Middle pair on the bubble, Stars Sunday Million
Game type: PokerStars Sunday Million
Stage of tourney: 2 Players until money
Your image: You’ve been all in a lot
Opponent’s image: Very tight
Your hand: 9♠9♣
The setup: You’ve been up and down the last few levels as your short stack forced you to get in often. You’ve shown down pretty solid hands, but have also had to show some mediocre ones.
This hand, a very, very tight player limps from under the gun. A couple of players fold and it’s your action.
There are two players to go until the bubble, and the UTG limper has been playing with a VERY obvious goal of making the money.
What’s your play?
Loading …10.27.08 / 1am
I can see the reasoning, but still… there are 5 more players to act behind me, and there are a lot of players with stacks like mine in the SM. I’d think about leaving my PC and make a cup of tee.
With this stack, my tourney is practically finished, so I’d stand still until the bubble.
10.27.08 / 2am
It depends if you are playing to win / cash high or happy to creep into the money. I can’t fold a mid pair to a limp when my M is under 4, and seeing as we can’t call, a shove it is. To people who voted fold, would your answer be different if it was folded to us?
10.27.08 / 4am
If it was folded to me I would push, of course. This, however, looks a bit worse. To me, UTG limp from a very tight short stack sets off some warning bells. It might be a mid pair or two face cards, but it may also well be AA/KK. UTG’s call also brings the pot to 10k to which we can only add another 16k on top - and that’s a bit less fold vig than what we would have when pushing 26 into 7k. There are five more people to act after us and at these odds it will look very inviting to get involved. With JJ+ it would be automatic push for me, but 99 and TT are kind of borderline hands at this spot.
10.27.08 / 5am
I am a nit. I fold, but that is probably why I haven’t won anything for a while.
TAG UTG limps in as shortstack = AA, perhaps KK. Appearently not this time, but usually it seems.
If it was folded to me or someone known to limp-fold or limp-call low pairs had limped, it would be an autoshove off course.
10.27.08 / 7am
This is an instant shove for me. Your M is 3.5, you’ve got a tight-weak opponent and you’ve got a top ten hand. Those conditions are plenty enough for me to push it in.
It looks like we just got unlucky with the next player waking up with AA. That’s poker, if you had just called, he likely would have raised you anyway, forcing a decision. That’s poker. You still can’t afford to pass this situation up. You have three orbits until you’re blinded away; make your stand with a good hand.
10.27.08 / 2pm
i voted call- the lowest percentile lol I figure the table would be playing rather tight at this stage of the tournament.. A call from UTG tells me he’s either hopin for a re-raise or playin a hand he wants to see a flop with. Any raises after my call would indicate strength, especially with two callers in the pot already.
Id play accordingly to any re-raises after my call.
10.27.08 / 2pm
I’d like to add that with pocket 9’s u need to make allowances for the website your playing at.
Sometimes I think some rounds are set up for the amusement of the poker site. There were three occasions I had Pocket Kings, only to be called with aces, not once but three times in one day!! Man that sucks lol
10.27.08 / 4pm
Pocket 9’s is a raising hand in mid position no matter what stage in the tournament you are.
Though it is an odd limp from the short stack UTG. They should be pushing here with just about any mediocre hand. They might be looking to call/re-raise with a very strong hand but I doubt it. With the bubble looming they’re probably just hoping to get let off the hook and take a look at the flop. With 9’s you can’t let em.
And I’ll tell you, the way A is playing and considering there are 2 other players with smaller stacks at the table, you might not need to push here either, even though your right around M5. Raise 3x with the intention of getting rid of the limper and any other hands behind you, if you’re re-raised push, otherwise check out a flop and play accordingly…
10.26.08 / 6pm
I think you can make UTG fold a lot of hands here. I think they’re limping with hands they don’t want to raise with but don’t feel like they can fold, and then also with AA sometimes. Any other strong hand, they’re raising - tight players can’t stand the thought of limping KK or AK and seeing a bad flop. They want to get in the money, so they’re not going to do anything tricky this close.
It’s a drag that you still have opponents to act behind, but given UTG’s tightness, you’re unlikely to get anyone to play unless they have QQ or better. Some players might even drop AK here.
Anyhow, it’s not optimal, but there’s 10k in the middle and you’re in desperate need of chips. Sling ‘em in, says I.
What actually happened: You raised and the player to your left called. UTG folded, along with the rest of the table. Your opponent showed AA and held up to win.