steal with BB sitting out?

[Moose747]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (9 handed) internettexasholdem.com

UTG (t2613)
UTG+1 (t3898)
MP1 (t4339)
MP2 (t2535)
MP3 (t6276)
CO (t6698)
Hero (t2636)
SB (t2235)
BB (t8684)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">6 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero ??? </font>

Normally I fold here, but I noticed that BB is sitting out, so I think it's worth playing. SB is an aggressive player; he earlier pushed me off a late position raise and showed 77.

Should I raise? If so and not all-in, how do I respond to a push from SB?

[0evg0]

Push.

[Bakes]

[ QUOTE ]
Push.

[/ QUOTE ]

[rockin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Push.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

... even if BB wasn't sitting out.

[TFGoose]

A3 rates to be the best hand vs. two random ones. The fact that the BB is sitting out is just a bonus. Either way, you push this, and don't think twice. One of the reasons you push (by the way) is so the aggressive SB can't raise you off the hand. He needs to understand if he's playing, he's calling away his whole stack to do it. He probably won't believe you're that strong, but that's a good thing. Maybe he'll call you with a weaker hand.

--TFGoose

[greg44]

If you make a small raise he will just come over the top thinking your pushing any 2 imo. I'd prob just push it since u have 11 bb

[AceLuby]

I was thinking std raise at first, but a push is better. If you get looked up by a better hand, well, that's poker, but you are a favorite against a random hand and there is dead money out there.

[0evg0]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Push.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

... even if BB wasn't sitting out.

[/ QUOTE ]

This cannot be correct. MAYBE if there were antes, but... is this a push with BB playing?

[DonT77]

If we think that SB will push over our std raise, then why not std raise? If we push it is true that we will win the pot uncontested more often, but the times when SB wakes up with 44, A5+ we're going to be &gt; 2:1 dog. OTOH if we make the standard raise, we might get SB to push with Kx, Qx, and other hands that we are ahead of and allow us to win an even bigger pot. Are we playing to survive or to win? (I'd like to see some EV math on this but I'm too lazy to run it myself.)

Also, I'll throw out one of my favorite plays here. When there is a dead BB I love to limp-reraise because you know that somebody in LP is going to put in a 4-5x raise (often with trash) and you can trap with AA/KK or give the appearance of trapping with a big hand.

[Moose747]

I don't like pushing here vs 2 opponents, because most of the hands that call have me dominated, and very few hands I beat call. So I'm either losing a big pot or winning a small one.

I decided to make a standard raise. SB pushed. I thought for a second and then called. He showed KJo. I think this is a better result than had I pushed and he'd folded since,

.575 (2435) + .425 (-2235) = 450.25 &gt; 300

Oh yeah, he won the hand.