Pussy Call? *Hand Advice

[wellrounded08]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($5.22)
MP1 ($3.58)
MP2 ($1.88)
CO ($5.53)
Button ($5.31)
SB ($6.26)
BB ($2.73)
UTG ($1.93)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 5, 5.
UTG calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.02, 2 folds, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($0.10) 4, 4, J (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.1, MP2 folds, SB calls $0.10, BB folds, UTG folds.

Turn: ($0.30) J (2 players)
SB bets $0.04, Hero calls $0.04.

River: ($0.38) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $0.12, Hero calls $0.12.

Final Pot: $0.62

The only reason for calling instead of betting here is this, What is this guy c/c the flop with? I mean, I'm opening the bet with the four, or I'm c/r any bet(I wouldn't do that. I'm just trying to figure out what he has.) Maybe he has weak J? I think I should have made the raise, but I didn't want to open up the betting for a reraise AI since we're both deep.... (Is this just a pussy move?)

[Erpel]

On some tables it's good to raise 55 in early position preflop, but there are situations where limping works also. Not wrong per se, but a preflop raise would have given you a lot more information with which to make a decision on later streets.

Since it's limped around preflop we haven't really caused anyone to only play hands with potential and anyone can have any trashy hand including J7s etc as well as pocket pairs. Your bet on the flop I think is perhaps a bit marginal. I don't think you necessarily rate to have the best hand and on a 5-way flop you can't automatically expect to fold out everyone else. You might be called by any pocket pair higher than yours, any 4, any J and some unpaired overcard (or KT) type hands (perhaps with backdoor flush draws). Against the range of hands that will call you I think you're a significant underdog, and with 4 opponents it's not unlikely that one of them will have a hand in that range. Even if you do have the best hand on the flop a check/fold on the flop is not necessarily bad.

The $0.04 lead is almost a check, and then not. When you make a bet you try to either get more money from people that have worse hands or get hands that are better than yours to fold and give up their equity in the pot. There's next to no reason for him to think you'll fold and you've already shown you are not too worried about putting money in the pot - and yet he wants more money to trickle into a pot he expects to win? After the board is 44JJ on the turn? What he can have here is a 4 and a pocket pair higher than 44 imo. Any J could be in his range I suppose, but I'd almost expect him to make a somewhat bigger bet with those. Also he could think that with 44JJ on board there are only two of each left and you are unlikely to have hit one, so his A-high trash could be the best hand with the A being the kicker. Due to the tiny bet we have to weigh his range towards hands that will seem vulnerable to him where he thinks he's ahead but won't necessarily want to commit hugely. I consider the most likely hands here pocket pairs above 44 and A-trash hands. You could raise here, and you'd fold out probably some of the pairs and probably all the A-trash hands. Any J or 4 would certainly call, and along with a portion of the pocket pairs that we are behind that means raising here is probably not profitable. Just call and pretend it went check-check.

When the river makes you a full house we need to remember that we've allowed a lot of higher pocket pairs and A-trash hands to continue in the hand - and while our opponents range contains 4x (that we beat) and Jx hands (that beat us), it contains many more hands that are higher pocket pairs or A-trash, and the way he played it is possibly more likely to have been done with hands that are you now beating.

In fact there are now so few hands in his range that beat you (only Jx and 44) and you beat everything else (and passivity has kept that list nice and long) that I wouldn't necessarily feel bad about being willing to go all-in. A lot of people at these stakes take '3 pair' hands too far. Would he fold QQ to any bet you make? Probably not. Rasing here is imo mandatory - if he reraises you folding is not an option. Calling is an option only if you think he's a super paranoid nit who'd only ever do this with a J - and then you call and not fold because you could be wrong and he'd do it with a 4 as well. If he's not a paranoid super nit and re-raises you, you shove all-in.

[Erpel]

Having second thoughts about the turn. My initial thought was that the turn should have been raised, then I reasoned myself out of it, and now I'm getting back to it. Not for value though - but as a bluff.

Your flop bet is a bluff - the turn is unlikely to have improved anyone which makes it a good card to two-barrel bluff on (I think - I suck at finding good two-barrel bluff spots but right now looking at it it seems ok). If you do that, just remember that you're not playing your 55 for showdown value but have turned it completely into a bluff.

It would have to be read dependent. If the opponent here is a calling station you can't bluff the turn, and if he's weak-tight you have to bluff the turn. A weak-tight player here will fold out any pocket pair and any unpaired overcards continuing only with 4x and Jx - for a weak-tight player the $0.04 means "please don't make me pay for the next street". If you did bluff a weak-tight player, he calls and leads weakly on the river you have to call (not raise) because his range then is not much wider than 4x/Jx. If you (wrongly) decide to bluff a calling station and he calls his range on the river will still have lots of pocket pairs in it and you just raise until all the money is in the middle.