Should He Reraise Possible Ante Steal?

My friend was in a $40-$80 Stud game with a $5 ante, $10 bring-in. He was dealt 66 3 (buried 6's) and brought it in for $10. There were two Jacks and two Kings out. Everyone folded to the last position, an aggressive tenacious player with a Jack up, who raised. My friend re-raised.


I thought a call would be better for the following reasons:


1) No way is this aggressive player going out if reraised


2) If my friend is a favorite, there is a good chance it isn't by much since the aggressive player could easily have 3 semi-coordinated overcards to my friend's small pair/no kicker


3) If my friend is a dog he could be a big dog


4) Opponent has more chance than my friend to catch a scary board, i.e. his board will likely play better this hand and my friend may have to fold for this reason later in the hand


Question #1: Should my friend have re-raised?


Question #2: Same scenario, higher ante structure: for $75-$150 with $15 ante, $25 bring-in...does this change things enough to change the call to a raise (if indeed calling is preferable to raising in the first example)?


Question #3): my friend proceeded to catch a King, opponent caught an 8. Friend bet and got raised. 5th street friend caught a deuce, opponent caught an apparent blank. Friend check-called. 6th street friend caught open deuces and his last money went in. He lost to a straight and opponent had 8's as well. Was there any point in the hand he should have folded? Should he not have bet on 4th Street?


By the way the opponent is also a friend of mine but the first friend asked me about the hand.


All comments welcome, thanks.

1. With $80 in the pot it costs $70 to reraise, so your friend is getting 8:7 pot odds for his raise (assuming a full game). The answer really depends on what the chances are of the stealer folding now plus the chances of winning the hand outright. Obviously the combined chances have to be not much worse than even money (the break-even point is 47%), and they probably aren't. So vs. most opponents, just fold. I would waste money calling. Opponent probably has 3 cards bigger than 6 and calling just gives him a free chance to pair up.


2. If it were 75/150, now there's $220 in the pot and a raise costs our hero $125, for pot odds of 220-125 or about 1.75-1. The break-even point is now about 36%. So there's more room to work with. Again, however, it depends on what sort of hands your opponent is likely to be raising here and what he or she is likely to do if you reraise. There's just no hard-and-fast rule.


3. It's hard to say how the hand should have been played because you have left out too many cards as well as the suits. But in general, it sounds like your friend chooses his battles unwisely. He was short-stacked and was willing to risk it all to defend a pair of sixes.


You don't want to let yourself get run over in stud, but at the same time, you have to realize that you can't win every battle.

Hello, M,

Live pocket pair with no overcard kicker is more of a drawing hand in at least a 4-way action game .

You do not want to narrow the field by re-raising.

If it's only one or two other players in the pot on 3rd.,fold. You need at least one live overcard to play heads-up.

Even loose tenacious players receive their share of good cards.


Sitting Bull

Dear M,


At the higher limits of Stud, the game becomes

one of playing the player, just as much as it is playing your hand against his hand.


Having a good read of your opponent is critical.


Your friend was against a loose agressive player who may or may not have had a quality starting hand.


Since he has a "big" card in his door, and has been folded to up to his last cut off position, you can expect him to almost always going for the steal.


He knows that the probability of your friend having a legitimate starting hand out of the bring in position is about 1 in 4.


And the stealer is anticipating having his steal work at least 40% of the time, and possibly higher since your friend is short stacked.


In situations like this where I am playing against the "agressive tenacious player, my tecnique is to use the counter stratagy of waiting until I can set him up in a trap hand.


What I often do is let them have the occasional small bet, and then when they walk into a trap let them bet the hand all the way to sixth street, when the pot odds usualy trap him into calling with the weaker hand.


So I am willing to give up 3 chips now and then until I can set him up to loose a stack of 30 or so chips.


In my oppinion it's usualy just a matter of time until his playing style lets me traps him. This is especialy true when I am at a full table, and rarely have to play him heads up.


When I get invited to play this type of player heads up,I just say no thanks and move on to a full game.


Heads up the oppertunities to trap this type of player may not come up often enough to make the game profitable.


Now in the situation that you have described your friend has a good traping hand ,with the live pocket pair.


And that combined with the fact that he has already put in a small bet, I would recomend that he just raise.


Against this type of player if you raise him back he may just keep comming over the top.And you don't know where he stands.


In the long run these types of players are almost alway loosers if they play against solid players. But in the short run they can play havoc with your game unless you are careful.


Now the raiser has a one other jack out which decreases the probability that he has the hand that heis representing.


So what I want to in this situation is to get a 6, or a live ace, or a suited conector that would give me a 3 flush with a 3 gut shot straight and a pair.


If I don't hit one of those three cards I am going to drop the hand to a bet on fourth. You certainly don't want to hit a king.


I would have played the hand But the big mistake in the hand, is what is your friend did on street when he caught a deader than hell King, with a brick in the door.


He comes out betting. And his opponent, that now has either a 4 straight or a pair and a 3 straight comes right back over the top of him.


Since your friend was short stacked and since he made an obviously weak play, my guess is that his opponent all ready had him read as the type of player that he could run over.


Summery: Call the bet on third and if you hit your hidden set, let him bet into you until 6th stret, and then put in your raise, if his board makes that play appropriate.


Thank you for raising this question. It would be helpful if we also knew the suits of your friends hand.


Most sincerely,


Doc AZ

I am afraid that I didn't edit my above post :in line approx 25, I said to raise when I obviously ment to say call. Sorry, Doc

Given that the opponent may well be on a steal and has an upcard that was duplicated elsewhere, I tend to slightly favor calling over folding, but I am not sure on this. Without favorable developments though it would become an easy fold on 5th Street.


The chances of the opponent folding to a reraise are flat-out zero--I've played against this guy too.

In the situation that you described I think I would pretty much reraise him all the time.


1. Your friend is running low on chips. He should be able to play the hand out without worrying too much about being bluffed out on the end.

2. The other guys card is duplicated and he is aggressive.


P.S I could not understand how many jacks were out. Was it two were out and then a 3rd jack raised. If that's the case I would reraise him all the time and be prepared to go the river.

There was one other Jack out.

I still think his reraise is the better play because he can't get hurt that bad if he is wrong.