You are playing in a limit game, and you hold in the CO. Two early players limp, you call, and so does the button and the blinds. Thus, 6 players see the flop for 1 bet a piece.

The flop comes down . The SB bets, and everyone calls up to you. What would your play be with your top pair, good kicker?

I think you should raise. I recognize that raising will not cause anyone to fold (except for maybe the button) because there are so many draws presented by this board. But I would raise for information to smoke out the SB: if he has made a straight (holding 9T), a set, or two pair, then I would expect him to re-raise to charge the EP callers who almost certainly hold drawing hands. Under a re-raise from the SB, I would most likely fold. However, by just calling the SB's bet, you really have no idea where you might stand in this hand, and you could already be drawing nearly dead.

What do others think?

Raise for value and information.

Originally Posted by mxp2004

You are playing in a limit game, and you hold in the CO. Two early players limp, you call, and so does the button and the blinds. Thus, 6 players see the flop for 1 bet a piece.

The flop comes down . The SB bets, and everyone calls up to you. What would your play be with your top pair, good kicker?

I think you should raise. I recognize that raising will not cause anyone to fold (except for maybe the button) because there are so many draws presented by this board. But I would raise for information to smoke out the SB: if he has made a straight (holding 9T), a set, or two pair, then I would expect him to re-raise to charge the EP callers who almost certainly hold drawing hands. Under a re-raise from the SB, I would most likely fold. However, by just calling the SB's bet, you really have no idea where you might stand in this hand, and you could already be drawing nearly dead.

What do others think?

Trouble is if you raise then anyone who has possibly flopped a straight could just call you down... in the hope that this will build a bigger pot.

I would raise in this situation but Im not a limit player so my advice shouldnt be considered.

Here's what Cardplayer says about the hand:

"Just call. Despite having top pair, good kicker, raising is bad, because you cannot get any more players out at this point except for the cutoff, who may fold anyway. You want to see the turn-card before committing any real money to this hand. Six players took this flop and all three cards are in a playing zone, putting a possible straight on the board. There is also a two-flush on the table, so a heart likely beats you."

I disagree with this advice for the reasons that I stated in my original post.

Steve-O... I see where you're coming from, and that was Cardplayer's analysis, too. But I feel like the problem is determining where you stand relative to the SB.

In this case, you are almost certainly ahead of the EP callers. Given the coordinated board, they would be crazy to slowplay any made hand that beats yours, including a straight (which is vulnerable to the flush draw). Thus, their flat call of the SB's bet after the flop probably means that they have no better than a pair, and only AJ beats you.

But the SB could very well have a much bigger hand, and unless you raise him, you are not going to find that out.

Now you could wait to the turn and hope that one of the cards you mentioned falls. But, when the turn brings a blank, the SB will almost certainly still bet out, and now when you raise, you're costing yourself 4 small bets to find out if you are ahead of the SB instead of 2 small bets.

One final point: because the board is so coordinated and there are so many players, there are lots of cards that can fall on the turn that will beat you. The good news is that you act late enough that you will know on the turn if you still have a playable hand, and this scenario will be true regardless of how you play the flop. Thus, I guess what I'm advocating is spending the money on the flop to find out where you stand rather than waiting for a more expensive opportunity to do so on the turn.