Did I drop the ball here?
 

Party 1/2. Early morning with a festive atmosphere (read: I own this game).

This just happened and I had never seen it before, that I recall, and I was caught by surprise.

Villain is 10% VP$IP and aggression of 3.5 after 40 hands. My read on him is that he's unimaginative and playing straightforwardly if a little tight.

Villain open raises UTG. Folded around to me in BB with 88. I muck.

As soon as I hit the fold button I thought I should have popped him and lead out on the flop if no broadway cards came unless he repopped me pre-flop. If he was anywhere else but in EP opening with a raise I probably would have hit him again, but he was UTG and I had no cover from other cold callers. Another alternative I considered was to just call and trap if I made a set as I knew he would keep betting at me if I checked.

Should I have taken it to him or would you do the same thing and move on to the next hand?

Comments?

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

You've left out the most important stat; what's his PFR%? If that is really low then I fold. Otherwise I reraise and lead a non Ace, King flop.

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

You're right, I left that out and I'm at work now so I can't look it up.

I think you're right though. Re-raise and then lead out on the flop if nothing scary falls.

How do you proceed if he caps pre-flop? I think that's why I balked in the nanosecond that I allowed myself to consider whether to play.

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

Really small baby pot. Why mess around?

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

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How do you proceed if he caps pre-flop? I think that's why I balked in the nanosecond that I allowed myself to consider whether to play.

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I think that you're seeing monsters. You can't play scared. Saying that, you shouldn't play stupid either. But I didn't even consider for a moment worrying about a cap. (Maybe I should. Who can answer that one?)

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

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Really small baby pot. Why mess around?

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Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

I think the other poster's reply said it all. Small pot why bother. I'm anything but weak tight, I just couldn't justify getting involved when I had no investment in the pot and there was no dead money.

Furthermore this situation will be such a rare event that figuring out how to play it at the micro limit probably won't impact my win rate.

The main reasons I posted this is because I hadn't seen it before on the board and wasn't sure I had made a good choice on short notice. The situation really surprised me.

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

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Really small baby pot. Why mess around?

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To me, this is the wrong attitude. It's not just the big pots that we're striving for. All the little pots that you pick up let you free-roll on the big pots. I know that we're playing to win money not pots, but passing this up is just criminal. Would you pass up TT in the same situation? Or 99? If he's got overcards that miss the flop then these hands are all just about one and the same. And yes, the pot is small. Now. But later? If he's the type of player who never slows down until the river? Not to mention the fact that developing your heads up game is really important in the long term. Are you playing poker or are you just sitting there waiting for the nuts? Situations like these are what make poker fun.

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

Agreed. That's why I posted this hand. I was conflicted. I would not give up TT, I would re-raise without question. It's an artifact of studying books on poker. TT is a "big pair" but 99 and 88 are "medium pairs".

If the guy is even remotely loose with his raises I am confident that I would play the hand out and it would be +EV. Villain had been a brick the whole time I had played with him. He seemed to be getting paid and to not be paying off others. Hence the EV of this situation seemed less tangible to me.

To reiterate, I agree with your statement about the 'correct attitude' with which you play poker. I also agree that little pots are worth picking up when you can. You're also more than slightly correct about the need to develop short-handed skills. Mine are somewhat weak.

I have no problem going to war and turning a small pot into a big one, however I think you have to choose your battles carefully. I need to develop my short handed skills so that this too is clownshoes.

Oh yeah. I play poker to win money, but it is fun, isn't it?

Re: Did I drop the ball here?
 

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Really small baby pot. Why mess around?

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To me, this is the wrong attitude. It's not just the big pots that we're striving for. All the little pots that you pick up let you free-roll on the big pots. I know that we're playing to win money not pots, but passing this up is just criminal. Would you pass up TT in the same situation? Or 99? If he's got overcards that miss the flop then these hands are all just about one and the same. And yes, the pot is small. Now. But later? If he's the type of player who never slows down until the river? Not to mention the fact that developing your heads up game is really important in the long term. Are you playing poker or are you just sitting there waiting for the nuts? Situations like these are what make poker fun.

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Exactly. We steal blinds dont we? I'd call that a baby pot too.