Anatomy of a preflop decision A9o

[Bona]

I'm in the hijack seat with an unknown poster behind me.
CO is the unkown poster.
Button is playing reasonably tightly and semi aggressive 20/6.5/1.5 45 hands
SB is loose passive 40/0/.67 32 hands
BB is semi loose but pretty aggressive at 25/10/2

I am dealt A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
MP1 limps he is loose passive 56/2/1 I believe is very likely to take his hand to at least the river. Often showdown.

I see my hand as weak/marginal multiway but likely better than any one of the villains. 3 of the 4 behind me are posters and two are loose players so I expect I can't isolate the limper and probably would have 2 more callers if I raise and 3 if I call.

I was very tempted to get in here, probably with a raise if I did, but I folded the hand. Is that a correct decision?

[Aaron W.]

I'm close between limping and raising. I don't like raising here so much because the poster is often going to call, and I don't want to play this hands for two bets out of position against two villains. Without the poster, I'd raise because now I have a much better chance of playing this hand heads up in position.

But I wouldn't fold.

[MrWookie]

I raise. The poster will be calling with a wide range, yes, but that's not all bad for us. We won't have the best position, but we probably won't have the worst, either. I'd rather play this hand in a raised pot against 2 villains, one of whom has position on me but still a wide range of holdings, than in a limped pot with 3-4 villains, 2-3 of whom have position on me.

[Point Blank]

folding a somewhat marginal hand that you may have problems playing post flop is never really a 'bad' decision

and in a game i would probably fold if the session itself was going kind of crappy (ie ... I've played a couple of hands poorly, or got sucked out a couple of time)

but more likely than not I would be raising this up
open limper clearly sucks and we can value bet semimarginal hands all the way home

and there is somewhat of a chance that CO and BTN will fold, but CO can be calling with a wider than normaly hand range ... but if CO calls or not, if BTN gets in the hand we can apply some logic to his holdings

as for the crappy blinds ... they'll payoff our marginal hands too.

though when playing this semi-marginal hand I think it's important to be able to not call down with an Ace hit

**
perhaps limping and keeping the pot smaller isn't a bad idea either (makes the hand easy to play and will magnify our opponent's mistakes post flop)

**
i guess ... all option are OK ...

[BigBadBabar]

raisy daisy

[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
I raise. The poster will be calling with a wide range, yes, but that's not all bad for us. We won't have the best position, but we probably won't have the worst, either. I'd rather play this hand in a raised pot against 2 villains, one of whom has position on me but still a wide range of holdings, than in a limped pot with 3-4 villains, 2-3 of whom have position on me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Against the player described, you make a most of your money by value betting A-high. Against two players, your ability to value bet ace-high is diminished considerably. When you bet the flop, I think it will happen somewhat regularly that you're taking the turn 3-handed, and assuming you didn't hit your ace you're not really in super shape.

[MineForTheTaking]

this was a very interesting post because most hand strategy questions are about the postflop. This is a preflop situation in which you folded, but it still makes for great forum fodder. hmmmmmm, involve myself with A9 against weak money in late position???? it seems as if there is almost no correct way to play it because it's so early in the hand that you could make a case for each choice. the best part about the whole situation though is how much information you had about everyone in the hand. that not only helps you develop a plan for the entire hand if you had chosen to play it, but it also makes for a better learning experience for everyone involved with the post.

also, is hijack right before CO? if so, worst case scenario, 2 villains have position on you. i think raising accomplishes two major things here. first, if anyone is going to fold to a PF raise, it's the reasonably tight button right? the only villain in the scenario that had tight attatched to his name was the button, so probably try to knock him out, and if not you see how tight he really is. you will hopefully see what he called you with if he showsdown with someone else. somebody should be showing down, there's calling stations all over the place, and you pumped the pot. second, since you don't know how the CO plays yet, why not raise him? he is probably holding napkins and will still call with them, but IF HE DOESN'T... you've learned something. Any two won't do for him, even with pot odds and position. you won't get another chance to raise him when he is posting and he has position on you post flop unless he sits out or something, so you can take this unique opportunity to test his manhood. you probably will get valuable blind stealing info from the two directly behind you and that's who you want to know about. that's what you should've done...i would've folded there though, hahahahahHAHAHA