Party Poker 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: Hero is CO with , .
UTG calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, 2 folds, BB checks.

Flop: (4.50 SB) , , (4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets, MP1 folds, Hero raises, BB folds, UTG 3-bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (5.25 BB) (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero calls.

River: (7.25 BB) (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 9.25 BB

Results in white below:
UTG has 6c 6s (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero has 6d 5d (two pair, sixes and fives).
Outcome: UTG wins 9.25 BB.

First question. Should I have even gotten involved in this hand? There were only 2 limpers in front of me but I was hoping that maybe the button and the SB would come along as well. I don't have many opportunities to play small suited connectors at this level b/c the pots always seem to get raised before it gets to me. This seemed like a safe pre-flop call.

Second question. Does that 3-bet on the flop make you drop the hand or just slow down and call? My read on him was SLAA. I really didn't think folding my 2 pair at this point was necessary.

I thought the turn was a very good card for me giving me a flush draw to go with my 2 pair. Of course it could have also given 2 pair, but I really didn't see him on a big Ace since he probably would have put in a raise pre-flop with it. Would you just call here, raise, or fold?

River didn't do anything good for me and at this point I was about 95% sure I was beat.

From the CO I will play 9,10s and higher with no less than 2 previous callers which u did have. For a long time I played the smaller ones and my PT stats showed that I was losing with anything smaller than 10,9s. I would've mucked it preflop.

Flop: UTG 3 betting doesnt slow me down at all as I gotta think I'm ahead here putting him on some kind of Ace. I'm capping that puppy.

Turn: Now I dont like him betting here with that Q hitting, but I raise here only cause of the flush draw. And I really wouldn't have liked him 3 betting me back. But I would call his 3 bet. You know on second thought I probably would've just called his turn bet. So how's that for a non-answer?

River: At 8 to 1 I would have to have a pretty good read on him to fold this.

Thanks striker. Yeah, I don't have enough hands in PT yet to know where I stand with suited connectors yet so I'll have to keep the 9,10s cutoff in mind.

Capping the flop...I see your point since the reason I played these cards was to hit that type of flop.

Turn was a real delima for me on how to proceed. Raising did cross my mind b/c I picked up the flush draw as well. Guess I probably saved myself a BB or 2 by just calling.

Well I'll go against the grain and say limping here is fine as long as the opponents that limped are too loose and go to the river too often. If either of them is TAG, then I dump it.

On the flop the only reason not cap it is so that you can raise the turn and get an extra big bet. Of course he would have continued to play back at you, so at that point you can just call it down (or fold if his post-flop aggression is ultra low).

this is a typical response from me because the only person that is a bigger rock here than me is piers, and not by much. Unfortunately, he plays much better postflop than me.

I was just going to say that if piers saw that hand history, he'd be too busy vomiting to respond. Maybe he actually is vomiting, and that's why we haven't heard from him.

In the CO, I will play suited connectors in an unraised pot rarely, just about the same time the table has me pegged as a rock. I do it for variety. I look to hit the flop (like you did), and play it hard.

Only bad thing is that UTG 3-bet you. If I had him in my book and I saw he was anything resembling tight, I'd know I was in trouble. Set, higher two pair, God knows what else. While some players will 3-bet an OESD or a flush draw on the flop, that's nuts.

Think from his perspective. He flopped middle set (limping from UTG with 66 isn't too bad). If you have KK, he has you beat. If you have A6 or A5, he has you beat. The only hand he's worried about is AA. He's also saying to himself that if he loses set over set, he doesn't give a damn. You're still drawing to 9 outs for the flush, but he's secure in his hand. You're not raising with any old paint, so the straight isn't a possibility.

This is the danger of small suited connectors. If you do make a hand, it's almost always vulnerable.

Leon--

I was more or less sending a dig to piersmajestyk, who may be the tightest limit holdem player alive...

My whole point was that I play little suited connectors, mainly in LP (like you did), and only sometimes (for variety). They almost play like small pairs (22, 33, etc). You play them to see if you hit a flop. You hit the flop hard. Only better flops you could expect would be 2-3-4, 6-6-5, 5-5-6, 2d-3d-4d, or 6-6-6. The bad thing about this is that somebody happened to flop a better hand, and it's real hard to get away from a flopped and well hidden two pair. Overall, it was played well, but I might have bailed with the turn bet, but you even had a flush draw there...

A somewhat related story: I decided to mix it up at the $25 NL at UB, and play K8s in the CO. The flop dropped a beatiful 8-8-2. I bet, got raised, and pushed. Anyone would have done it (mostly). Of course, the guy who called me had A8o.

Rough hand to lose.

Sorry Tiburon, I thought you were ripping at me. No harm done.

Leon--

I never rip on people...