Is this a great spot to semi-bluff?

[SeriousStudent]

OT - Bill, I see you regularly playing the Stars 109 rebuy. That tournament has a greater percentage of the very best tournament players than any other. Why not play softer tournaments initially?

[Karakaz]

Yes, this is a good spot.

[Karakaz]

It's marginal, fold vs some villains, call against others.

[Karakaz]

No. You don't lead flop, push turn. Unless you enjoy being broke.

[Karakaz]

Your numbers are way off.

[Sparta45]

I don't think you're deep enough to call this raise preflop. This is a clear fold preflop. Maybe if you had position and 1 or 2 other preflop callers before you, I could see investing almost 10% of your money preflop.

With that being said, this is a decent flop for you. I would either check-raise all-in or if villian is more advanced I might just check-raise heavy (so he doesn't think I'm drawing) and obviously if he moved all-in, I'd call.

Ultimately, I think you're putting yourself in murky situations by calling this preflop and having to make tough decisions out of position.....you want your opponents to have to make tough decisions, not the other way around.

[illegit]

if you're planning on check-folding this flop then you shouldn't call the PF raise in the first place.

If I had called preflop (which i probably wouldn't) then i check raise all-in 100% of the time.

[JohnFR]

OT: Why do I have a feeling that JohnnyBax chose this thread because it involved 97??

Cheers!
John

[sapster]

Just wanted to add to this because I am a cash player too but realize that you need huge balls and be able to stick your stack in on instinct/gut feeling in mtts.
First hand of final table of Paradise Masters I made a raise with 97hh in cutoff and got reraised minimum by button and I decided to call because I saw him make this move with big aces a lot to take initiative of the hand and I also saw him make some laydowns postflop, I got an even worse flop 458 2 diamonds 1 heart yet I check raised it allin right there taking down a monster pot and giving me more confidence to take down the whole thing (/brag). You need to take risks and build stacks in these donk fests.

[MLG]

if you call preflop then you need to semi-bluff this flop. preflop is marginal at best, but I make that call a lot.