improving BSB play

[ALav10]

In my last few tournaments, I have been crippled by BSB play. Without posting specific hands, I can generalize by describing this common situation:

I'm the Big Blind, folded to the button who raises 3-4 BBs. SB folds. I look down to find a solid, but not premium hand (ie. AQo, TT). I am not sure what the optimal strategy is in this type of situation.

Any general advice or places to go to find good info.

thanks

[Art Vandelay]

Post some specific hands with stack sizes, etc. Reads are very important in this situation as well.

[betgo]

Button raises and you have TT or AQ in the BB. I would reraise this practically every time. I would push unless the money was deep.

If the button is a loose raiser, you can reraise (or stop-and-go if real short stacked) with almost anything.

At low buyins early in a tournament, the play can be real loose and a button raiser can expect to be called. Also people may not adjust their raising standard enough for position. So in this case, a late position raiser may be more likely to have a real hand, so I would be careful about playing back. However, I would still reraise with TT or AQ.

[bowski44]

With AQ and TT its a reraise every time. People will be raising w/ a lot more [censored] hoping to steal the blinds. I'd say against a normal button raiser who understands position that A7/A8 is marginal for reraising in these spots.

[ALav10]

I agree with the clear re-raise with those two hands (AQ, TT). In both situations we were both above average stacks, with M's of about 20 (give or take) and I had .

I also agree that reads are important here, but I didn't have anything solid in either situation (and hadn't seen a possible steal from either player).

So in both situations I re-raised, and the button quickly (these were both online) re-raised all-in. I thought for awhile and called. I was behind in both situations.

I'm not sure if these were clear moves, that ran into big hands, or if theres value to calling and re-evaluating on the flop.