For Newbies – Improve your middle play – Hand Lesson 1

Scuba Chuck · #1 02-13-2005, 03:21 AM

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (8 handed) converter

UTG (t650)
UTG+1 (t2275)
MP1 (t549)
Hero (t610)
CO (t980)
Button (t1919)
SB (t870)
BB (t147)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

Folded to hero. What do you do?

Essentially, what are you thinking about? Talk about as many factors as possible, but try and limit your response to 8 sentences or less (so I can read them all) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Karak567 · #2 02-13-2005, 03:27 AM

I would most likely push, as the blinds are killer and this is a great pushing hand.

One of four things will happen.

1) They call with 2 overcards. In this case they are around a 45 % dog. It's a coinflip but with this small of a stack, I need a coinflip double up.
2) They call with a lower pocket pair. In this case I am about an 80 % favorite (is this correct?) to win. Can't go wrong there.
3) They call with an overpair. Couldn't have seen this coming and I would just chalk it up to poor luck.
4) No one calls, I take down the blinds and I get an extra rotation to see some cards.

One could also make an argument for limping here and pushing on the flop if you flop a set or all overcards, but I like the pre-flop push better.

Costanza · #3 02-13-2005, 03:46 AM

Chips (all of 'em) -> middle

Calling for set value isn't an option with 6xBB, and I'm not folding TT at this point. Besides, I want this heads-up if called. Having the big stack safely folded behind me helps as well.

REL18 · #4 02-13-2005, 04:08 AM

Chips middle. All comments made by first response are exactly what im thinking

curtains · #5 02-13-2005, 04:47 AM

Probably you want people to notice that the BB is "pot committed", not that it changes the correct play. I put pot committed in quotation marks, because people seem to fold quite often while being "pot committed"

The Yugoslavian · #6 02-13-2005, 04:50 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Probably you want people to notice that the BB is "pot committed", not that it changes the correct play. I put pot committed in quotation marks, because people seem to fold quite often while being "pot committed"

[/ QUOTE ]

Dude, you're not a newbie [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img].

Get your wacky kung-fu style out of this thread! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Yugoslav

skipperbob · #7 02-13-2005, 08:49 AM

You want HU against BB...So push....Right? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Scuba Chuck · #8 02-13-2005, 02:34 PM

IMO, no one has given the best answer. Can anyone give me a reason why folding might be a better answer than pushing?

Afterwards, I'll tell yout what went through my mind when I was in this situation.

curtains · #9 02-13-2005, 03:03 PM

I sure hope no one can give a reason why folding is better than pushing. Also Scuba nothing should be going through your mind here. You simply need to put your chips in, as this hand is routine.

spentrent · #10 02-13-2005, 03:10 PM

The ONLY way I fold this is if I know that the button got his stack by seeing lots o' flops and gambling it up.

I will take even pot odds vs the BB (347/610 = .57) if he happens to have overs, since I'm going to need to double up a few times to have a chance to win.