[bobbyi]

[ QUOTE ]
Out of position with a hand that it that rarely makes it to a showdown seems like a bad time to make an image play.

[/ QUOTE ] I would imagine that the counter-argument is that this is exactly why it's an effective image play (should it get shown down). If you open-raise in early position with 87s occassionally, I would expect that observant high-limit players wouldn't be terribly impressed; instead they would say "meh, obvious image play". But if this gets shown down, people will really take notice.

None of this is to say that I would ever make this reraise. I'm just to trying to guess why it might make sense on rare occassion against observant high-limit players. If the opponents are as clueless as many of the people in my local mid-limit games, then I would hate the reraise. I make virtually no "image plays" in my $20/40 game because just my normal game involves enough plays that suprise my opponents and change their image of me since they don't understand the game that well. I remember recently raising A8s in the cutoff after a very weak player had limped early and everyone else had folded. The big blind called as well and we saw an 889 flop three-handed. Long story short, at the showdown, the big blind is staring at my hand and shaking his head saying "I just didn't think he would raise with that".