NL question, 88 in the SB

[nichtgut]

Hi!
I'm a player who's played limit mostly and I now try to learn no-limit and pot-limit.
I was playing a tournament on-line a few days ago when this hand came along:
I had 88 in the SB. The blinds are 25/50, and I have about 1150$ in chips. The BB has approx. as many, 1150$. He hasn't played a hand since a came to the table the round before, so I have no information on him. How would you have played this hand?

I raised to 200$ in the 75$ pot. He re-raised me all-in. I read him for a bluff and called, since it seemed to be a common play at the table and in the tourney.
Results later...

/Nicht Gut

[nichtgut]

Hi!
No answers yet.... /forums/images/icons/frown.gif
Please help me with this hand, I've been thinking about it a lot...
Anyway, as I said I called and showed my 88 and he showed QT off.
Flop came A62, and he hit his T on the turn and I left the tourney.
Was my play bad? Should I have raised him all-in pre-flop instead of raising 200?
Please answer
/Nicht Gut

[Mikey]

I'll tell you why this question is hard to answer.

#1 "on-line"

#2 "I read him for a bluff and called"

How do you read someone for a bluff on online.....seriously..I would love to know this, because then I'm going to jump back on the online circuit and quit playing B&M.

[Matt Flynn]

Preflop, was there a smaller raise that would've secured the blinds if they were willing to fold? Maybe 150 instead of 200?

Once you're raised all-in, the problem is even if he's bluffing he's got a 50-50 with you. He'll have overcards. So, to me it's a fold. However, if you're just learning and trying to make your way it's not an unreasonable gamble. The better you are relative to the field, the fewer chances you should take; conversely if you're early in your experience a couple coin-toss double-throughs can be the best strategy.

Matt

[crazy canuck]

Mikey...I think the poster meant to say he put him on a weak hand. Anyhow, in general after he raises your move should depend on the strength of the field. As Matt suggested, if the field is weak (ie they get married to top pair etc), then you shouldn't take chances. However, I would have had a hard time getting away from the hand.

[nichtgut]

Hi Mikey!
This was an on-line tourney at Pokerstars.
To answer your question:
It's a common play in these tourneys, (perhaps in real life too) that people from the blinds go all-in after several limpers or a single raiser, scaring them off and winning the pot pre-flop. Sklansky recommends this play in his tourney-book.
Perhaps it's hard to say I "read" him, but I thought there was a big chance he could have any kind of crap hand and was trying to bluff me.
Besides that, I think it's definitely possible to read people on-line if you watch how they play for a while, I don't beleive you have to actually see their faces.

/Nicht Gut

[nichtgut]

I just noticed I forgot to mention that it was folded to me in the SB...
Sorry
Nicht Gut