live 1/2 straddle squeeze?

[Guruman]

live 1/2 $200 max buy $5 max rake $1 badbeat drop at ye ole indian casino last night.

I've been playing pretty tightly, but the pots that i've played have been big ones and I'm up about 1.5 buyins at this point. The table's been nittish postflop with the exception of the maniac to my left who was probably running about 80/60 in unraised pots and playing straightforward in pots that were raised. I've been eying the stack of the guy to his left because damn I need a seat change.

We've both been straddling quite a bit. I've been doing it to loosen the table up a bit. He's been doing it because he looks at poker the same way he looks at blackjack (which he's apparently really good at).

I straddle utg. surprisingly, the entire table calls. Most stacks are between $150 and $300, with the exception of a $60 stack to my immediate right in the bb.

I look down and see KJo. My estimation of the maniac to my left is that he'll play vs a raise very straightforwardly.

Is this a squeeze spot? ($50 ish?) If not, help me out because I have no idea what squeeze spots look like yet.

[Niediam]

Is there a difference between this situation and where in NLHTP where Sklansky says that you should only try to steal the pot from a bunch of limpers from the BB with bad hands?

[Mandor_TFL]

I think I just check it here. So many people limp AJ and KQ, that if u get called by them you will be in a world of hurt. Play the KJ for 2 pair and str8 value, as it has good value against those same people who limp KQ and dont realize you might have 2 pair on a K J 5 flop.

Basically you are bluffing with KJ here, and KJ has some value if you check it. If you get called your gonna be lost in the hand if your flop C-bet is called. Unless you are squeezing often I would not bother in this spot. ( by squeezing often you can setup a great image to get AA KK QQ paid off ) Some people advocate raising junk like 9 2 here, but this only works if your image is tight. The 40 dollars in this pot makes it a good spot to make the table believe you got aces.

[chopchoi]

I think a push here would be better than a raise to $50, because AJ and KQ might call $50 in a loose game, but NFW they're calling $300. Actually, I'm pretty sure pushing is the most profitable play you can make in this spot.

[Mandor_TFL]

Pushing is terrible, people limp AA and KK in early position all the time. Let alone when QQ and AK call you as well. Plus this is a live game where morons will limp AA on the button because it " never wins ". While squeezing the 50 is ok, I do not think it is the best use of K J here.

[Peter Harris]

the very sight of the word push made me puke in my mouth a bit.

I would check and look to stack someone on a dream flop/turn rather than squeeze here. The great thing about live NL is you get to see in real life how dumb most of the online players are.

[bravos1]

[ QUOTE ]
I think a push here would be better than a raise to $50, because AJ and KQ might call $50 in a loose game, but NFW they're calling $300. Actually, I'm pretty sure pushing is the most profitable play you can make in this spot.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL????

You're gonna push essentially $300 into a $20 pot? Yeah that makes a lot of sense when you want to lose most of your stack.

Guru,
I just check my option here and hope to flop good. Obviously you seem to be succeeding in loosening up the table.

[Guruman]

k, two followup questions:

1)If my hand is too good for the squeeze here (pot's $45 minus the $5 rake), then what's the best hand I should be squeezing here? K9o? 94o? 23o?

2)can someone asplain to me why my hand is so good here? If I pop it to $50 and get called I can pretty much just give up on most flops - even when I pair up - which is pretty much the same as if i have 23. I'm going to cont bet only in very good situations (like when the flop is low and uncoordinated and there's only 1 caller with a deep stack behind), and I get to actually exercise the power of the straddle in a big pot pf.

thoughts?

[Peter Harris]

1) I'd be squeezing big-small offsuit hands - Ax, Kx, Qx ones which won't flop a dream and would benefit from being shorterhanded and vs a predictable player. I wanna check my option on sooted aces, kings and connected cards o/s or not.

2) I think KJ is the sort of hand that will benefit either way - it will flop strong monsters multiway sometimes and you'll be glad there are 9 callers out there. It also benefits from being HU vs a straightforward player.

what it doesn't benefit from is being called by 3 players when you pop it, and not knowing where you stand postflop on a J9x 2tone flop. I much prefer checking there and hoping to stack on a KJx KKx JJx type flop.

[James.]

have you been squeezing your straddles much this session?

if i understand correctly that this is a family pot, you have tremendous implied odds the times the flop hits you hard. thing is, KJo isn't really a hand that thrives on implied odds.

for that reason(among the others) i would probably go ahead and raise. if it wins it right away, great. if it gets the pot short(3 or 4 handed) that still betters our situation.

if you are uncomfortable playing OOP in a raised pot, checking is fine.