Defending the BB when an EP Player Raises

[kaby]

I call all, pbb should fold A4o because I have no clue how to play postflop when I miss and everyone is scared of the ace when you do hit

If UTG is LAG or weaktight/foldy I 3bet KQo

[sqvirrel]

[ QUOTE ]
In Stox book they talk about needing 35% eq to call a raise HU.

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It really depends on the type of player utg raiser is. In most 2/4 games (I think, been a long time since I played that limit) that range will be fairly tight.

A4 and A2 are pretty easy folds because of the strong probability of domination, either to a mid-pair or stronger ace. T9o is a fold because it is a crap hand.

When calling raises out of the blinds you have to consider that much of the time you will be c/f the flop and the rest of the time you will be out of position for the entire hand. In most cases you will not get paid off completely when best but you will pay off villain completely when he's best, assuming you hit something you want to take to showdown.

You can't just consider straight preflop equity because your relative payout is negative. You will get paid less when you win than you lose when you lose because of positional considerations. You must have an equity premium preflop to justify calling oop raises. This premium will be different versus the button/hijack/utg but isn't a simple '35%' calculation.

[Oink]

How the hand plays postflop is of course important. But the decision whether to play a hand vs a raise is mix of your hot cold eq and how the hand plays.

We basically agree tho. But I think that eq calcs can be a good yardstick as long as one considers how the hand plays.

[Cobretti]

I matched the favorite on all of them with the exception of J,10o, which is a tie presently. I think J10o is a pretty easy fold against a standard UTG raise. If you get action you are often dominated. I think A2s is an easy call at 3/6 and below. I think you can throw Stoxx equity calculations out the window for these limits (although I think his book is one of the best ever). The low limit players make so many mistakes postflop that an equity calculation preflop against an opponent's range makes no sense imho.

I liked the format of the OP's polls. I would like to see someone post some hand polls for Raise+previous call defense situations.

[mvoss]

How are we more easily dominated with JTo than A2s?

[yourface]

[ QUOTE ]
Man ur all nits. the only thing I fold in this list is JTo to an UTG open and A2o to anywhere but button open.

A2s and T9o is the only one im not sure about. I always call, but have no way of verifying it's +EV.


[/ QUOTE ]

I also voted fold TJo call 9To facing UTG raise
my thoughts were that JT is more likely to be dominated vs a typical UTG range (KJo/s AJo/s QJs maybe QJo are in there)

no idea if it's profitable though, and I haven't played 6 handed in a while. 5max I call TJo and 9To for sure, so the only thing on that list I fold is A4o

[wray]

I call everything but A4o.

[Cobretti]

[ QUOTE ]
How are we more easily dominated with JTo than A2s?

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2 thoughts:

1) If you hit a 2, villian is less likely to have one and if he does he is likely dominated

2) If you hit an A, it plays a hell of a lot easier. You can let UTG flail on himself representing the A without you fearing an overcard falling. Often, you will see the hand go down, check/call check/check bet/call. Or check/call check/call bet (so KK, QQ, JJ, TT can't check behind on river).

[stoxtrader]

35% is a rule of thumb for defending against steal raises. Against legitimate raises it is different because the probability of being dominated goes up so you have a worse implied odds situation on average.

It's a sliding scale between legitimate and steal as well, so can get complicated but Ax hands against legitimate raises may show decent equity but have terrible playability, etc. etc...

[Flintoff]

[ QUOTE ]
I call everything but A4o.

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