Stars 320 Late Blinds Battle

[DP388]

I haven't looked at any replies yet, so hopefully I have a fresh new response.

Based on stack sizes and his image of "Definitely capable of making loose, big moves. Kind of wreckless", I think the best approach is looking at the lines that aren't optimal first.

Standard 2.5 - 4x raise:

If he re-raises - This is highly likely. If he makes it 18 - 20K, we don't have enough fold equity against this type of player since he is capable of making loose calls(much less anyone else since he'll be getting over 2-1).

If he pushes - This is a tough spot and we are likely dumping it.

If he flat calls - That's okay as we likely have the best hand, but if we whiff and c-bet, he can push and we have to fold.

Push:
Nah, we're too deep and only called by a dominating hand.

Limp:
I like limping in general against this type of player. We potentially see a cheap flop with a good, but not great hand. We disguise the strentgh of our hand which can get paid off big time if we hit nice, and if we miss we don't lose a lot of chips when he tries to make some maniac move against us. Limping might seem weak, but I don't think it is. There's no need to get into some ego war of who can outplay who against a guy who is much less likely to lay-down a weak Ace or some other marginal hand that beats us. That being said...

<u>If he raises:</u>
Re-raise - Maybe, but I'd much rather make this play against someone who is more likely to fold. If we re-raise, we have to push as it commits 1/2 our stack and he's either calling with a hand that dominates us or a hand that is crappy, but is still ahead of us (KQ, Ax, small pairs). I'm not sure there are any crappy hands that we dominate that he calls us with.

Okay, so if he does raise, that leaves us with folding or calling. While we are going to be out of position, I think calling and evaluating the flop is better than folding.

I normally don't like this type of line, but against this type of player, I think this line saves us the most chips when we are beat and makes us the most if we hit.