Calling a min-raise in the BB

[t_perkin]

Ok this is a pretty common situation in the $10+1 that I play at Party:

I'm on the BB, someone somewhere opens with a min raise.

everyone folds to me.

Should I always be (at least) calling this?

(obviously exceptions made in unusaul stack positions, high blinds etc.)

Thanks

Tim

[DougBrennan]

I don't make any special effort to "protect" my blind in this situation. I would try to apply my normal requirements to this hand, whatever normal is for the given situation; table conditions, player-read, etc.

You are now out of position in this hand so I wouldn't recommend playing trash, just because you already had some money in the pot.

[heyrocker]

I think I heard CrisBrown say once that if someone minraises and there is one caller, then it is always correct to call in the BB. What are people's feelings on this (barring situational issues IE bubble, shortstacked, etc.)

[HUSKER'66]

Personally, I guess I'm a little loose in my calling in this situation. If there is a least one caller, I will pay to see the flop with anything all the way down to group 5 (well maybe not 9/7s or 6/5s /images/graemlins/tongue.gif). If the flop hits me then I play, if not then it is an easy fold. I may be stubborn, but I don't want the PF raiser to think he can bully/steal my blinds at will.

Now 7/2o or 10/4o etc is another story entirely. /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Pitcher]

Hi All,

This seems purely situational to me. It depends on the raiser. I wouldn't call me if I min-raised into me, because I usually min-raise with a real hand (bad habit, I should raise more and have fixed that leak in the last couple of days). Regardless, I know some players where a min-raise means they have a premium hand and trap. I like to do that myself. So, as usual it depends.

Pitcher

[AleoMagus]

I asked a very similar question a few months ago.

My feeling these days is that I will play it fairly standard if I am raised by anybody but the SB. This is to say that I'm gonna fold most hands.

If everybody folds and the SB raises, then I've been calling with an awful lot - almost any two in fact.

I think you are getting good odds on either call (better odds if the raiser is not the SB actually), but it can still be a drain to be calling too many raises with weak hands. Against the SB however, the position advantage makes this too good to pass up.

This has been working very well for me. If the flop is checked after that, I'm betting the pot no matter what I am holding (unless of course I know something about how he plays or the flop is suspicious)

Regards,
Brad S

[CrisBrown]

Hi Tim,

For me, I'm probably going to evaluate my cards on their value (or lack thereof) unless the min-raiser was the SB. I'll usually at least call (if not reraise) a min-raise from the SB, for the simple reason that I want him to know he has to make a bigger raise (and put more at risk) if he wants to steal from the SB. If the min-raiser comes from any other position, I'll play only if my hand justifies an out-of-position call or reraise, which is very rare.

However, with just one caller ahead of the SB, the situation changes (for me). Now the BB is getting 11:2 on that call, and with the implied odds I think it's clearly +EV to peek at a flop so long as both of your cards are live. I also want cards that are very easy to get away from if they miss. I probably wouldn't make this call with Axo or Kxo (too likely to be dominated), but I'd make it with 63o or some other raggy hand (probably live, easy to fold on the flop).

(Edit: One other note on this strategy. Its real purpose, from my perspective, is to force players to make a bigger open-raise, and thus put more of their chips at risk when they decide to play a hand vs. my BB. Late in a tourney, every time someone folds to me in the BB, that's chips I've gained without a fight, and giving the impression that they need to make a big raise to get me out of the pot may often encourage them to muck a marginal steal opportunity.)

Cris