Small pair facing raise preflop, NL MTT
Game type: $50 rebuy tournament, NL, PokerStars
Stage of tourney: In the money
Your image: A little loose
Opponent’s image: No strong read
Your hand: 6♥6♣
The setup: You’ve got about a 30BB stack in the money of this $50 rebuy tournament. The bubble just broke a few hands ago.
This hand you get 66. The table folds to the hijack, who makes it a bit over 2x.
It’s your action. What’s your play?
Loading …9.1.10 / 1am
Knowing our image is a little loose, it might be OK to just fold this. Calling is not an option, as we don’t have odds to setmine here. A 3bet to like 9kish would be in order, but that way we kinda open the door for somebody to 4bet shove on us. Since it’s a 30 rebuy, I assume those guys can play and are aware of those possibilities. On the other hand, if we 3bet and fold to a 4bet we turned our hand into a bluff. I personally try to never 3bet light w/ a 30BB stack against a thinking player, because if we happen to lose this pot, we find ourselves w/ a 20BB stack just a few hands later, which takes away the room to play.
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9.1.10 / 1am
No read, and still 3 to act. This is a perfect spot to find a set for a few reasons: 1) The calling slope: The raise is puny, begging a call. If we call, the BB is pretty much guaranteed to call. If we call, the button will probably call. If the button calls, the SB is guaranteed to call. This means a 5 hand pot, already almost 8:1, and the implied odds are sky high with 5 hands. 2) 2 of the players have us covered, so we can fully double up. The other 2 are almost as high as well. 3) No one remaining is short stacked, the 29k already folded, so none are desperate to make a move, thus making our 3k not likely to be just wasted against an all-in. 4) Unless one of the last 3 hands wakes up with a monster, no one is likely to raise, as getting 2 or 3 folds from players getting best position is pulling teeth, and very tough and unlikely. The raise will have to be VERY large, because the pot is already getting huge. 5) We have position on 3 of the 4. 6) This investment is only 7% of our stack. And with the pot size, we aren’t getting our pants pulled down over the price.
I see absolutely no reason to not drop 3500 in the can and hope for a 6. These are truly just about the absolute best set mining scenario conditions anyone could ever ask for. This is also about the last time the blinds are gonna let us do this too. One more increase and they will significantly chop everyone’s M.
I see no reason to 3 bet. Our hand can’t withstand added pressure if it is brought. We have zero read, and the 2 bet size is already alarming, as it is just begging for a call or re-raise. Drop 3500, pray for a 6, no set = no bet. Pretty standard procedure here, no need to get stupid.
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b1aze Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 5:06 am
Ding ding ding. Implied odds and implied calls are a great thing to look at after your action; you cant just look at the pot size to call ratio. Setmine and setmine only.
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9.1.10 / 4am
Id say if ur short stacked push and probobly most would fold and ud probobly be in a race
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9.1.10 / 6am
I think this is an easy call.
First, you may have the best hand. Second, the 3500 is ~1/16 of Hero stack+pot. Third, call will likely bring in at least one more player, further building the pot should you hit.
Folding – can’t see it, as your hand may be best.
Raising - places the Hero in a tough spot if 4-bet. Additionally, a raise may price-out the remaining players, something you don’t want to do while set-mining w/66.
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9.1.10 / 11am
I’m new to this comment section, but I have been reading these quizzes more so recently. Man ..some of you guys are really hard core…I heard the guy above talking about the significance of M…damn? Sklansky anyone? lololo….anyhow…this play isnt that complicated…you have to just flat CALL in this situation…easy….you hit your set and your in business ..if not you can let it go ….whats the problem here? The problem with a raise here is that you have to invest too much if he ends up going over the top and shoving. A fold is absolutely out of the question, its already late in the tourney and the potential upside of hitting your set here is too strong in this potentially multi-way pot. I say call and see what happens.
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b1aze Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 2:37 pm
M is one of the first concepts someone should be learning when you play MTTs. Its not a hard concept at all.
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9.2.10 / 12am
The problem with calling is that you practically expose your hand. If the rest of the guys are thinking players, they know that you cannot be very strong, as you will likely 3bet to isolate with a strong hand, and not invite other people into the pot.
No you do not have a guarantee of 5 people in the pot as someone suggested, noone will flat behind with J3 or 94 or something like that and play OOP with a junk hand just because they have the “odds”. That’s just bleeding chips.
What will happen here very often at these stakes if you call is a squeeze from one of the blinds - late position min raise, which can be weak, plus a call which is clearly showing weakness, perfect spot to squeeze.
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T Reply:
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:42 am
Call, no doubt. For reasons already mentioned and summarized as “setmining”.
Note that there is really no reason to assume we have a better hand than the original raiser. He’s in the HJ, 4 people left to act and he raises very modestly, inviting callers.
So if we raised we’d be bluffing. Hoping HJ has something like 99 or AJo and will fold it to a perceived TT+/AQ+. It doesn’t help that our image is loose. I only 3-bet a hand like 66 pre if I’m fairly certain I get to be heads up with an opponent I’m putting on a wide range.
Fold is crap, FT is no place to be a nit because you’ll be blinded out fast and when you do get a premium hand no one is going to want to play you.
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T Reply:
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:43 am
That wasn’t meant as a reply to Alex’s post, by the way.
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9.2.10 / 6am
I’m surprised that everyone is not even considering raising in this spot. Given that its a 2x raise your 3bet size would be something like 6x-7x which is not committing your whole stack if you get 4-bet and have to fold. Calling is not terrible but I think people are overestimating the amount of implied odds you are getting here. You are facing a hijack raise and are getting about 14-1 to implied. Even if you hit your set can you really think you are getting stacks in. I think this question really depends on table dynamics a lot more to answer correctly. If you call in an aggressive table where there is a lot of squeezing going on you can say goodbye to that 3500 in the middle. I would then be more inclined to 3-bet my hand. In a passive table I could see calling as an option and play postflop. Very interesting quiz. Probably the best one I’ve seen so far.
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general johnson jameson Reply:
September 1st, 2010 at 1:33 am
You’re folding a middle pair in the CO to a semi meaningless 4-folded-to min raise? Really? Ok bro you convinced me, we’re folding pairs.
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