Ever OK to just call a raise?

[el Jefe]

Suppose it's early on (levels 1-2) in a $11/$22 SnG and you have roughly the same number of chips as your opponents.

It's open raised in EP-MP to 3BB (T45-90) then folded to you in late position (CO or button). What do you do with the following hands (fold/call/reraise)?

1. KQs
2. AQo
3. AQs
4. TT
5. JJ

Remember these are typical $11/$22 players with typical $11/$22 raising standards.

with a better (or worse) hand the play is fairly obvious (reraise/fold) but is it worth risking a small amount to see a flop cheaply in any of these situations or are you always better off reraising/folding?

thanks.

-Jeff

[TylerD]

I'd call with all those hands, except AQo and JJ which I'd re-raise with.

[BrettK]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do with the following hands (fold/call/reraise)?

1. KQs
2. AQo
3. AQs
4. TT
5. JJ

[/ QUOTE ]

1. Fold
2. Fold
3. Call
4. Fold
5. Call

[stupidsucker]

Id re-raise with JJ. Probably call with the others and proceed with caution. I dont like AQ at all. Perhaps this is a leak in my game, and I should be re-raising like TD. I will have to go over some old HH's and see what I have done, I may have puckered up too much.

[Martin Aigner]

for 45:

1) fold
2) reraise to 150
3) reraise to 150
4) call
5) call

for 90

1) fold
2-5) reraise to 300

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[Phil Van Sexton]

1. Call for 45, fold for 90.
2. Reraise, consider folding for 90
3. Reraise, consider folding for 90
4. Reraise
5. Reraise

I probably wouldn't fold any pocket pair for T45. You could often win unimproved against a passive player (and there are many of those at this limit). If you hit your set, you could break him. Folding TT on the button for 45? I know the pot is small, but I don't get it.

[unfrgvn]

Martin, do you play at Stars or at Party? Because if you reraise to 300 at Party you might as well just push, assuming you haven't already won a hand. I think with the deeper stacks at Stars reraising might be the correct play. Are you going to lay any of them down to a reraise?
For $45:
1. KQs fold
2. AQo call
3. AQs call
4. TT call
5. JJ call

For $90
1. KQs fold
2. AQo fold
3. AQs call
4. TT reraise to 180
5. JJ reraise to 180

I would have to say a lot of this depends on stacks, any read on the open raiser. I know it's early in the tourny but if a guy is open raising a lot of pots I think I'm going to see if I can flop a hand and look him up.

[Martin Aigner]

I play Party only. You are right, I won´t give up on too many flops with these hands, no matter whether I´m the bettor or caller. Of course this is board depending, since e.g. I wouldn´t call all in on a board of A /images/graemlins/heart.gif K /images/graemlins/heart.gif Q /images/graemlins/heart.gif holding T /images/graemlins/club.gif T /images/graemlins/spade.gif, but most of the time I would be all in on the flop. The reason why I wouln´t push all in preflop is that there are lots of hands in the lower buy in SnGs with which players call reraises, but wouldn´t call all in reraises, which I would want them to call with (AJ, KQ, maybe even KJ, lots (all) of the medium to small pairs, ...). Most of these hands will have to lay down on the flop though.

On the other side hands like AK, KK, QQ will almost never muck preflop, but might very well muck on the flop. No matter what I have, this can be a win/win situation for me. Of course I take higher risks that way, too, but so what? It´s the beginning of a SnG, and if I´m out I´ll go and play the next one.

BTW, of course I´m happy that at the higher buy in SnG at Party one starts with 1k in chips. Therefore I´m more likely to play these hands the same way in level 1 + 2.

One final thing: Even if I raise to 300, I don´t really feel potcomitted. Still having 500 in chips (= 16 BB) is enough to make a nice comback. I would lay down the AQ and AQs preflop if someone raises me all in. With JJ or TT I´d rather call, but it´s not an automatic call. But given that I don´t have any other information I think I´d call with TT and JJ in a 10+1 or 20+2 SnG.

Best regards

Martin Aigner