A concept that a number of beginning players find difficult is releasing a big hand, especially a big hand that is clearly no good. I've actually found some of the same problems in my own game when I start to play too laggy, or when I use the reasoning "I could be bluffing here, so its plausible this player is as well." This is going to be a two part blog on folding - I have two hands to discuss, two hands that are very strong hands, but after discussion it is apparent that neither hand can EVER be good and that a fold is probably warranted.

3/5 game, $600 stacks
UTG limps for 5, and folds to you on the button who raises to 25 with QQ. Small blind calls, and UTG limper thinks and limp-reraises to 125.

The UTG limper is a grinder, someone known around the casino and someone who plays pretty often. He's on the tighter side and you've really only seen him play straight forward. I want to emphasize that this player is theoretically able to make a move of some kind, but would probably shy away from most move-worthy spots due to his grinder mindset. Therefore thinking that this is a move is just wrong. No one is limp-reraising on a bluff in this or any 3/5 game. In fact, limp-reraising in my opinion is one of the strongest lines someone can possibly take especially when that player has an image like UTG here.

So what does this guy have? It has been my experience that when you get limp reraised like this, the UTG player has aces. I've seen it so many times that's just what I come to expect. But I think its still arbitrary to just assign him aces because he's a grinder and he limp reraised. After all, a good player would eventually realize this and start limp reraising with nothing just because I'm likely to believe it. We should still analyze the other holdings of his range, and it is through that that I think we can arrive at a fold. We've established he has a strong hand - a top of his range type of hand. Is he limping AK, then taking the opportunity to make it 125 preflop? An online tournament kid with little cash experience maybe, but a live cash grinder would never think like that. He might limp, but he would just call the 25 then - because a live cash grinder knows how vulnerable AK really is out of position, and will not over play it. And, I think it's just more likely this grinder would raise AK to 20 or 25 from UTG to start with. Does this guy have JJ or 1010? In ranging this grinder, I believe that this is another 0% scenario. I don't think he ever calls the 5 then decides to make it 125 with jacks or tens. This grinder knows overcards are likely to come 70-plus percent of the time, and would not bloat a pot from out of position like this with a medium strength pocket pair. Same deal - he's likely to raise to 20 or 25 from the start, or just call the 25 button raise. So, the only hands this grinder would ever limp reraise like this is aces and kings. Seems pretty obvious, but the point is that this player can literally NEVER have AK or JJ or any hand that we stack up well against, and will ALWAYS show up with KK or AA, that unfortunately this spot with queens is a fold.

This was actually a hand a friend of mine played. He shoved for 600 over the limp reraise to 125, the SB cold called 600, and the UTG called off as well. SB randomly showed up with kings, which was somewhat shocking given that he didn't even come up with a 3bet. UTG had aces. After the hand my friend asked what I thought. My initial reaction was pretty much that he had to shove queens there, but as I thought about the hand more and more I just realized this specific guy could never have Jacks in that spot. So I really think this is a fold, and probably a very good fold that will save you a lot of money (don't forget we still only have $25 in the pot). Check out part 2 for another interesting folding spot...