Ok, so I’m swapping emails with a buddy trying to help him tighten up his game a bit and he makes some statement about playing 45s on the button with several other callers in. I started thinking about it and the only thing I could think of was, what the hell kind of flop are you looking for with that hand?
Let’s say it’s your typical online loose/passive or loose/aggressive game and you’ve got 6+ callers seeing the flop. You flush draw is probably no good because it’s highly doubtful anybody has two suited cards smaller than 45s. You certainly don’t want the flop to come 678 because there are plenty of people who will play 9T and anybody with a 9 or T is going to try and suck out on that flop. That only leaves:
236
A23
44x
55x
45x
445
554
Granted, if you hit 23x, 26x, or 36x you might have the odds to keep drawing to the straight so you don’t need to to flop it (26x only gives you an inside straight draw though so you may not have the odds to continue). Unless the flop is very kind, a 4 or a 5 is unlikey to be anything but bottom pair which can’t make you like this hand very much and there’s almost no way in hell you’re going to push everybody off this pot with a 4 or 5 high flop.
Also, the odds against making a straight on the flop are 76:1 so there’s no way you’re going to make back 76BB every time you hit.
All in all it just seems like a hand that’s -EV. Does anybody out there have a different opinion? Because, I see this type of hand being marked a playable hand in late position with no raise and several callers by nearly every starting hands chart. Personally, I hate playing these sorts of hands even if I get a free ride in the BB.