$215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

Reads: Raiser have been moved to table an orbit or so ago, and hadn't played a hand. SB has just moved to table and BB seems to be fairly standard TAG who plays decent hands strongly (had pushed in second level with 99 over 5xBB UTG raiser).

My dilemma here was whether to flat call this raise or reraise?

My thinking was if i flat called, it may invite one of the blinds to make a squeeze play with any reasonable holding while a raise will almost certainly isolate the opening raiser, and I may be able to double up rather than just UTG+1's stack.

What do you think os the right play in this scenario?

Also, if you reraise, what do you raise to in order to get UTG+1 to commmit his stack most often?


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (9 handed) internettexasholdem.com

UTG (t28183)
UTG+1 (t13920)
MP1 (t12985)
MP2 (t61555)
MP3 (t5140)
CO (t22460)
Hero (t33760)
SB (t87485)
BB (t37025)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+1 raises to t3260</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero ??

Thanks

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

I like a call.

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I like a call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

I like it too.

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

Are there any specific reasons why you prefer a call over a reraise here?

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

Yeah. You're in position so it should be easy enough to get OR to put his chips in and it's gagging for the SB to squeeze you.

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

I'm a little torn, given your read of the BB I think calling may be a bad play as it may end up that the blinds dont push the squeeze play and instead you are faced with having to make the OR commit his remaining stack which is larger then the size of the pot... which may be hard to do if villian is solid like your read suggests... Also what kind of a hand are you normally calling with here given these stack sizes... doesnt a call look stronger then a push to the observant blind player?... I think I like re-poping to ~15000, and I'd expect villian to be calling here a huge % of the time...

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

Disciple, like you, I was really torn when this came up as obviously we want OR to commit his stack as often as possible, but obviously would love to fully double up through either the SB or BB. Calling means lots of flops could cause OR to not commit his stack and we forgo that opportunity. I certainly like a call if the blinds are very alert and aggressive- i dont think they will see the call as particularly strong, unless they consider me to be a very strong player who knew their style well.

If we decide to reraise, we presumably want to make our hand look as weak as possible to maximise the times we are called, might an allin be better than any other raise size?

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

[ QUOTE ]
might an allin be better than any other raise size?

[/ QUOTE ]
This depends on your read of villian, because I assume I am generally facing weaker players I normally make this raise to ~15000 here, in every situation, and it therefore never looks out of line, a good player will likely realize he is all in anyways and will make his decision regardless of the #'s in front of you, but to a bad player a raise of a lot of chips with many #'s and a larger total will look scarier and if his situation is marginal may be all the reason he needs to fold... (a great player may pick up on this as looking like a tell of strength if he is seeing me do it for the first time, and then may lay it down, I dont encounter many great players and when I do, everything i do is out side the norm, I basically begin playing mind games)... but my thoughts on the raise size here are psychological...

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

i like making it 7200 here, it looks like you have just enough to fold to a push but still protects your hand from one of the blinds coming along if they decide to just call. I doubt UTG+1 is getting away from any hand he raises here.

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

This is just my two cents.

I think I would rather raise in this situation in order to get it heads up. Since you don't have any reads on the SB, other than he is the large stack at the table, a call could allow him to enter the pot with a lot of hands. Now I know you don't really fear what he would play since you have AA, but allowing more players in the hand will increase the chance that you lose it. If you can get HU with the preflop raiser AND get him to commit his stack, you will increase your stack to over 35% of your current value. That seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Of course, as you mentioned, the down side to this is losing the chance to get other players committed to the pot, but I would be really PO'd if I let the SB in cheap and he hits a straight or something similar. Thoughts?

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

Well, after being pretty split between the raise and the call, I decided that UTG+1 had enough chips that it was worth me trying to get him to commit his stack PF, and figured he would be getting allin with a large % of the hands he raises from this position and for this much of his stack.

I raised to 7400, blinds folded, OR thought for about 30-40 seconds and folded. I was wondered whether the call was better, but i think on balance, I still think the reraise is better given the read on the blinds. The reraise amount was something I was quite curious about and im not sure whether this raise amount looks super strong or like a hand I could fold if one of the blinds comes over the top?

I guess aswell that UTG+1 generally pushes this 70-80% of the time and i just got unfortunate that he raised a marginal hand or could lay down a decent hand...

Any comments?

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

that small reraise reeks of monster i hate that play. you allowed him to get away by saying " hey i have kk or aa" raise to at least 10 -15 g this says your range is 99-aa aq ak

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

[ QUOTE ]
that small reraise reeks of monster i hate that play. you allowed him to get away by saying " hey i have kk or aa" raise to at least 10 -15 g this says your range is 99-aa aq ak

[/ QUOTE ]

This is basically what I was saying earlier... you will get much more action if you play the hand straightforward... considering how long the blinds had thought, if you made a standard re-raise one of them may even have come along for the ride or attempted to play back at you...

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

I'm re-raising. The raise came from early position, which would give me the general impression that my opponent has a pretty solid hand: the type that a player would be willing to commit their entire stack to later in the hand.

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

[ QUOTE ]
that small reraise reeks of monster i hate that play. you allowed him to get away by saying " hey i have kk or aa" raise to at least 10 -15 g this says your range is 99-aa aq ak

[/ QUOTE ]

See, I don't understand why a small re-raise reeks of a monster here. Couldn't it also look exactly like you're attempting to isolate the short stack as cheaply as possible, so if one of the blinds wakes up with a big hand and re-raises, you can get away and lose the minimum?

Re: $215: AA on button, UTG+1 shortie raises, reraise or flat call?
 

I just call a lot here too vs villian's stack size. If he decides to c-bet it will be such a large portion(or all) of his stack and he will be commited. I agree the minireraise here looks like a monster.