DECISION POINT: You raised preflop with pocket jacks after several limpers. What do you do on this T♦9♦4♠ flop?

PRO ANSWER: After a couple limpers, we raised preflop with pocket jacks for both value and to thin the field. We failed to thin the field, since we were called by three opponents. With a highly coordinated flop and multiple opponents, one pair hands such as top pair or even overpairs to the board lose much of their value in deep stacked situations.

In many multiway pots you should be prepared to get away from your one pair hands when you face the significant reverse implied odds present with deep stacks.

Having reverse implied odds essentially means that your hand can win a small pot, but will often lose if the pot gets big. Hands that rarely improve, such as a pocket pair, can suffer from reverse implied odds fairly easily in multiway pots on coordinated flops with deep stacks.

However, in this hand the remaining effective stack is extremely shallow. We have less than a pot sized bet left in our stack.

Despite having multiple opponents and a coordinated board, we are committed to this hand. We should move all-in both for value and to protect our hand.

When analyzing your play on the flop, always remember to pay attention to stack sizes. If stacks were deeper, we might have played this hand differently. Given these stacks, we must move all-in.

Moving all-in is the best play.