Call or fold

[buddha]

Playing in the PP super tuesday NL hold'em. 130 or so left, top 100 get paid. Blinds are at 200/400 and I have t4000. Pick up 88 in mid position, folded to me and I make it 1000 to go. Folded to the BB who has t11000 and sets me all-in.

Was the raise proper in the first place and do I call in this spot?

Thanks for the help and let me know if you need more info.

[Stoneii]

From MP with a full table I'd limp as it's easier/cheaper to get away from with so many potential reraises behind you.

Not sure I'd want a scrap at this stage with the bigger stack. I'd believe I'm either small favourite (2 overcards)or a rather large underdog here (higher PP) so I'd lay down unless I'm in gambling mood /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[VarlosZ]

I'd tend to limp before the flop. Maybe if I thought there was a better than average chance of stealing the blinds I'd raise, but this is probably a hand that can't stand a big raise, so I'd like to get in cheaply.

I think you were right to fold to his reraise, but it should be noted that there are a lot of players who absolutely love to make his play with small PPs. If you knew the BB to be one of these, that might turn the fold into a call.

[Easy E]

30 spots to go, blinds take out 15% of your stack? You need some chips. I'd raise here almost every time.
Amount seemed about right. You can't go much more without basically saying "i'm all in"

Calling the raise- what are the other chips positions? How aggressive is the BB- is he among the table leaders? What is he likely to be playing here?

You're getting almost 2:1 to call his raise. I think I take the odds and hope he doesn't have a big pair... especially if what I've heard is true, about online aggressive overplaying.

[buddha]

I actually did call in this hand. The guy putting me all-in was the table leader at the time but I had seen him gain a lot of chips with some poor looking play. In this spot I put him on a resteal as it was folded to him in the BB and felt he was trying to buy me out of the pot with any two cards...

Unfortunealty he was holding KK and busted me out of the tourney. In hind sight I think I played it poorly. I think I either limp to see cheap flop here and decide before I limp what kinda raise I would call or not.

I tend to make mistakes when I raise with medium pairs like this and someone reraises and I am tempted to think he is bluffin. I had enough chips to wait for another spot and dont think 88 was a good enough hand to go broke with. If I limp I have an easier fold to his raise because I dont feel like I have already invested. Raising to steel seems reasonable but I cant really withstand a rereaise with this hand.

Is this reasonable?

[cferejohn]

I think this is the best here and i don't want to be moved off of it. I probably go all-in here. You're right on the cusp of where any reasonable raise will pot-commit you. You really would rather have AJ or the like lay down here rather than making a move that will make you either a) lay down a hand when you clearly have odds to call or b) get all-in with a coin flip.

I vehemently disagree with limping off 10% of your stack preflop with a middle pair. More often than not, you will flop multiple overcards, and it's going to be pretty easy to make a mistake.

With 99, I'd push here every time. 88 is close, but if I think that the table is reasonably tight, I'd push.

I think you have to call the BB's raise. It's just too likely he has overcards to lay this down.

[nolanfan34]

I guess I have a slightly different view than the others, although it might be overly tight. I can see the raise perhaps, but I would fold to the BB's reraise. Best case scenario, he has a non-pair hand, probably with overcards, right? That's just too much of a coin-flip for my tastes. I think it's a little like Sklansky explains in TPFAP - mathmatically you may have an edge over the overcards, but when your tournament life is at stake sometimes it isn't worth it to make the "mathmatically" correct call if it's close, and if you lose you're on the rail.

You're close to the money in this case, and with 10x BB you probably have enough time to wait for a better hand I think.