NL - unimproved middling overpairs (best line in theory)

[Acevader]

Here is a common situation we come against in NL Holdem and I'm interested to see what you guys think is the best line.

Assume effective stacks are 100bb at low-mid stakes, you are a solid TAG to SLAG player and villain is reasonable but no great shakes (he's no nit nor is he very LAG).

Villain is early to MP in a 6-max game and raises 3.5bb preflop. Action is on you in BB with 66-99. There is merit in 3-betting but assume in this instance recent table image, etc dictates it's not the best move OOP. We call, primarily looking to fit or fold.

The flop is about as unhelpful as it can get being the likes of 665 or 225, or 345, etc. We have an overpair to the board and have a reasonable chance of having the best hand.

However, there are problems:

1. We are OOP
2. If we are ahead villain likely has 6 outs to beat us and we don't know which overcards are a danger.
3. If we are behind we are well behind
4. It's very difficult to exercise pot control in this situation.

Let us also assume we multi-table so we don't have cast iron reads on villains play.

What is our strategy in this sort of hand and why?

We could lead out however villain may very well raise AK/AQ/KQ type hands as our lead looks like it's designed to test the water (I'd usually semi-bluff raise those hands if I held them here facing a lead out).

We could also check-raise with a shut down and fold policy if called or raised. That way we sucker a c-bet (usually) out of hands we beat but give some extra value to hands that beat us. At least with this line we'll usually have a very good idea of where we stand after we raise.

Finally we could check-call. What is our plan from the turn if it's a low brick, or a high card, when do we give up, etc. Villain holding AK may very well double barrel if a Q or J comes and vice versa meaning that any J-A on the turn could put us in a difficult spot if calling the whole way down is our strategy.

Obviously there is just the check-fold option but that seems the weak line here. Variance free and safe but there is no question we are usually folding to the lesser hands given that there are many more combo's of non-pair raising hands than paired hand above ours.

I see this as being a fairly common tricky spot in NLHE poker and I'm interested to read what you regard as the best overall line and why [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]