Fighting back against a steal with KJs 3-handed

[Unarmed]

He's done this dinky min-raise out of the SB crap the last 3 orbits, I've had junk until now. I generally do a pretty poor job defending my blinds. Assume typical $5 opponent quality.

$5 PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (3 handed)

Hero (t2895)
BB (t4500)
Button (t6105)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, K/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="CC3333">Button raises to t400</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t1000</font>, BB folds, <font color="CC3333">Button raises to t6080</font>, Hero ???.

Easy fold?

[raptor517]

never played a 5 dollar tourney, but in anything above 50 he can steal my 200 when i have 2800 all day, and ill wait till i have a real hand to play back. just my thoughts

[Sidekick]

For me it would depend. If I've seen Button coming over the top of people a number of times with crap hands, or sticking with crappy hands a number of times during the tournament, then I probably call and take my chances. Otherwise I think this is an easy fold.

Personally with KJ suited I would just call his min raise and see what the flop brings. If the flop hits you hard, then chances are that the villain isn't going to put you on a good hand and you then have a chance to double up on him.

When I reraise someone I generally try and decide before I do the reraise whether I will call them if the villain comes back over the top of me. If I decide I am unwilling to call them if they come back over the top of me, I typically either call or fold the hand. There are of course situations where this doesn't apply, but as a general rule that is how I try and handle these situations.

Playing this way might be a bit weak, but I see the large stacks bully so often by coming back over the top that I will usually just call the min raise and see what the flop brings.

[stillnotking]

So many hands dominate KJ (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, KQ, AJ). You are really just praying he has a pocket pair less than JJ, and even that is pretty much a coin flip. This is not the best hand to take a stand with and you are not quite pot-committed. I would fold.

I don't necessarily like the raise to 1000 preflop though. I agree with other posters that I would call his 400 raise and see the flop. Good check-raise potential there.

[jcm4ccc]

I don't know about calling his first bet with this hand, as others are suggesting. The problem is, almost any flop that hits your hand is going to have you worried that you have the second best hand, or put you on a drawing hand:

K on the flop (dominated by KQ, AK)
J on the flop (dominated by AJ)
Two spades (drawing hand)

Then you are really in a bad spot with an aggressive player. Let's say the flop hits K, T, 5. You bet 200, he comes over the top of you, you throw away your hand.

If he's stealing your blinds and you feel you need to make a stand, you can go all-in (rather than betting 1000) and hope. Since you are already in the money, I think this might be one of the spots to take a chance.

[Unarmed]

Thanks for all the advice.
I folded to his push.
I'm going to start a thread on blind defense.