What to do here with pocket 9s?

[akira]

This was from a very loose live MTT: Blinds at 300/600, I had a a stack of about 4.5K, blinds go up to 500/1K in 5min. I get dealt 99 in the small blind. UTG raises 2K, and it is folded to me. UTG has about 10K of chips, BB has about 20K.

Should I push here, do a stop & go, or just fold? I figure my reraise of 2.5K is probably not enough to fold anyone, but I am also worried about the small blind calling. Any thoughts?

[Pat Southern]

I fold, I dont like tangling with an UTG raise. If I was going to play it, I think now might be a decent time for a stop and go.

[patrick dicaprio]

conventional wisdom is to push here i suppose but I have been trying to do a stop and go here more often with mixed results so far in a small sample.

Pat

[Potowame]

I just don't see the UTG raise as a raise that 99 beats enough to make a push here a good play. I would say you have a better chance of stealing the blinds on the next hand than winning this one. IMO But I am Tight.

[akira]

[ QUOTE ]
I fold, I dont like tangling with an UTG raise. If I was going to play it, I think now might be a decent time for a stop and go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point, I might consider folding this on a good table since the raise came from EP. However, this table was LOOSE, and there was no blind stealing going on since everyone limped or cold called raises. Also I was pretty shortstacked, and I hadn't gotten cards all night, so the pocket 9s were looking good at this point [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I decided to pull a stop & go at this point. The BB also ends up calling the 2K raise. Flop comes Qh Td Ts, and I push. Unfortunately BB calls me with a Q.

I was trying to evaluate whether a push would have been better since it might have folded the BB. What does everyone think about using a stop & go where you're not in the BB and there are still people left to act? (eg SB or earlier like this hand)

Thanks!

[soxfan70]

I dont like the stop & go here with the stack sizes you mentioned. the reason is if I'm the UTG raiser or the BB and I call the 2k raise with the stacks they have, I'm not folding for another 2.5K, especially from the SB. If you had a deeper stack, it might have been taken more seriously. I think it's either push or fold preflop, leaning more towards the push with your description of the table.

[SossMan]

The reason you would push w/ 99 is to get someone w/ KJ or KT or QTs to fold to the all in. Given your description of the players, I doubt that will be accomplised here. I would fold, and wait until I can value bet a better hand. You still have some time.

[JARID]

I think your stop and go with a mid pair looses effectiveness once the BB comes along. There is just too great a chance that overcards will hit one of the players and on a loose table I would expect them to call.

Your stack seems to small to be messing around with this anyway, I push or fold pre-flop. On a loose table where UTG raise does not = premium, I push.

-Jarid

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
I think your stop and go with a mid pair looses effectiveness once the BB comes along. There is just too great a chance that overcards will hit one of the players and on a loose table I would expect them to call.

Your stack seems to small to be messing around with this anyway, I push or fold pre-flop. On a loose table where UTG raise does not = premium, I push.

-Jarid

[/ QUOTE ]

an UTG non-premium range of raising hands would include:
KQ,KJ,KT,QJ,QT,AJ,AT,TJ.
All of these, in addition to premium hands, will call given the stack sizes. Thanks, but no thanks, I'll fold.

[Poker Junkie]

Pat,

Dumb newbie question here. Stop and Go? What is this? Can anyone provide me a link about this? If this has all ready been discussed ad-nauseum before, my apologies.

thanks,

[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]Walt