[evanski]

This hand recently came up in a 10-25 NL game. I was a couple off the button with 99. Everyone folded to me, and I open raised to 85. The button reraised to 215. Neither of us had an especially big stack, I had about 2500, he had 1600 or so. The button seemed to be a fairly normal player, my table image was probably similar at the time, as I had just sat down. By my count, Im getting 325 to 130 or so on the call. So, playing my hand strictly for set value, and disregaring the fact that I will ocassionally lose when I flop a set, Id need about 700 bucks in postflop action to make it positive EV. I thought this was about a breakeven proposition, and to avoid messy decisions when I flop an overpair and the like, I folded. Anybody find this weak tight?

After the hand, I found myself wondering what I would have done with tens or jacks, or even queens. The proposition is more or less the same: although I will often have the best hand, it is not often enough to be willing to play it for my stack unimproved, pre or post flop. Furthermore, I am somewhat hampered by the stack size of my opponent, as if I decided to "play poker" with him, and try and figure out where I am, I will frequently be forced to put all my chips into the middle, for fear of folding the best hand against a semi-short opponent. For example:

I flop an overpair and check it to him, he pots (pretty much a certainty in this game). I:

a. Raise. If he folds, I win. If he reraises, I am getting such ridiculous odds that I am almost forced to call, as folding the best hand here would be catastrophic.

b. Call, lead the turn. Perhaps the most viable line, although on a J high flop or the like (when I hold QQ) or ten high (when I have JJ or QQ), I can see him raising with hands I beat, and I may end up making incorrect folds. Furthermore, if he just calls, I am placed in a very precarious situation in the river of playing a very large pot, and conceivable making or seeing a very large bet, with one pair.

c. Call, check the turn. This basically allows him to take the pot away from me, as I will be hardpressed to call another pot sized bet.

d. Reraise preflop. This forces him to fold everytime he has a nonpremium hand, but also allows him to trap me fairly easily with AA or KK.

However, folding pocket jacks or queens to a reraise preflop feels kind of weak. Anybody have a suggestion as to how to better play these?

-Evan