Bubble SB limpreraise...

[DJ Sensei]

$22 buyin

Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 4: villain (2630)
Seat 7: xxx (1210)
Seat 9: yyy (2530)
Seat 10: ACSensei (1630)
Hero posts small blind (100)
villain posts big blind (200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ A /images/graemlins/spade.gif, 4 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif ]
xxx folds.
yyy folds.
Hero calls (100)
villain raises (200) to 400
Hero raises (1430) to 1630
Hero is all-In.

Anybody else make moves like this ever? I'll post my thoughts/reasoning later, but i'd like to hear what yall think.

[BadMongo]

Why not just move in from the start if you're going to play this (which is marginal at the 22s)? What would you have done if the BB had any sense and pushed instead of min raising?

I really don't like this play. You give good players the chance to take an extra 100 chips from you, and the weak ones are likely to call you after investing 400 chips in the pot. With a hand as weak as A4o, you definately don't want a call here.

Push them in, force his hand

[DJ Sensei]

Alright, heres my thoughts. If I push preflop, I'll only get called by a hand that crushes me, and I'll only take down 200 chips for my troubles. If I make a moderate raise and he pushes back, I'll either be committed and have to call (but again, probably crushed) or fold and be the shortstack and in more trouble than I was. If he just calls my raise, chances are I'll miss the flop, and any continuation bet is getting close to pot committing too.
Now, if I limp, I give him the chance to raise with more marginal hands that he wouldnt have called a push with, and might have folded to a raise as well, although I'd prefer not to play after the flop OOP with A4. These hands (like Kx, Qx, JT, suited connectors, or just garbage steal hands) are the key hands for my making a move like this. When I reraise push against one of these, he either will call as an underdog, or fold and give me an additional few hundred chips. If he has a real hand, I was probably going to lose my stack (or most of it) anyhow.

The way I see it, this move is likely to win me extra chips against weak hands, increase the chances of being allin as a favorite, and have no different outcome against a strong hand. The only downside is that if he checks his blind with a weak hand, he can draw out on me, but I won't be likely to lose many chips if that happens anyhow, unless he flops 2 pair against my top pair or something.

[Xenod]

You really want to minimize action here. Yeah, you're ahead of a random hand, but not ahead enough that you really want the action. I push here, I'm happy to take the 300 in blinds. Why give him a chance to see a free flop that he may or may not hit and you'll be out of position for the rest of the hand.


If he calls you with a KJ, Q7, etc. I'm not upset because I'm ahead, but I'd rather just take it down. If he has a good hand, you're screwed anyway.