[CrisBrown]

Hiya Salt,

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However I think, Cris, you may be right, and I think others may have said it as well, I was probably going to be re-raised all in by the AQ, thus I prob. have to call right? Although, what if AQ simply just calls, then I can push on the flop and taken it down(hopefully). So basically my point is ... if all my chips were going to go in anyways (atleast it seems that way to me), why not try the alternative of hopefully seing a flop first before doing it?

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If you're talking about what Greg Raymer calls a stop-and-go move, I agree that this is often a great tactic with the middle pairs. That is, you make your standard open-raise, intending to move in on the flop regardless. What you're hoping for is a flop with no overcards, so Ax and Kx will fold. But even if the overcards do hit, you're going in anyway.

Why?

Let's say you'd open-raised for 450, leaving you only 1550, and you were called. An Ace hits the flop, and you fold. You're in the BB next hand, with only 1400 after posting. If that hand isn't playable, you're in the SB next, with only 1325 after posting. If the blinds escalate -- you didn't say how long til the next blind increase -- you're down to 1250 (only 6xBB) once the blinds pass you.

In short, if you fold to an Ace- or King-high flop, you're into all-in-or-fold territory from then on. And you might well not get a better opportunity than the one you have now with your JJ.

So, if you open-raise and are called pre-flop, you pretty much have to push it in on the flop, even if an Ace or King hits. Your opponent might be on a smaller pair, or he may be on an overcard that missed (e.g.: he's on KQ, flop is A-T-4), etc., and you can't just assume that you're beaten on an Ace- or King-high flop.

So the stop-and-go move doesn't really reduce your risk of ruin any, because you're planning to move in on the flop no matter what. What it does is give your opponent another chance to fold. That's where it's equity comes from.

In this particular situation, I don't think it'd have made much of a difference whether you moved in pre-flop, or did a stop-and-go. He might well have called you regardless, and often as not, opponents will call a stop-and-go with only overcards, hoping to catch at the turn or river.

And that's what I meant in my original response, when I said that the outcome here is, to a large extent, out of your control. With a middle pair vs. overcards, on shallow money, the chips are going in more often than not. I think you played the hand fine -- although the stop-and-go was another viable alternative -- but either way, I think you were going to have to survive a coin-flip showdown.

Cris