FT 4/180 A9o facing resteal

[feint06]

Villain was 35/15/3 with 15 hands. 3 orbits earlier, I folded A10 to a tight bb push... Call, push or fold?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (7 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t15660)
MP1 (t103438)
MP2 (t20112)
Hero (t22791)
Button (t54356)
SB (t36489)
BB (t17154)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, 9.
3 folds, Hero raises to t3725, 2 folds, BB raises to t8525, Hero ???

Final Pot: t8075

[Dunkman]

You're pot committed, I don't care how tight he is this is an auto call.

edit: woops, thought he shoved with the odd bet size...I may actually fold this if he hasn't done this before...he's made this as appealing as possible for you to call while still pot committing himself to call with anything if you shove.

an aside, so many people are posting hands where they stole raising more than 3x...try to get those raises down as low as you can and still get people to fold. I have tables where you have to raise pretty big to take down the blinds, but it's very rare. Most people just play their cards, use the handy fold check box, and any raise will get the job done. I like to do 2.5x as near my low end, because often the BB will call with anything if you minraise, at least at the low stakes I play.

[feint06]

My raise was 3bb, which was standard for the table. And if it matters: my stats for the tournament were 18/10/3

[chh]

well.. you can expect that he will push any flop since he is committed. So your implied odds are actually quite good.. and you're getting 2.6-1 on the call pf already.. with the implied odds it's more like 4-1. Unfortunately you're a 1-5 dog to hit an Ace on the flop so that alone is not enough.
With a bigger stack i'd probably call anyway and see what the flop brings, but with your small stack I'd let him have it.

[Dunkman]

[ QUOTE ]
My raise was 3bb, which was standard for the table. And if it matters: my stats for the tournament were 18/10/3

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah I'm not much of a stats guy. My PF raise in the first levels is usually like 7, and by the end of the second hour I'm up at like 18-20. My question is this, do you think making it 3725 instead of 3025 is giving you 25% more fold equity? Because it's costing you almost 25% more chips every time you do it. Sometimes that's the case, but always try to see what you can get away with, those chips really add up.

Also, more of a read about what the guy has actually done would be great. Have you seen him defend? Maybe you've seen him make a small raise like this before? Even if he did make a raise like this and didn't show it, or defended and didn't show it, the information is still worth something. Obviously if he defending his BB last orbit he could have just had a hand, and it's hard to get a decent read in 15 hands, but it does increase the chances that he's defending light. It may not be much, but right now you have nothing....in a game of incomplete information, every little bit helps.

[feint06]

Unfortunately, I was multitabling and didn't have anything else to go on aside from PT stats. Thats an interesting thought about making smaller preflop raises -- I've always heard/seen not to make minimum raises so I assumed a 2.5x raise wouldnt get any more respect

[cheburashka]

[quoteMy question is this, do you think making it 3725 instead of 3025 is giving you 25% more fold equity? Because it's costing you almost 25% more chips every time you do it. Sometimes that's the case, but always try to see what you can get away with, those chips really add up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Dunkman,

Great post, as always, but I have a question: If the standard raise is 3x +/-, doesn't a raise of 2.5x from CO or BTN just scream "I'm stealing the blinds!"?

[chh]

it might also scream "I want action".. + there is no such thing as a "standard raise", just cause other ppl like to raise 5x in this situation because they are donkeys doesnt mean you have to do that as well.
But you might have to adjust the size depending on who's in the bb

[xxGreat1xx]

I think the smaller raises look stronger. It looks like your begging for calls, not that your wanting them to fold now. A big raise preflop looks more like a steal attempt with a pp. When someone raises 5xbb and I have any kind of hand I will shove over the top and usually take it down.

[Sherman]

I make it t3100 PF and fold to the shove. If I was going to call, I wouldn't be here asking the question because I would have decided to call against his shove BEFORE I raised!

What I am getting at here is thinking ahead. Have a plan for the hand. If you are going to raise A9o from LP, have a plan for what you are going to do if a certain player does a certain thing. Are you raising it for value or as a steal? Decide ahead of time. If I were raising it as a steal, that means I think the opponents behind me won't shove w/out a hand that crushes me, so I have an easy fold if someone shoves.

In any case, don't just look at your hand and go, "I have A9o in the CO so I raise." Think about what your plan is. If I can't decide what I will do if someone re-raises behind me, just fold it. Wait until you get a really [censored] hand like 49o and raise with it. Then you have a really really easy fold when someone shoves at you.

Anyhow, in general I tend to treat A9o here as a "steal" and happily fold to a shove behind me in a 4/180. In my experience, putting 4/180 players on wide re-steals is -EV.