Playing $50NL table at FTP. The table is suprisingly passive while not being too rocked up like FTP tends to be. My main opponent here has only seen about 20 hands and has yet to showdown a hand or be involved in any big action.

MP has $12, Villian has $51, and I have both covered.

I get UTG. Sometimes raise here w/ this but decide to just limp. 4 other limpers plus the blinds come in.

Pot $3.50. Flop is

I like my draws here, but am nervous about someone drawing to a higher flush w/ this many limpers. I check. MP bets pot. Villian and I call. I put villian on strong ace or flush draw.

Pot $14. Turn is

I check. MP pushes in for his last $8. Villian just calls. I'm really scared of the flush draw. I want the villian to pay or go away now. I raise to $28. He fairly quickly comes over the top of me allin. CRAP!!!! It's another $19 to me w/ $89 pot. I'm pretty sure I'm beat, but call to see I'm drawing dead agianst boat. MP turns over . I thought there was a good chance the MP had flopped 2 pr and I wasn't folding for $8, but couldn't put the villian on that.

How should I have played the turn so I don't lose my whole stack? Why the hell is this guy just calling w/ top 2 pair on the flop facing 5 other limpers and draws on the board? I need to fix this. I work so hard building up a stack w/ selective aggressive play, just to keep making these mistakes and giving it all back in 1 big chunk.

BTW, the villian loses over 1/2 the profit from this hand 4 hands later SP flopped trips to the river.

honestly i don't know how you wouldn't lose your stack in the situation. IMO if you don't lose your stack here..you're not playing the hand correctly.

I guess you could jst not limp with suited connectors UTG....but that's just a matter of style really. You just have to be able to handle the varience those types of hands will give you.

reload and move on

Kenny, this is exactly the advice I was hoping to hear, because I have been losing my stack so much lately it hurts.

Let me ask a question, though. What exactly about this hand makes it OK to go broke on it? Is it the flush draw or the trips, or the combination of both? Is it having two opponents and a large pot?

Thanks.

Hey Kent,

I think because of the fact that you have 2 ways to win this pot, makes it "easier" to go broke in.

Come to think, you actually have three ways to win if you hit quads on the river, thats assuming that no one else has an 8.

Thanks for the response Kenny. I'm still learning and thought I might have missed something.

Kent brings up a good follow up question. Seems like he might be having some of the same problems as me. I patiently build profits taking fishy short stacks where I'm just dominating a hand, but seem to constantly give back whole stacks in big hands like this where I end up way behind on a tough hand. Can't seem to get people to commit a full stack without the nuts up against my decent hand.

In poker it's easy to recognize bad luck when you get it allin w/ the best of it just to be sucked out on. But often it's hard to interpret if you misplayed a hand or just got stuck in a bad and "unlucky" position like this hand. Seems like I've been pretty "unlucky" with these types of hands lately.

Thanks everyone,
Austin