A-9 off in BB, unusual turn situation

[Zetack]

I admit it, I find myself in a lot of situations where I have standard plays, or at least where what to do seems fairly clear. This one was unusual for me.

I'm in the BB and get a free play. I miss the flop but it gets checked around. On the turn I hit second pair and have top kicker. The Sb leads at me and I...

What do you think of my line so far in this small pot?

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, A/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, MP1 calls, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, Button calls, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (4 SB) Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks, Button checks.

Turn: (2 BB) 9/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">SB bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>


Comments very welcome,

--Zetack

[Zetack]

Anybody?

[ecooke]

I feel pretty indifferent to the whole bit.
The pot is baby sized so the Hero is investing a relatively large amount for a relatively small payoff. That said, if the SB is the type that likes to c/r a lot, then I fold in this spot. Otherwise, raising looks like a good line and is better than calling.

[lil']

You're risking 2BB to win 3BB. So, the question becomes, are you good here 66% of the time?

That's a pretty high percentage, so at this point it would be great to have some info on the SB to help make the decision easier.

[krishanleong]

I think it's pretty standard. SB will bet out with a 3, 6, or 9 a lot of the time. I estimate that he will have a Q less than 20% of the time.

Krishan

[Rhone]

[ QUOTE ]
I think it's pretty standard. SB will bet out with a 3, 6, or 9 a lot of the time. I estimate that he will have a Q less than 20% of the time.

Krishan

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know about this. I think SB commonly would have suited Q low kicker he was playing for a flush, missed the flush and checked the flop to see if anyone else had a Q, and decided to bet out on the turn when no one showed any interest.

My attitude here would be, small pot, why bother?

[Cardzy]

I fold it for no other reason except the pot aint worth the damn trouble. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[dave44]

I think I might just call here. Since the pot's so small, if the two players to act behind you would like to call with a smaller pair or weak draw, that's fine with me because they certainly don't have the odds. Not much in the pot to protect with this raise. SB may not even call the raise if he's betting a weak pair.

[me454555]

I play it the same way. I hope everyone folds and sb calls. Then I might check behind on the river.

[River2Pair]

That has some similarities to the Clarkmeister hand from this week, except in that case the pot was much larger.

Here it is. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&amp;Number=1434475&amp;page=&amp;view=&amp;s b=5&amp;o=&amp;vc=1)

[me454555]

There are many differences between this hand and clarkmeisters hand. Aside from the size of the pot, the 2 biggest factors in this hand are postions and number of people left to act behind you.

In clarkmeisters hand, he had already showed much strenth pf by 3 betting. Our hero in this hand, has merely checked 2x in a row.

In clarkmeisters hand, the board was much more draw heavy and the palyers likely to semibluff

In this hand, zetack has a vulnerable hand that could probably be ahead w/2 players left to act. Any card higher than a 9 on the river could ruin his hand and it is more important to protect his hand in this spot.

In clarkmeisters hand he was heads up w/position on the turn. A raise would do nothing but get someone to fold a worse hand or prove exepensive if they call or 3 bet with a better one.

While these 2 situations may seem similar, the hands are very much different and there are a lot of subtle differences between the 2 that would make you take a different line in each.

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
There are many differences between this hand and clarkmeisters hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I agree, I don't think the hands are even close to similar. Although I did like reading the higher order thinking from Clarkmeister, so I appreciate the link.

--Zetack

[nothumb]

Very read dependent. If SB is a fairly predictable (meaning wasn't going for a check-raise with a weak Q on the flop) and average to high aggression factor type, and if your other opponents are folding a lot, it's +EV. I also like it when people are able to make raises like this even when they lose (and I think you lose this hand about 30-40 percent of the time even when the other players fold) because, well, it's one of those scary raises that mess with people.

My general sense lately has been, in marginal situations, get more aggressive against observant players, or weak players, and stop spraying so much against loose-passives. But that might be hogwash and I might have been spraying beforehand anyway.

NT

[Zetack]

So anyway, I raise it goes fold fold around to the SB who...folds. Hey alright I win those few Sb's...

Nice result...I'm still not sure about the line though.

--Zetack

[BusterStacks]

I think this play is correct, because:

1) you're not folding

2) calling would be the worst option

Raise it up man, pot is small but we can eliminate the worse options of folding and calling.