J-9 off

Im sitting on button and have j-9 off in a 5 handed game. Big blind is tight, small blind is semi tight.
Weak player limps in eighter utg or in cut off pos. Always raise in theese sits?

And if i hold theese hands 9-10 q-8 k-7 all offsuit, raise every time?


Max Muller

[Dynasty]

With a limper already in, I may just limp with J9o some of the time. If it's folded to me, I raise with tight blinds.

[rhinoceros]

J9 and T9 I will usually limp, sometimes raise. Q8 and K7 I will fold. What do you think the limper's standards are? It seems to me that Q8 and K7 are probably behind, perhaps way behind, and rarely develop into hands that can win a big pot.

[Andy B]

So you can't win a big pot with Q8 or K7. So what? You can pick up a lot of little pots when the other guys don't flop anything. I am pretty sure that most of my profit from short-handed play comes from little pots, not big pots.

As for the original poster's question, if the blinds were tight and I were first in on the button, I would tend to raise with any hand that looks remotely playable, including T9, Q8, K7. Once there's a limper, the chance of stealing the blinds is gone. I would still limp in with those hands.

[rhinoceros]

Perhaps I misunderstood. I thought all these hands were being discussed where there was a limper in front. Certainly minimum standards first in are much looser.

I find that my opponents defend their blinds against my "steal" raises way too tenaciously. So I've been gradually tightening and I still get lots of action on my good hands. I now consider Q8o and K7o optional to open raise on the button. (The alternative is fold; limping is awful).

I'm usually playing $2-4 to $5-10. I expect at higher stakes, the blinds will chase less frequently. If that were happening in my games, I would raise more more frequently.

[Andy B]

Limping with Q8 or K7 first in on the button in a short-handed game is not awful. You don't really want to be putting in a whole lot of money with those hands if the blinds are overdefending. I think they're too good to throw away when you have position on two random hands. You should be able to pick up enough small pots when they check to you on the flop to make it worth limping in.

i just want to say this was a 30-60 game with 20-30 blinds, so stealing the blinds is very profitable. In this kind of game with 50$ in dead money, in a very hih % of the time this cant be a very bad play? or can it???????

Max Muller