Check-call. I don't think he calls with a worse hand 55% of the time.

If you bet, then fold to a raise.

And I wouldn't complete that in SB.

WHy wouldnt you complete the SB with a semi-connector when you are getting over 7-1 on your money? It would be nice if they were suited, but you are still getting good odds.

Well, you probably wouldn't be getting 7:1 odds at a really tough table, and if they jammed a lot post-flop, you would have a harder time getting the proper odds to draw (and probably couldn't win any bets with just a pair of sixes).

So, I agree with ya.

This article does most of the analysis on unsuited connecters and 1-gappers. http://www.pokerstove.com/analysis/unsuited.php

Also, preflop is not as focused on pot odds as it is on implied odds. As an example, you are in a 15/30 Party game where the SB is 2/3 of the BB, (BB is 15, SB is 10), and there are 4 limpers to you in the SB. So the pot is 85, and it's 5 for you to call. (17-1 pot odds) If you just go by percentages, then any hand is completeable here for sure.

But let's say you complete with A7o. And the flop comes A98r. Do you bet or check here? If you check, and there's a bet and two calls to you, what do you do? If you bet and get some callers and get a raise in LP, what do you do? You can be put in a lot of sticky situations, and you can frequently make a second-best hand via domination.

Well about the A7o hand, you could say that you'd only continue if you flopped Aces up or better. But then look at bonch's hand. Obviously he wasn't completeing 86o in the hopes of flopping a pair of sixes, he was going for a two pair or straight draw probably. But the flop enticed him to bet when he got top pair and he figured that he had to protect his vulnerable hand. So he bets the flop, bets the turn, and is stuck on the river not knowing if his sixes were best in the first place anyway and whether or not to bet for value. If he check-calls, he may lose a bet from a pair of 3's or 2's or 44. If he bets, he could lose to 77/88 or sixes with a higher kicker, and he'll have found himself betting a 5 or 3 outer the whole way when he really thought he was protecting his hand.

But then you could say, well sometimes he'll bet and get called by lower pairs like twos, threes, or fours, which is good of course. And also that if he decided to check-call, he coulld save a bet when a six with a higher kicker decides to check it through for a free showdown. That's good too. But the point of the tread was that he didn't know how to maximize his EV because he got stuck playing a marginal hand out of position. So even when he ended up making a hand he decided was worth continuing on with, he couldn't figure out how to maximize his EV, meaning his implied odds are reduced because the likelihood of choosing the weaker EV play is higher.

So when considering when to complete in the SB, you should look at your implied odds of how much money when you make your hand and your reverse implied odds of how much money you lose when you make your hand and still end up losing. If I asked bonch whether he thought a pair of sixes on the flop would have been good enough to win a 5-way pot, he probably would have said no. But he ended up spending 1.5BB trying to protect his hand and he was willing to spend one more BB on the river either by check-calling or betting. In this case, bonch theoretically could have spent 2.5BBs in the hand and still lost to 77 on the river. And what was he fighting for in the first place, a 5SB pot on the flop? a 4BB pot on the turn?

And this all started because he completed with his one-gapper. If you can avoid putting too many bets in with marginal holdings, these hands could be profitable, which is why hands like these require great postflop play/experience to play for a profit.

And to be honest, when I looked at the hand I would have played postflop exactly the same way bonch played it. Now I'm beginning to think otherwise. Is a pair of sixes w/ 8 kicker really worth protecting in a 5SB pot against 4 loose players?

Why weren't you sure on the river then?

The river and turn cards didn't change the texture of the board much. You could say that there's two overcards now, but when you have a top pair of sixes on the flop, you should at least expect overcards on the turn/river.