Starting mid-limit hold'em and need direction...

[Lefort]

After being predominantly a tournament player for the past year I've ventured into the world of limit poker and starting at $10/$20. I'm by no means a newbie but I'm having trouble with situations that arise often and I need some direction as to how I should be handling them.

Dealt [Ks][7s] in the BB. MP raises, 1 caller behind, SB fills, so you're laid 7:1 to make this call. I've been making the call with this type of hand.

Flop comes [Kc][Jd][4d]

SB checks. Do you bet? Do you check-raise the preflop raiser?

I've been check-raising the raiser. Say he calls, as well as the limper. What turn cards are you betting? Any non-A or non-diamond?

And how strong does a hand have to be to 3-bet? And is it a common play to be 3-betting from LP with *only* decent hands (ie. AQo or 99) just to get the blinds to fold? Because I've been using this play often but not sure if it's effective in the long run.

When in the BB and folded around to the button who raises (looks like a steal), what kind of hands do you need to call with, and how strong do you have to be to raise?

Sorry for the randomness of the questions but just trying to make sure I'm on the right track with these types of situations..

[Dazarath]

About your 3-betting question, it's more of a question of how often does the preflop raiser raise. I think in general, good 3-betting hands are AA-TT, AKs, AKo. If the preflop raiser raises 20% of his hands though, you could easily add AQs, AQo, 99, 88 and whatever else you feel comfortable with. If the preflop raiser raises 3% of the time, I'd say there's an argument for folding AKo and calling AKs or maybe even folding.

As for your blind defense question, it's a topic that's discussed a lot on this forum, and there's no specific strategy. Some winning players play very loose in the blinds and some play very tight. This is a general strategy that I've heard some people list:
- 3-bet any ace (some people like to 3-bet any suited ace and 3-bet A5o+)
- 3-bet any pocket (someone only 3-bet 66+ and fold 55-)
- call any two cards 10 and above
Again, this depends on how much the button tries to steal. If it's a very high percent of the time, I'm inclined to defend more loosely, even with marginally trashy hands. If the button only steals 5% of the time, it's probably a legitimate raise for value and you should be folding most hands.

I'm not sure if you use Pokertracker as a tourney player, but for ring games, most of the posters on this board have it. That's where I get the stats I'm discussing. I'd suggest purchasing a copy if you're serious about playing ring games.

[LarsVegas]

3-betting depends. If there's just the preflop raiser in the pot or just one limper before this preflop raiser, you should be inclined to 3-bet with most of the hands you are going to play at all. If there are two limpers before the raiser or a cold-caller behind the raiser, you could start calling with hands such as AJs/99-77, hands which would be marginal 3betting hands or close folds had only the preflop raisor been in there.

In the spots where there is only a a raisor voluntarily in the pot before you or him and a limper before him (in the long run a scenario which calls for pretty much the same 3betting demands, the limper opens up for potentially some dead money and is very likely playing a worse hand than even your weakest 3betting hands - but the raisor's hand is likely to be a *little* more legitimate when raising the limper), I think the idea is:

Take the hands you perhaps "would have wanted" to cold-call with (of course in the world of TwoPlusTwo, there aren't of those ;-)), like the hands old literature or five year old 2+2 posts advocated cold-calling with, such as TT-88, KQs, AQ, AJs and maybe some hands which many players actually do coldcall with such as KQo (actually THE cold-calling hand even at pretty high limits), AJo, KJs, 77 etc. Take the weakest of the hands in this entire group and turn them into folds. Promote the more stronger ones such as AQ, TT, 99 and the occassional KQs into 3betting hands.

I would also be very inclined to 3bet all hands you are playing from cutoff vs a preflop raisor and a cold-caller (because it's still so few opponents that your hand needs to have pretty good immediate value). If you coldcall here, the button will come along with most half-decent hands and better and it's worth the extra small bet to win position for the rest of the hand and probably leave some dead money in the blinds and take the initiative.

In the position before the cutoff, populary called the hijack, it makes more sense to just cold-call in a similar spot with something like 88 or AJs. You don't mind playing it 3-way with position and dead blinds and you don't really mind others coming along with you for a quite nice and big family pot.

As for AQo and 99, these are the best hands I will fold on A-game for just a one raise preflop, if it comes UTG or UTG+1 in a 10-handed game and I am not in cutoff, on the button, in small blind or big blind. In those positions, I am playing and 3betting these hands too (except big blind, which I would call).

AA-TT, AK and AQs should be a standard range of hands never to be folded for the first raise preflop. Unless of course you use PokerTracker and find the raisor to be the Rock of Gibraltar redefined. ;-)

lars