Party $11: TT becomes overpair in a family pot

[Jackrabbit Slim]

Another hand where I feel a bit lost, although something tells me that this might be trivial. Level 2 in a $11 at Party and since the limp-fest already started I join to try and hit a set with TT. The BB decides to get silly and minraises us, and naturally everyone calls. I'm really not sure what this means at this level, could be a high pair or someone who just finds the raise button amusing.

The flop is pretty decent for me, but with all those limpers, a set is a very real danger here I think. The preflop raiser bets out with a 1/3 pot bet. This really makes no sense at all to me but I think there is a chance that I'm behind the raiser here and I've got several people acting after me. What's my move here? Any raise that would serve any purpose here will commit me to the pot so I guess the options are call/fold/push?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) converter

SB (t475)
BB (t930)
UTG (t520)
UTG+1 (t600)
MP1 (t845)
MP2 (t655)
Hero (t775)
CO (t2145)
Button (t1055)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero calls t30, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Button calls t30, SB completes, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises to t60</font>, UTG+1 calls t30, MP1 folds, Hero calls t30, Button calls t30, SB calls t30.

Flop: (t330) 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(5 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">BB bets t100</font>, UTG+1 folds, Hero?

call and see how he approaches the turn

[Tuben]

Raise. Might raise 400 or go all in. But you should raise TT preflop!

Calling here is like the worse play. Better to fold

[ClaytonN]

Nothing wrong with calling TT here preflop.

BB bet a third of the pot on the flop, he could have anything and then some. Overcards, top pair, etc.

A call is pretty bad on the flop, because TT is vulnerable and 5,000 people are going to call behind you getting good odds.

It's either a fold or a push, I'm pushing this prob 80% of the time.

[Pete H]

There's 430 in the pot. No need to get fancy, just push.

He'll call with TP and sometimes with two overs. Sometimes he has you beat with JJ+ or a set, but pushing should be profitable play.

[ QUOTE ]
But you should raise TT preflop!

Calling here is like the worse play. Better to fold

[/ QUOTE ]

I think calling here is the best play.

With TT I don't want to call a reraise, so I like to overlimp.

If you think folding is better than calling, then you shouldn't limp for set value with any pair.

NP: Loudness - Heavy Chains

I call preflop and push the flop.

[Tuben]

[ QUOTE ]
think calling here is the best play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I mean on the flop. Might be ok Preflop.

I agree, very tough situation. That is the second best flop you can see with TT, and it is very likely you have the best hand. However, because of your position, with two players to still react between you and the bettor, you are subject to the gap effect. Online, many people might think their AQ, AK, or even AJ is good here, and call or even raise the 100. Also, people might think that their middle pocket pair is good here as well. Like you said, a set is also a distinct possibility. Because you are starting with such a small stack, I actually think there are three viable choices here: fold, call, or push. Being so early, I would probably just call, and hope to get heads up with the bettor and see what happens on the turn. If someone raises, I probably let it go, still with enough chips to find a better spot. Pushing is not a terrible play, as it is very likely that the bettor was firing on a high card, like a holding of AT. I just do not like the push because it is so early yet. The fold would be a tad conservative, but also viable considering how early. Tough call, but I say toss 100 more in there and hope your opp. checks it down to river.

[Xhad]

What about pushing preflop?

From what I remember at the 10's and 20's, a miniraise that early sometimes means "idiot misplaying high pair", but it much more often means "big cards" or "drawing hand" or "nothing at all". I realize raising TT isn't such a good idea when a preflop raise won't commit you to the pot but will cripple you if you have to abandon it postflop (usually the case in these early levels), but here you have a decent read that no one has much and your stack is only about 3xpot when it comes back around to you.

[Jackrabbit Slim]

To be honest, I never really considered pushing preflop when the minraise comes back to me, but it is actually a pretty good idea. I have no real problems pushing TT from the Button on level 3 with a few limpers and this is basically the same thing and those 240 chips already out there looks pretty good. At the moment I was just annoyed that BB minraised, since there is absolutely no reason to do that, so I just wanted to see if I hit my set or not. I will definately consider this in the future.

As for the hand ranges of BB, I don't think it is at all impossible that he's got a higher PP, but I guess it is more likely that he has something else. I've played around 200 11s the last week and people minraising with QQ-AA after limpers on level 1-2 is more common than you'd ever think. For some odd reason, my mind was telling me that he had JJ in this particular hand but that was probably not even close [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]