A preflop question. Party 15/30.

[Lestat]

I fold nines here quite often. The way I look at it is this..

This is not a steal or even a showdown situation yet. It's not always enough to have UTG beat. There are 8 other players yet to be heard from --PLUS UTG might have you beat--.

There are many bad flops for 99 and if you get players behind you, the hand becomes more difficult to play in a biggish pot. I agree with you that most here will disagree with me, but I don't feel I give up too much by folding here. Of course, there are other factors to consider. If the game is overly loose or aggressive, then 99 can quickly become too much hand to fold.

[DrSavage]

[ QUOTE ]

blah blah
You have 99.
blah blah


[/ QUOTE ]

I raise.

[JAA]

[ QUOTE ]
I fold nines here quite often. The way I look at it is this..

This is not a steal or even a showdown situation yet. It's not always enough to have UTG beat. There are 8 other players yet to be heard from --PLUS UTG might have you beat--.

There are many bad flops for 99 and if you get players behind you, the hand becomes more difficult to play in a biggish pot. I agree with you that most here will disagree with me, but I don't feel I give up too much by folding here. Of course, there are other factors to consider. If the game is overly loose or aggressive, then 99 can quickly become too much hand to fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

As far as the hand being "more difficult to play in a biggish pot," I would argue that your hand has enough value to overcome this difficulty, especially because you have good relative position to the preflop raiser. If the flop comes to your liking, you can raise his flop bet and make it difficult/incorrect for players acting after you to call.

You note that "if the game is overly loose nor aggressive, then 99 can quickly become too much hand to fold." The average Party game that I play in is overly loose, making folding incorrect.

I do however agree that you will not give up too much by folding here. However, giving up "not too much" in a number of situations can add up quickly.

- Jags

[1800GAMBLER]

Fold. Call. Raise.

John Feeney's book has my thoughts why.

[Lestat]

<font color="red"> The average Party game that I play in is overly loose, making folding incorrect. </font>

It could very well be that my judgement is off, but it seems to me that 3-betting 99 here in the average Party 30 game will net you on average exactly 1, maybe 2 callers (or 4-bettors).

This to me, is the worst result for 99. I either want to play the hand heads-up with position or I want as many players as possible for set equity.

I guess what I'm saying is that IF UTG does happen to have you beat, you NEED callers with 99, no? And if he has overcards, well then you're a small favorite. However, if even 1 other player comes along, then 99's chance of holding up is reduced considerably.

[golferbrent]

Options are:

Raise, Raise, Call, Fold...

With calling being only slightlly better then folding, but not much. IMO this is a raise in almost all situations, assuming you play decently post flop.

[golferbrent]

Of course you can't ignore the possiblity that you may be able to play your opponent off his hand by taking control of the hand by 3 betting.

[SA125]

In this case where being first to act after the raise is the main problem, calling is fine if there's been a lot of multi-way coldcalling.

If it's been fairly tight and raised pots are only going 3-4 way and you want to play it, you're better off going 1 more bet to get h/u. That'll keep out hands like AQs, KQs and QJs that might come along from LP for 2 cold but not 3.

I think in general 77-99 and, to an extent against an UTG raiser, TT are overrated. Slight favorites or big dogs.

They're great NL hands where you can get all your money in pf. But overrated limit hands because 1 SB and 1 BB can get overs to the river.

[MaxPower]

[ QUOTE ]
The party 15/30 games are very passive games imo

[/ QUOTE ]

Does anyone else agree with this? I'd hate to see what you consider an aggressive game.

[bernie]

Whenever I'm in a situation preflop where the raiser is directly to my right (sb is a little different), for me, it's reraise or fold.

b