99 vs Mid Pos 3x Raise. Do I Push Or Flat Call.

[free card]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t4000 (7 handed) pokerhand.org hand converter

BB (t173347)
UTG (t49124)
MP1 (t94898)
MP2 (t178688)
CO (t183254)
Hero (t58896)
SB (t46248)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises to t12000</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t58696</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP2 calls t46696.

Flop: (t118392) Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Turn: (t118392) T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

River: (t118392) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t118392
Seat 5: GrnyDouchBag showed [Tc Ah] and won (124792) with a pair of Tens

In this hand, there were 21 remaining in a $10 MMT. I was wondering if I could get some input regarding whether I should have pushed preflop, flat called preflop, or attempted a stop-n-go on the flop with 99 if i decided to flat call. Villain was active, and made standard position raises to steal the blinds. I believe his range to be any pair, A9s or better. Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

[swede554]

Ok first I'm goin to give you a few pointers...

1. Don't post the results when you post a hand for discussion. We don't worry about results, only decisions, and if you post the results some people might be influenced by those when it comes to discussing your play/options.

2. A stop-n-go is only possible when your OOP (out of position) and since you're OTB (on the button) and villain is MP2 we can't use that play in this situation. Search for stop-n-go threads if you want to find more about that play. Greg Raymer made a post about it a while ago that created a lot of good disscusion. It's stickied in the anthology.

About your hand, if your read on villain is correct, your play is fine. He might be stealing and fold, or he'll call and you'll either win or you won't. Either way you're ahead of his opening range here and your stack size is good for pushing here. With 15bb's you don't want to be flatcalling many raises because an agressive villain will CB (continuation bet) most flop even if it didn't hit him and make you fold the best hand.

Edit: You can use this against aggressive players. A nice play to have in your arsenal is to coldcall a raise from an aggressive player w/ AA-KK and let him hang himself on most flops. Let's say you got AA here instead of 99. Since villain might be stealing and fold if you push, and you really want him in the hand, you can just call his raise, and then move in on the flop when he presumably bets into you. Sometimes of course you end up losing because he outflops you, but most times you'll end up winning more. Don't always do this though of course, you need to mix your up to remain unpredictable.

[hamnegger]

could play it either way im shoving on that board on flop anyway

[ItalianFX]

If villain has been active and making some light raises, a push is probably good here. He'll probably call you, but you are most likely ahead of his range.