Top pair in the blinds and getting ran over

Mr. Flibble

This sort of situation happens over and over and I'm not sure what the best move is.
Basically I flop top pair with a weak kicker in the SB or BB, check it and get raised. I have no idea where they are at and nearly always just fold. Is this standard OOP or am I getting buggered?

I have Q9.
HERO posted small blind.
cookiedo posted big blind.
Game [2517] started with 6 players.
Dealing Hole Cards.
king-kicker folded.
rimka80 folded.
lichenxp called $2
threalbad called $2
HERO called $1
cookiedo checked.
Dealing flop.
Board cards [2h 9s 7c]
HERO checked.
cookiedo checked.
lichenxp bet $4
threalbad called $4
HERO folded.

Edit: also, what is your range for completing the SB, when there's been 1 or 2 limpers?

valor

70% i Lead here but when i do check i raise it up to 15 and usually get 2 folds.

cooker3

I bet first a lot of the time, if I get raised then I will usually throw it away, if it's called then evaluate the turn but usually try to get it cheap to the river. I think check folding a lot of the time is losing you money.

shoutman

Most of the time you are showing yourself to be very weak.

In an unraised pot top pair is often good....

Ste05

Why are you completing the SB if you intend to check/fold when you hit TP decent kicker??

I'd lead here a large % of the time or if you want to control the pot at the very least you could check call to induce a bluff/ steal attempt then lead the turn.

You could also check raise, basically there's loads of moves available for you in this situation, but alot of the decision as to how to play the hand would be dictated by history of hands with the opponents in the hand, their and your own table image, the size of the stacks, etc. etc.

But to answer your question, if your default play for this kind of hand and flop is to check fold to any bet then it is terribly weak and either don't bother making up the SB or pray for some more 8,10,Jr flops...

DeVore

This sort of situation happens over and over and I'm not sure what the best move is.
Basically I flop top pair with a weak kicker in the SB or BB, check it and get raised. I have no idea where they are at and nearly always just fold. Is this standard OOP or am I getting buggered?

The answer is in the question.


You have no idea if they are asking a question, stealing, value betting a monster or have a draw. You need to bet this out yourself. About 2/3rds of the pot or a pot bet is fine.

Now, no matter what they do you have a much better idea of where you (and they) are. Noone can fold to a check so if you are going to win hands you need to bet occasionally. You might find you win there and then (which is nice since you have a poor kicker and cant get into a raising war), you might get called which most likely means a draw but at least it tells you something, you might get raised in which case you have a decision to make regarding your opponent and his style of play. Probably you fold to a reraise but thats when you have to actually start to play poker like a human rather then an odds machine

DeV.