99 on CO; T high flop

[bmedwar]

How should I play this? Turbo with a $15 buyin. A major leak of mine is giving absolutely no respect to bets that are less than 1/2 the pot. How should I handle small bets? It seems like 80% of the time a re-raise makes them fold, but the other 20% really hurts me. I was shocked that he called me with what he held (maybe I'm crazy).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed)

MP1 (t1500)
MP2 (t1750)
MP3 (t1470)
Hero (t1390)
Button (t1940)
SB (t1460)
BB (t1460)
UTG (t1110)
UTG+1 (t1420)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t20, MP2 folds, MP3 calls t20, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t120</font>, Button calls t120, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 calls t100, MP3 calls t100.

Flop: (t510) T/images/graemlins/club.gif, 2/images/graemlins/club.gif, 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">MP1 bets t200</font>, MP3 folds, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t1270</font>, Button folds, MP1 calls t1070.

Turn: (t3050) 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

River: (t3050) 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t3050
<font color="green">Main Pot: t3050 (t3050), between MP1 and Hero.</font>

[tigerite]

I wouldn't raise so much preflop with 9's, when it's still 9 handed.. I'd either raise 3bb or just limp with them (you're in late position, so it's a good play), to try to spike a set. On party people at the $50 level will play junk like J-10 (and worse!) to a raise of 6bb, so you shouldn't be surprised they will at $15..

[Chief911]

More times than not I'm playing 99 for set value, not top pair value. You played it (By raising) for pair value, and almost got that. But with a T200 bet into the pot, I think I might fold this down and wait for a better opportunity.

I think your first mistake though was your preflop bet with limpers. I'd simply call the 20, keep the pot small, and try to hit your set.

NIck

[tigerite]

I agree - but sometimes I do like to raise 3bb to knock out the blinds. It depends on the table, of course. Pretty much all the limpers will call 3bb, it's more to juice the pot than anything else, and remove the risk of junk hands. Doesn't always work! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[redeye3030]

Why do you want to knock out the blinds if you are playing for set value?

[Chief911]

With set value you want everyone and their cousin in the hand. No need to wipe out the blinds, let em come along.

Nick

[Jason Strasser]

Alright.

You played this hand very strangely. If your opponents are so bad where they will call big bets with hands far behind 99, then you are correct in raising a large amount. You also have to understand, that even though they may be calling with crappy hands, that does not excude a hand with a ten.

So I'm really not going to argue with your preflop play, and give you the benefit of a doubt. However, on the flop, the first player to act LED into three people with a bet slightly smaller than half the pot. I, for one, don't see this too often with a monster hand. More sets will opt to check raise the flop. A flush draw will also check, and usually either check call or check raise, depending on a few factors. So, you can almost always count on a ten in this spot. I guess if the player was awful, it could be anything though, and I expect someone to respond to my post saying "THIS IS A 15 DOLLAR SIT AND GO".

The bottom line is that you overplayed your hand on the flop. You are absolutely correct raising preflop given certain conditions, but you also must be willing to see that even though preflop raising is correct in this spot, the MAJORITY of the time you will have to fold on the flop, also correctly. I would probably check the flop if it was checked to me, and then figure out the turn. If you are not prepared to lay down your hand on the flop, then limp behind preflop and play this the simple way, which would be my suggestion to you.

-Jason

[tigerite]

Okay, maybe I should also have stated that I forgot about it being a $15, too. If you hit a set of 9s and it comes 9 7 6 for instance, you don't want the possibility of the blinds having 85o and beating you with the straight, I see this many times, and also if the flop comes all low rags, then your 9s can often be the best hand out there, but if you let the blinds in they can two-pair it sometimes. However at $15 level then your opponents could basically be playing any two cards anyway, so it's probably not worth it /images/graemlins/wink.gif