Re: Common Situation Lately - Best Line?
 

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I'm looking for a general line or approach - or maybe a list of considerations or things to take into account.

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To me, stack size is the overwhelming factor in this hand, and in most online multis. With so much of your stack already in the middle, you just don't have enough room to lay this down or make any fancy moves.

Assuming the blind structure is fast, that just adds to the urgency.

Push and hope for the best.

In the WSOP main event, on the other hand, it would be hugely foolish to play this hand fast early in the tournament.

Thoughts and results
 

Here are my thoughts-

My opponent either has a pair (22-KK), a weaker ace (eg A6s), or a monster (one of the 3 possible sets or two pair); of course he could also be playing back with KQ or 78s, but that is less likely IMO. Any one of these hands could min raise as 22-KK and Axs could be asking “Did you really flop top pair?” and the monster hands could be saying “I know you didn’t hit the flop as hard as I did, but if you do have TPGK then I know you’re not going to fold to a min-raise and I’ll try to put you on a payment plan”.


Here is what I think about some of my options-

1) Folding is somewhat weak/tight – if you always fold to a raise when you CB there is no way you’ll ever be a winning player. It might be correct to fold some percentage of the time, but this seems like a small percentage to me. If the stacks were smaller, I would probably push and if the stacks were deeper I would probably re-raise for info – but as mentioned these are awkward sized stacks, so I do think folding is a viable – but not preferable option.

2) Calling and leading the turn for info might be cheaper than re-reraising the flop, but it might also be giving a cheap card to hands like Ax. Again, I think this is a viable option, but not one I would use very often.

3) Calling and waiting to see if he fires a second barrel – I prefer to do this when I have position, but when I’m OOP it seems I can usually count on another seeing another bet – so I don’t have any more information and it is costing me more chips – kind of a reverse implied odds situation. OTOH, if we assume that we are WAWB we might want to check-call to the river because if we are ahead we’ll be inducing bets from a worse hand and if we are behind we will be hopefully saving chips.

4) Re-raising a small amount – this might be a cheap way to get information, and you are still charging him a little extra if he has Ax. It also helps to define your hand as you are answering his question by saying “Yes, I do have TPGK”.

5) Re-raising a large amount / pushing – if you feel that your hand is too strong to get away from given the stack sizes this might well be our only option.


Results-

I don’t usually use passive approaches - I’m usually betting and raising so options 1,2,3 weren’t very appealing. One time I re-raised a large amount (option #5) and called a push – only to be shown a set.

The three other times I min-reraised (option #4), for the reasons I stated above and figuring that I’ll be “speaking his language”. All three times my opponent pushed, I folded, and he showed a set.

Now I don’t want to be results oriented to the point where everytime I see a min-raise I think I have to fold, but my min-reraise play seems kind of hokey even though it saved my bacon a few times. Thoughts?