Basic 2/5 hand

[scdavis0]

Ok sitting at a 2/5 table in the cut off and get dealt 10 10. I have $500 in front of me (max buy-in game), 3 limpers to the guy to the immediate right of me. He's an extremely aggressive player. Has no problem making huge bets or raises with nothing if he senses weakness. He makes it $50. For him this can represent a wide range of hands. What's the standard play here? Call/raise/fold?

[cornell2005]

what is his stack? is it a 10 handed game?

[scdavis0]

7 handed game he has me well covered ($1600). I guess I'll try to spark some conversation.

I didn't like just calling here because I get no information (I could be crushed) and chances are better than not that 1 or 2 overcards will come on the flop. He's the type of player almost certain to make a pot sized bet on the flop.

A raise may be the best option. If you make it say $120 to go you can fairly confidently fold to a reraise (although he could conceivably do that with AK). If he calls he may slow down on the flop. He'd probably have to put me on QQ-AA given my image at the table.

Folding seems ridiculous but it's not out of the question.

[Wayfare]

Is he the type of player who will be agressive until someone takes a stand, or is he likely to go one more level before he is convinced?

A reraise to $120 and then a fold to any further action could be good, but two things need to happen:

1: He needs to not reraise / smooth call and pot the flop when any overcards hit.

2: You need to gain information that will be +EV in the long term.

If you think that #1 is the case, you will have to be prepared to go very far with this hand because him calling your raise preflop will likely cause a hand where you are pot committed. If he has AA-JJ, he smoothcalls your raise preflop, and you both flop overpairs goodbye to your stack. If he has AK and misses, but pots the flop anyway, can you pull the trigger to push regardless of this? It seems that his agression will make the information in this raise of limited value because of the relative weakness of your holding and relatively shallow stack.

My point is that very few flops are going to make TT look really good. If you just call the preflop action and then raise the flop no matter what falls (barring maybe two paints) then might you have a better EV in the long term? Say pot $100 after cold calling raise, he bets $75 on flop and you make it $200 to go. He will need to have a very strong holding to continue to the river with that.

[Jonny]

I'd probably call here, and aim for a large multi way pot with the 3+ limpers already. Plus, you have position on him. Go for all undercards/set.

[johnsy]

you must raise pf.......you dont have eough info yet..... i rasie 3x his bet...if he goes all in or raises then its a know your player call or fold.......you cant call and hope to flop a set or all low cards against good no limit players....

[cornell2005]

[ QUOTE ]
you cant call and hope to flop a set or all low cards against good no limit players....

[/ QUOTE ]

what does the players being good have to do with playing the hand to flop a set?

anyways, this is a dangerous situation to be in vs a maniac and there is no set way to play this. if you really dont have a line on this guy, its not the end of the world to fold. if hes aggressive but can give respect when played back at, you could raise. if he will ever check the flop when he misses, you can call. if people at the table are loose and its likely that you may get 1 or 2 more callers, you can just call. if hes such a maniac that people may be trying to limp reraise him, then you can fold. its usually a very close decision that there isnt a set answer to

[plinkochip]

I agree, this situation is all about feel. To me it's definitely a raise-or-fold situation preflop, because a call tells him you need help on the flop--not the message you want to convey when you're holding a hand like 10 10. If I raise preflop and he re-raises I wouldn't have too much trouble getting rid of the hand right then, or calling and trying for a set which might double me up (folding if I miss).

If he calls preflop and no overcards hit on the flop I would probably bet the pot to make it clear that I have a real hand and overcards are no good. If he smooth calls the flop i'd check/fold the turn unless I hit the set. Unless of course he's the sort of player who can't lay down a hand like AK when he's the initial aggressor, but that comes down to knowing your opponent and what your gut tells you at the time.

[creedofhubris]

What does he think of you? If he has seen you playing tightly, I like a reraise to $150, which should win the pot for you unless someone has a monster. Also, is $50 a standard raise from him, or is it higher than usual?

If he doesn't have a read on you, I like a call, particularly if you think the others are coming along.

(I had a similar situation last night: very aggressive stealing player on the button made it $50, I made it $150 from the small blind with 99 [after asking him how deep he was!] -- he folded.)