pocket 3's in the SB

[dfscott]

I thought that the BB suspected that I was on a steal and was trying to defend. Is this a bad call this early? (To further complicate things, I mis-clicked the slider and only raised 2BB instead of 3.)

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

saw flop|<font color="C00000">saw showdown</font>

MP1 (t1785)
MP2 (t840)
CO (t4080)
Button (t2280)
<font color="C00000">Hero (t1355)</font>
<font color="C00000">BB (t565)</font>
UTG (t885)
UTG+1 (t1710)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="666666">5 folds</font>, Button calls t50, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t100</font>, <font color="CC3333">BB raises to t565</font>, Button folds, Hero calls t465.

Flop: (t1180) 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif, J/images/graemlins/club.gif, 4/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

Turn: (t1180) K/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

River: (t1180) J/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t1180
<font color="green">Main Pot: t1180 (t1180), between Hero and BB.</font>

[Jason Strasser]

Why are you min. raising? Make it 175 to go and steal the blinds. What are you doing calling? You will be enough of a dog enough times here to lay this down comfortably. If you had led out for 175-200, then this decision would've been harder.

I just realized you misclicked by raising the min. So I guess I can't harass you for that, but your call is not good. If you are an underpair to your opponent here only a small amount of the time, you are messing up.

Raise more, fold unless you are getting much better than 2:1 (you are getting less than 2:1 on your call), 3:1 is preferred... When calling the SS all-in with a low pocket.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Why are you min. raising? Make it 175 to go and steal the blinds. What are you doing calling? You will be enough of a dog enough times here to lay this down comfortably. If you had led out for 175-200, then this decision would've been harder.

I just realized you misclicked by raising the min. So I guess I can't harass you for that, but your call is not good. If you are an underpair to your opponent here only a small amount of the time, you are messing up.

Raise more, fold unless you are getting much better than 2:1 (you are getting less than 2:1 on your call), 3:1 is preferred... When calling the SS all-in with a low pocket.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's where I'm weak -- I'm never sure what to do in response to a re-raise and I'm afraid I'll get run over if I keep folding to re-raises. I think I'm trying to hard to play "image" poker and not enough smart poker.

Thanks.

[Hood]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why are you min. raising? Make it 175 to go and steal the blinds. What are you doing calling? You will be enough of a dog enough times here to lay this down comfortably. If you had led out for 175-200, then this decision would've been harder.

I just realized you misclicked by raising the min. So I guess I can't harass you for that, but your call is not good. If you are an underpair to your opponent here only a small amount of the time, you are messing up.

Raise more, fold unless you are getting much better than 2:1 (you are getting less than 2:1 on your call), 3:1 is preferred... When calling the SS all-in with a low pocket.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's where I'm weak -- I'm never sure what to do in response to a re-raise and I'm afraid I'll get run over if I keep folding to re-raises. I think I'm trying to hard to play "image" poker and not enough smart poker.

Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

The thing is, with 33, even if that reraise was with a poor hand, you're still looking at a 50/50 situation.

If you are worried about getting re-raised, either
a) except it - you were aiming to take down the blinds, fold happy knowing you came up against a better hand.
b) don't play the hand originally if you can't take a re-raise, and reasonably except one. Wait till you're in a later position to make this move.
c) Push all-in to start with (I recon this is fine up to say 12x BB)

I would have folded this hand. Small PPs I find are useful in two places:

- Early on, where you can limping in in LP cheaply and play for set value.
- Late on in blind-steal mode, where it's a good hand to push all-in with - good chance of a steal, if you get called, there's a good chance you've got a coin-flip.

In this situation you're in the middle - the blinds are big enough to make limping less attractive (and the players are playing tigher now, so less limping), but your stack is more than 10x BB so I'm not in all-in steal mode. I'd fold this.

[Jason Strasser]

Folding for T25? I think if the button is a very loose limper who will give up if I raise, you should raise. I think completing is the second best option. Folding is too tight IMO. You should at least see the flop.

[schwza]

yeah, folding initially would be pretty bad. the BB is short-stacked, but the button has enough to double our hero through, and the blinds are still small relative to the stacks.

i would not try to steal the blinds here (even with a 3xbb steal or whatever you intended). the button will likely call with position on you, and you'll have no clear idea of what he holds. open-limping on the button is generally a sign of a bad player, and bad players like making loose calls. then after you miss the flop you'll be in a bad spot.

and yes, once you min raise and the BB pushes, you should fold.

[dfscott]

So, let me make sure I understand what the best play is here. Assuming that the button is weak (and I thought he was), I could 3BB raise and hope to take it down here? Obviously fold to the re-raise, but if I was called, I would expect to have to flop a set to continue, correct?