, what do you do here?
DECISION POINT: Late in a 6-handed Tournament the Cutoff limps, you limp from the Button with 8♣7♣, the Small Blind completes, and the Big Blind checks. On a 7♠6♣5♣ flop the SB bets out, the BB calls, and Cutoff folds. Action is on you, what do you do here?
PRO ANSWER: Late in a 6-handed tournament it is folded around to the Cutoff who limps. We limp behind with 87s, the Small Blind completes, and the Big Blind checks. Raising preflop is also an option, however our hand does well when seeing cheap flops.
On the 7s6c5c flop we have top pair, an open-ended straight draw, a flush draw, and an open-ended straight flush draw. The Small Blind leads for 30k and the Big Blind calls. The Cutoff folds and action is on us.
This is a spot where we are definitely getting the proper pot odds to call. This tells us right away that we can remove folding as a possible decision. Typically when we know that calling is profitable we should default to that unless we can make a compelling case that raising is MORE profitable.
Continued below…
In this instance, there is already over 100k in the middle representing a nearly 50% increase in our stack if we win the pot uncontested. If we choose to raise here and one of our opponents calls with two pair, sets, and straights we are still over a 52% favorite over that range of hands.
Much of the time, we can generate significant fold equity with a raise and will somewhat regularly win the pot uncontested.
Calling is definitely a profitable play in this situation, but we gain more by generating that fold equity with a raise. Even in our worst case scenarios, we still have significant equity when called.
Raising is the best play.
How would you play it?
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