A Pacific Trout Hand

[bluewilde]

Went out on a sloppy play but it makes me think of a much broader question.

You're medium or shortstacked, but not yet push/folding. You're in LP with a good but not great hand. It's folded to you.

If you push, it will only be called by hands that beat you, but it might get called by weaker-than-usual hands as your overbet is suspicious. If you raise a lesser than push amount, it looks like a steal and invites resteals. Your hand is too strong to open-fold.

Basically I'm asking how to play your hand without getting into a stealing war, especially if your hand has some real value.

In this case, I had about 10BB in the SB. It's 6-handed. BB has about 25BB. I get KQ, folded to me. I raise 3BB, villain pushes, I conclude he's probably on a resteal (villain has been aggressive; never shown garbage at showdown, BUT has taken down a number of pots without having to reveal his hand) and call.