What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

Hero is sb in 3-6 game. Decent player in middle position open raises preflop. Folded to hero.

I can call and hope the BB comes along. That's 4.5 into a $18 pot. It's not 7.5 to 1 to flop a set but maybe the implied odds work if you count the times you win with the 9's without 3 of a kind.

Folding seems weak.

I could raise and force out the BB to get the hand heads up. Middle pos calls. Then I would have to lead the flop. That means Middle Position is getting 8-1 to call, so I don't think he's folding for that.

What do you suggest?

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

It depends on the villain, but usually I raise.

I don't want BB coming along unless he's doing it incorrectly so we give him bad odds by reraising preflop. If we just call he's getting tremendous odds and should call with many hands.

Our equity shoots up quite a bit when we are heads up instead of against 2 opponents, and it is much easier to play when only 1 player has position on your instead of 2.

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

So how do you play the flop after you reraise?

Let's assume opponent just calls.

Do you continuation bet on any flop?

What about a flop with 3 over cards? Monotone not of your suits?

Do you check raise a decent percentage of times as a bluff, or is that a bad play at this level?

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

Again, these things really depend on the player and the board texture.

In general though, most of the time I will be continuation betting. Sure, villain is getting 8:1 and should be calling if he knew what we had. But he doesn't know. All he knows is we 3-bet preflop, which could mean AA as far as he is concerned. Thus, our opponent will often make a mistake by folding on the flop when he has good odds to continue.

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Do you continuation bet on any flop?

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Well no. Say the flop is AKQ all one suit and I don't have it. Now check folding against most opponents is perfectly reasonable because we have like no fold equity and are almost defenetely behind.

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Do you check raise a decent percentage of times as a bluff, or is that a bad play at this level?

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Usually not. Most of the time villain is going to have a hand that wants a free card, so I don't want to give it to him. Also, I want him folding incorrectly like I stated above.

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

I 3bet preflop roughly 99% of the time. Yes, you give MP 8-1 to call the flop. But if you call and BB calls, BB gets 7-1 on the flop. If BB calls the flop bet, then MP will be getting 8-1 anyway. And you'll be OOP against two instead of one opponent with a hand very vulnerable to overcards.

Let the texture of the board dictate your play postflop. I'm leading into any reasonably unscary board and probably calling a flop raise.

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

If I 3bet from the SB I would never ever check/fold the flop. If it's scary to me it's scary to him so I bet.

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

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Folding seems weak. I could raise and force out the BB to get the hand heads up.

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For another viewpoint, in SSHE on p. 66 in the section titled Medium Pairs(99,88,77) it says:

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If someone has raised, you should typically fold unless you are fairly sure several others will enter the pot. You do not want to play shorthanded against a bigger pair.

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The authors seem to suggest that when there is a raise, 99 prefers multiway action, so reraising to eliminate players behind you would not be consistent with that thought.

Re: What is the standard play with 99 in small blind?
 

I raise to knock out big blind. If he doesnt come over the top bet out on flop.