TT hand

[PrayingMantis]

$55+5 turbo SNG. 6 left. Blinds 100/200. I'm 3rd with 2225.

Folded to CO (720) who limps. He's pretty much a terrible player, limps like crazy with hands like Q6s, no matter how short his stack is. Can have anything.

I hold TT on the button.

SB (4545) is a loose, very aggressive player. Likes to steal when he senses weakness. Loves to make big calls with marginal hands. BB (2180) is an OK player.

What's my move?

[Tosh]

I would raise to 600.

[La Brujita]

I push. A pot sized raise puts in too much of your stack and you rate to have the best hand, you need to put him to the decision.

Tosh, what is the reason for a mini-type raise to 600?

[Tosh]

Because it commits the limper but doesn't commit me. The blinds know that the limper is likely to come in and also know I know that. Therefore they know I need a real hand, so to reraise me they need a big hand. I don't want to get married to this hand even though I don't have a big stack myself.

[Abagadro]

I'm more thinking outloud rather than advocating a play, but I would seriously consider smooth-calling the limper in the hopes that the SB would try one of his moves and both the BB and limper would fold. You'd end up heads up against the SB with likely a better hand for a good pot. Risky, but possibly double up. If the limper comes along or the BB is the aggressor, you can evaluate and/or dump it without putting too much into the pot. If you get all limpers behind, play for the set.

Pushing seems like it would get a call from the SB creating large pot odds for a call from the initial limmper (although if he is terrible he won't even know what pot odds are). Seems like ironically limping may be the best chance to get it heads up where TT plays well.

Maybe this is too fancy.

[La Brujita]

Tosh I was asking a bit of a loaded question. If the small blind knows that and is loose aggressive won't he be more likely to push? I figure you might as well put them to the decision, a raise to 600 is 27% of your stack btw.

[Jason Strasser]

The blinds are definately big enough where I would push. I don't think there is any sense letting the creative player in the blinds make a move on you. Pushing sounds like the easiest way not to mess this hand up. If someone in the blinds happens to have JJQQKKAA, well shucks.

I'd hope to steal the 500 in the pot, or at worst end up against the limpers hand one on one.

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]
Likes to steal when he senses weakness.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not quite sure why he would sense weakness here.

[PrayingMantis]

The replies so far reflect exactly the 3 options I was thinking about:

1. Limping. If SB will make a move on me and CO, I will have to asses his raise, and see how serious it looks. He has a variety of raises. I might re-raise all-in if he'll go for a pottish raise, which he made a few times. If he'll push - again, I'll have to asses if it's a pure steal. It will definitely be hard to play TT this way, i.e, as if it's a really big pair. My problem is that he might make a move with hands which are not huge, but still about 50-50 against me, like KJ. I'll hate to bust now with TT against KJ.

If he calls, I will have to play the flop, or go for the set, depending on the action. I have a good position to do so.

So, if I take this option - I'm taking the less riskier path (edit: that's if SB doesn't raise). HOWEVER, it is a weak approach - since I'm pretty sure CO is behind me, and I'm probably ahead of the 2 random hands behind me. At least: It's a losing move not to make HIM pay more to see the flop. OTOH - I might go for a really huge pot here - if I make my set, and someone pays me.

2. Raising to about 600 - in order to commit CO. Again, the problem here is that I'll have to make a tough decision if SB moves on me. And, as mentioned, he might do it with hands that are actually not much weaker then TT. I will be probably about 10-20% favorite over the range of hands he'll make a move with, maybe less. And folding after putting about 27% my stack isn't something I particularly like, but I'll still be alive.

3. Pushing. The pros for this move are obvious - I'm going for the pot, which is about 500T now, and isolating CO if he's willing to commit. The problem with this move is that I'm exposing myself to calls/raises by SB (and BB) with a hand I'm not really in love with, pretty early in the game, when I have a nice stack, and I know I play better than the field. I can't imagine even one hand I'll see calling me here, that I'll be happy about, i.e, I'll be either a very small favorite or a huge dog. So, I'm not really enthusiastic about this move either, although it somehow seems like the strongest of the three.

[PrayingMantis]

I pushed. SB called immidiately. BB thought for a long long time, and called for all his chips too. CO folded.

SB and BB both had JJ. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Marginal call by SB, weak call by BB, which I thought was a better player.

But I was the one who busted... /images/graemlins/frown.gif