Difficulties in the blinds

[jcm4ccc]

I don't have the hand history, but I remember the hand pretty well.

PP $55, Level II, 7-8 players still in the game.

I have around 2200 chips from doubling up early. The person to my left (a fellow 2+2er) has about 800 chips, I think.

I am dealt A9o in the SB. It folds around to me. I raise to 90. My fellow 2+2er pops it back to me and reraises it to 170 or so.

This really sucked. I figured I had the best hand. Also, if I folded, I would have shown this person (who apparently pays attention) that I could be bluffed off my hand. Since this person was to my left, that would have been a bad situation to be in for the rest of the tournament. So I went all-in, and lost a pile of chips to KK.

I really didn't know what to do when it was popped back to me. I didn't want to play A9 on the flop, and I didn't want to fold to the small reraise. What should I have done?

[Matt R.]

A pot sized re-raise will be enough to pot commit you due to BB's stack. Anything smaller than a re-raise to 300-350 is useless, so a push is fine if you really thought he was trying to re-steal. Your read was obviously off though (which is the heart of the matter), so if you weren't so confident in your read you should have just called the re-raise and seen a flop. Folding would be bad bad bad.

[Scuba Chuck]

That early in the game, jcm, just complete (or mini-raise). It's easier to let go of. IMO, it's easy to lose such a precious stack when letting your ego get involved early. Protect early.

Furthermore, even if the fellow 2er knows you, without a hand, he should give some respect to your raise, and vice versa.

[bearly]

hi, i think a really good 2+2 player would say all the right things and then blow you right off a pot w/ a total bluff. their are no friends at a poker table, and deviousness and cunning are good traits for a winning player to be able to tap into when playing.........h

[freemoney]

just call its also a chance to create a nice LAG image, pushing is awful.

[MrTrik]

I would have played it safe and simply called. There is no fight tomorrow if you lose it all today on an ego thing.

[wuwei]

[ QUOTE ]
I am dealt A9o in the SB. It folds around to me. I raise to 90. My fellow 2+2er pops it back to me and reraises it to 170 or so.

This really sucked. I figured I had the best hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand your thinking, I used to feel that way myself - always suspecting my opponents were full of [censored] in a situation like this. But the fact is, most of the time they play back at you here they have a hand. Call the reraise and see the flop. Let it go if the flop is unfavorable.

It sucks, and it does set a bad precedent for future hands. However, too often they have a real hand and you're in trouble. If they continue to push you around as the game progresses, then I start to push back. But I'd let this one go...