Hypothetical situation

[flyingmoose]

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (5 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Hero (t1722)
BB (t2038)
UTG (t1411)
MP (t1695)
Button (t1134)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t600</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>.

Final Pot: t800


Pretend the BB pushed. What do I do?

[Bluff Daddy]

you................... call

[lorinda]

What do I do?

You pretend you didn't make the silly sized raise.

Lori

[flyingmoose]

3x BB is what I'd been stealing with, so making the raise with a pair seemed obvious.

What would you suggest for a raise?

[lorinda]

What would you suggest for a raise?

In this position it depends.

You should consider what you will do if they push, and base your raise size on that.

You could push first to eliminate the option, or mini raise and allow yourself to fold if they push at you (although it does encourage the push to some degree).

Remember you're allowed to type numbers in the box too, this may be a case for a raise to 500 and fold, but that's not a considered opinion, just something to think about.

Lori

[bigredlemon]

I'd fold to a raise. Neither option is pretty, and you certaintly didn't have to get yourself into this mess, which is what lorinda is hinting at. If you're only betting in the hoeps that BB had a marginal hand, then you might as well make the same play with 27.

Another problem with your play is if BB calls. The flop will surely come a few high cards. What do you plan to do then? There's no amount you can bet without leaving you with no playable stack if you fold to a raise, and if you check, BB may very likely bet into you, and we're back to square one. If you're going to push any flop, then you might as well push PF here.

[curtains]

flying moose, it's important to not stick to rules such as raising to 3x the BB always. When that 3x BB represents such a large percentage of your stack, your raise should be allin instead. Also it's okay to sometimes raise to 2.5x the BB, or sometimes to 4x the BB preflop.

The 3x BB guideline is a good start, but the next step is learning when to deviate from this raise amount. Here is a perfect case where you should move allin to begin with.

In the hand in question, you have no choice but to call, as you have already put in about 35-40% of your stack with a very good hand head's up. You'll probably be about a 50%, and you are easily getting the odds to flip a coin here.