Hi guys - I would like a little advice (from anyone that has not written me off as a lost cause that is).

Live NL game. I am in the BB with about $750. UTG has a little less. The biggest stack is $1200 and the smallest is $120 or so.

UTG is a loose raiser. I have seen him raise with all kinds of hands EP.

Blinds are $3 and he makes it $10 to go. There are 3 callers before it gets to me.

(Usually there will be 7-8 to see the flop for no raise and at least 4-5 for a $10-15 raise and often 2-3 for $20-$25 raise. Kind of a loose game. One that you need to be careful. But, one that you can make a bundle with the right situation. (Stacks move around player to player on some strange hands). I am working on my buyin so I am having a good day.)

Anyway that said, here is the hand.

I had which is not a hand to call a raise with. If I get very lucky and get a straight flush I will win $100 high hand and $450. The pot has about $36 so I am getting 3.6- 1 pot odds - this is my story and I am sticking to it.

Flop ($46) - top two on a rainbow but heavily coordinated board.

Damn - what to do now? The pot is attractive $46. I just might have the best hand. Is it worth a bet to find out? If he has made straight already I am dead meat to 4 outs. In big trouble to a set - but he would have raised more than $10 with a big PP. I said he is a loose raise not a dummy. So he might have A {Q,J,T} which would give him 9 outs. K {Q,J,T} would give him 13 outs. I am really only way ahead to AA and any pair lower than 88. All this flashed though my mind in the 15 seconds that I needed to act - I did not really count his outs, just a quick rundown of the hands he might have and my rough chances of being ahead or behind.

I decided to bet $30 and see what happens - he flat called and everyone else folded. The pot now has $106.

Not a good sign. He most likely has some kind of a draw.

Turn ($106) - damn it, wrong pair. Now more hands that he might call with can beat me. Time to bail if he bets into me.

What would you do here if you had gotten yourself into this pickle? You have to pretend that you would call a raise with this hand. That might be hard for some of you. Those players need not reply. Thanks.

After he called me, I though that my best course of action was to check the flop and fold to a bet of more than 1/4 of the pot when the action got back to me - odds for a FH (even though I had the best hand on the flop I still think this was the right play). I paid $7 to see the flop and it sucked. So, fold and be happy not to get stacked.

I think I screwed the pooch and lost $30 that I did not need to lose.

Any comments are appreciated.

I can tell you this much.....Im checking the turn. After that, it depends on what he does. If hes a loose raiser, theres a very good chance youre still ahead, but I want to keep he pot small.

You definitely want to keep the pot small, don't get too excited about this hand. Your purpose should be to get to showdown as cheaply as possible, or get rid of it if not possible. Not the hand to get aggressive up with unless you have a super good read on your opponent.

On the Turn here there is a decision to make that if I had folded preflop I would not have to make.

I was not willing to put in a $100 bet to win it so I checked, he checked. The River was . I checked, he bet $50 and I folded. He showed me for a straight.

Thanks

Thanks again - question on the flop bet? Was that a good idea or was a check and a fold if I had to call more than 1/4 of the pot.

The problem there is say I check. UTG checks and a player bets $20 and gets one caller.

The pot now would have $86 and I would need to call $20 - the odds are there but what if UTG check raises?

Being OOP hurts.

So, I check and UTG bets $30. There are 2 callers. I close the action - the pot would have $135 and I would need to call $30 - that would be great.

So check the flop or bet the flop?