No Limit Situation

[goatass99]

<font color="purple">Enough to discourage marginal hand and keep from drawing out on you. Low enough to get away if necessaary [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="purple"> </font> <font color="purple">

[Lou Krieger]

[ QUOTE ]
50-100 blinds. Maybe a tournament but it doesn't really matter. Your stack is 3000 and you have the button. The small blind has more than you and the big blind has 700 left. You have AJ offsuit and it is folded to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like a raise to 700 in this situation. This commits the big blind to all his chips if he's gonna play with you. Your chances of being reraised by the small blind are also reduced, particularly if you are late in a tournament, because4 of the strong tendency to check it down in an attempt to eliminate the BB.

Of course you postulated that this may or may not be a tournament, in which case the check-down to eliminate the BB is a moot point, so I see these situations as quite different: cash game, early in tournament, on the pay ladder in a tournament.

[Gamblor]

You're only a "newbie" why should we even consider your opinion? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

BTW, it 100% does matter if we're in a tourney or not, especially if we're at the final table. The BB will call our raise with a lot of hands worse than ours if there's no stack smaller or even close to his, so we should be more inclined to just raise him all in. Esp. if the SB would only call with a better hand in an effort to eliminate the BB. In a cash game, 400 ought to be enough to steal, and fold to a reraise from SB and call BB's all in reraise.

[aas]

Raise 400. I do not want to risk too many of my chips against the small blind, but would be glad to take on the BB. If reraised by SB, I'd fold. If SB folds and BB goes all in, I'd call. If they both fold, I'm still happy.

aas.

[me454555]

I'm going to assume this is a tourney situation but not the final table.

I'd raise 100. I'm trying to think about the concept this question is trying to imply.

You're against only the sb and the bb. Take into consideration that this is the only betting round in which I don't have position on any of these players.

If I'm playing against bb, I don't want to put him all in before the flop. If he goes all in before the flop, it turns into a "race" situation. If I play this hand, I want to be able to take advantage of my position throughout this hand.

Once bb goes all in position becomes meningless. If I raise 400 or more, BB is left w/2 options. 1) Fold 2) reraise all in. Hes not calling b/c he would be pot committed.

My biggest concern is SB. Since he has me covered and has position on me this betting round, I dont want to risk too much in case he has a monster and decides to come back over the top of me.

That leaves me raising 100. SB will hopefully fold, but might even play a hand or 2 I am dominating. If SB just calls, we all see a flop and I get to see how they react before making a decision about how I want to play the rest of the hand.

[George Rice]

Raise 400.

You can ignore the SB's larger stack because you're not going to call a re-raise. So the issue is what to raise the BB in order to get him to fold or call with worse hands than yours. The advantage of a 700 raise is that the BB can't bluff you on the flop. But since you're aware of this tactic, it won't work on you.

Raising 400 has the advantage of getting the big blind to toss his worst hands without seeing the flop. Against his better hands, most of which will be worse than yours, he will call (or raise) and will have the worst of it. So give him a chance to make a mistake. Against his very best hands, which are better than yours, all his money is going into the pot, but it would anyway if you raised 700 to begin with.

Raising 400 has the added advantage of saving you 300 should the SB come over the top. So raising 400 is my answer.

[BarronVangorToth]

I realize that this is my first post on this board, and that as the proverbial "newbie" my opinion will seem to carry a significant less amount of weight than someone who has been a regular contributor to the discussion. And while I have followed this board almost daily for the last six months or so, I'll concede that I haven't spoken up. Yet.

I'll also preface this by saying that I believe Mr. Sklansky is one of the finest poker minds out there today, and many of us owe him a great deal of credit, respect, and possibly even money (well, I'm more than happy to give him the first two, outside of purchasing his books, I'll keep my winnings, thankyouverymuch).

All of that was said to say that while I love to see people like him post up situations, especially when they claim to have a right answer, I do believe that the information he has provided isn't satisfactory to show any definitive answer.

Tournament Game vs. Cash Game = Big Difference

Small Blind Has "More" ... how much more? = Difference (not Big, but substantial)

If it's a tournament game, I'd go farther and say that what table this is makes a difference as well.

How many other players left?

Where is the payoff?

What do the other players have?

How many tables?

Etc. etc.

Lots of factors.

Again, I do apologize for jumping in as a "newbie" and appearing, I'll agree, somewhat critical, but I do believe this scenario warrants more explanation and more details, especially if we are to be given a definitive answer on said situation.

[Flashy]

By moving all in, we create a huge gap for the SB to call. I belive that is the principal.

SB can't call an ALL-IN unlesss he has ACEs, so SB probably folds. BB can only call for $700 so now we have him heads up, with what is probably a much better hand. He may also fold, although that is unlikily.


Betting $700 is a mistake as it allows the SB to call and effectively close the action as BB cannot raise. Now you have two hands to beat. Also - SB can hit big and trap you. BB can hit big, but he cannot put your stack at risk.

Any scenario that allows SB to play along is in my view a mistake.

[James Boston]

400

700 is nearly 25% of your stack. The BB might call that with a "let's get this over with" mentality. Now a quarter of your stack is in jeopardy. However, he wouldn't just call 400 because he would know that he's probably going to have to put the rest of it in whether the flop is good to him or not. If he re-raises, you can be more certain that he's got a hand he thinks he can double up with. Then, it might actually be correct to fold and only lose about 13% of your stack. Then again, I'm not a very strong no-limit player.

[PokerFoo]

Raise 400 then bet half the pot on the flop.