JJ in the SB 2/4 game

[gomberg]

Here was an interesting hand I played the other night. 2/4 and opponent has about $185 to start, I have him covered. Late middle position opens for $12, and I'm in small blind with JJ. I decide to call (sometimes I'll reraise here, but wasn't sure this was a "steal"), BB folds. Heads up.

Flop: 2d3s5d I don't have a diamond

I bet $28, he limit raises to $56 and has roughly $120 left. What's your play?

My read of him at the time is that this bet was one of those "where am I in the hand" - which leads me to believe we both have overpairs.

I'll post what I did and results later today...

[Ghazban]

I've been in this situation 3 times in the past 24 hours and every time it was exactly that-- we both had overpairs. I had tens to his 9s once, tens to his jacks once, and jacks to his jacks once (for a win, a loss, and a split). I'm very interested as to how people would play something like jacks here as, to me, I'm just not sure where I'm at with that sort of hand and don't know how I can get that information from my opponent.

[cornell2005]

what do people generally raise with in your game? meaning how tight is this game preflop generally. online or live?

[gomberg]

It was online 2/4 at pstars. Raising was typical for late position first in with anything decent at the time (any pair, ace, suited connector). Wasn't sure about this player though.

[sniperd]

For me this is always player depenedent. From what you said, and what it looks like, this certainly is a "Where am I" bet by him. That tells me, he is open to folding so I will ... probably ... shove on him. It really comes down to, is he the kind of player that would make this raise pre flop with TT, 99, or 88. It is virtually useless to try and figure out if he would make that raise with AA KK QQ since those hands get played different all the time by the same people.

However, in this case, I don't like seeing the 2 diamonds, and since I don't have 1, I think I am just going to dump my hand. That's just me though. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[gomberg]

The player in question would raise with lower pocket pairs first in, so I thought it was about 50/50 I had him beat - so there's no way I'm folding with his stack so shallow. So now, how to play the hand where I maximize winnings if I'm ahead? I figured if I push, he might fold a lower pocket pair but would for sure call with a higher one. If I called, I thought if I checked to him, he would go all-in no matter what card hit on the turn - so I opted to do that.

Lucky for me, a non-diamond jack hit on the turn and I checked, he bet all-in, and I called. I didn't get to see his hand and he just said "un-fu**ing believable" then left, so I figured I hit a 2-outer against his QQ,KK, or AA. Ooops. Then I checked the hand history and he actually had 99. I guess he thought I was going to fold if I didn't hit the J? My plan in the hand was to call the bet no matter what card came on the turn after showing weakness. It worked out this time, but I'm not sure if it's the best way just because of the possible cards that can kill the action.

[TheGrifter]

I don't think an overpair to the board is going to fold here. Push in on the flop for a few reasons:

1. This is a draw heavy board and it will look like you are on a draw, making it quite likely that overpairs will call.

2. This is a draw heavy board and you want to protect your hand.

3. You don't want to give him a free chance to hit his A/K/Q, all of which are likely holdings.

I would push in here fully expecting him to fold. There is really no reason to suspect he isn't on a steal and he could have anything. An overpair bigger than Jacks is very unlikely and you will be winning a lot of the time when called.