Re: Push?
Hi hockey,
I've read the entire thread, and I think this is a much more complicated situation than either "side" has made it. If people are often stealing with min-raises, then folding to any reraise, yes, reraising on 99 seems reasonable.
But ...
... 99 isn't a hand that has a lot of improvement potential if you're called. If you're behind, you're way behind. If you're ahead, you're only slightly ahead, because it's not likely that tight players will call your reraise with 88 or less. You might get lucky and get a call with a weak Ace, but at a tight table, it's not that likely, and even then you're only a 7:3 favorite.
So in one sense, you were unlucky in that you ran into a monster pair. But in another sense, you put yourself into a position to get unlucky, and at a time when you didn't need to do that. With four players, and you having the big stack, you're going to get a lot of chances to open-raise at pots, and you can absorb a few folds to reraises. Why get into a contested pot, when you can wait and pull them into a pot when you have the monster?
On the other hand, you took a shot to bust a short stack with a hand that (typically) had a decent chance of doing exactly that. You could sacrifice this pot and still be in a dominant position at the table, and that's not a bad time to take a risk.
I can see both sides of this argument, and I don't think either play -- mucking, or pushing -- is really "bad." If you had a solid read on this particular opponent, sure. But lacking that, it's a 50/50 go-with-your-gut play, and I can't criticize either side of this coin.
Cris
|