FT 10NL - TPTK on Flop OOP vs PF Min-Raiser

[ev_slave]

I've been playing pretty well at this table, no reason to think that I'm not getting respect. I've been raising PF a decent bit when I get involved, but usually I'm opening and haven't done a RR or check-raise or anything fancy lately that I can recall.

Villain is UTG and plays pretty well. He's aggressive but every now and then he'll showdown a hand where you thought he was toast and is actually in great shape. I'm under the impression that he wouldn't min-raise Aces UTG, but then, he's sneaky. What's his range here? I think there's a decent argument for my calling his raise on the flop, but then I'm stuck out of position against someone who's acting like he can beat top pair and seems to be brewing a pot. What should my general approach to the rest of this hand be?

Thanks for you help.
EV

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.05/$0.10
4 players
Converter (http://www.neildewhurst.com/hand-converter)

Stack sizes:
UTG: $14.45
Button: $17.90
Hero: $11.40
BB: $19.45

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is SB with 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif
<font color="#cc0000">UTG raises to $0.2</font>, Button folds, Hero calls $0.15 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $0.35)</font>, BB calls $0.1 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $0.5)</font>.

Flop: 7/images/graemlins/club.gif 2/images/graemlins/club.gif 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif ($0.6, 3 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets $0.6</font>, BB folds, <font color="#cc0000">UTG raises to $2.4</font>, Hero calls $1.8 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was $3.6)</font>.

Turn: 3/images/graemlins/club.gif ($5.4, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero ?</font>,

[ev_slave]

Bump. Hopefully the daytime readers will have some advice for me /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

[Quester]

Do you have any statistics on your villain? "Plays pretty well" is very general. What is his style?

The minraise preflop is a bit strange. I treat it as a limp; he's probably just trying to sweeten the pot. You are going to be OOP against him so you should charge him. A9o is a raising hand from the SB in this spot for me, especially 4 handed.

As for a hand range, based on my assumptions (semi-tight but not a nit, minraise = pot sweetener, 4-handed, somewhat position aware) I think he has a PP 22-88, all suited connectors down to 87s, a suited A, any two broadway, maybe offsuit aces down to A6o.

[bvaughn]

I guess I am a nit because I would fold A9o there preflop. You're OOP with a hand that could get you in a lot of trouble against an early raise, even if it is only a min-raise.

When I'm raised on the flop, I'm done with the hand as played. Again, maybe I'm a nit. If he's making a play with a flush draw, well then he just got there on the turn so a c/f is what I would do. Too many hands in his range that I lose to.

[ev_slave]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have any statistics on your villain? "Plays pretty well" is very general. What is his style?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I don't have PT. He hasn't been incredibly aggressive, but I had seen him make decent sized raises before. I've also seen him make a small bet on the end that screamed "value bet" but then showed the bluff. The min raise seemed pretty odd to me, but he could have just been tricky... trying to discourage the RR while still seeing a cheap flop.

I agree that I probably shouldn't have called since I was OOP and didn't have a general plan of attack on this one, but play and learn, right?

[Quester]

[ QUOTE ]
No, I don't have PT. He hasn't been incredibly aggressive, but I had seen him make decent sized raises before. I've also seen him make a small bet on the end that screamed "value bet" but then showed the bluff. The min raise seemed pretty odd to me, but he could have just been tricky... trying to discourage the RR while still seeing a cheap flop.

I agree that I probably shouldn't have called since I was OOP and didn't have a general plan of attack on this one, but play and learn, right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Get PT, best investment you'll ever make. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Sans reads, I recommend raising him pf, and leading the flop. See what happens from there.

[poker_n00b]

I doubt those min raises are pot sweetners very often at THIS LIMIT. I fold A9. If you call, you get callers behind you almost always. A9o is not a good multiway hand. Reraising is better option. But even if you raise, I doubt you will play A9o profitable in THIS SPOT.

Folding preflop is the best option.

[Frosteater]

Whew, if he isn't an idiot, as your description's suggesting, this is an interesting one. Especially with that minraise.

I think in this spot I'm in the "reraise preflop" camp. At least if you're not folding. Reason is that your hand isn't that good and you don't really want to play it oop. What's a bit more important in my opinion is that I'd assume villain would make a "real" raise with every ace that beats you. I'd expect you to be good on an Ace high flop, to be honest, and I wouldn't be surprised if Quester's hand range guess was nailing it.

That said, I can't see a call on the flop. You wrote that you had no reason to think you're not getting respect and that villain is a capable player, so there's a good chance he was analyzing that hand as well. Now think about it, you cold-called preflop and are betting into him pot-sized. If he isn't expecting you to trap him, this looks like a mediocre hand preflop that got quite good on the flop. Since you played aggressive so far, he is probably excluding TT+, expecting you to raise that preflop. So he's probably thinking along the lines of smaller pocket pairs, T9, 98 and probably 97s. Now I'm a bit stuck, since I can see your "decent argument" for not folding this, since this might be 66 trying to fold out 88. But I think the point in this hand isn't him acting like he can beat top pair, but you acting like you can beat it as well. And even though the minraise was a bit strange, I think it's at least indicating that he doesn't want to buy the pot here.

Very interesting hand, but the way it played out, I'd fold this on the flop.

And I think on the turn it's check-fold. Though if I were in this spot I couldn't resist betting $2 and then pushing, if he raises. But then again, that might be just a horrible idea and one of the reasons I don't do that well at $10NL.